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PUNE, SEPTEMBER 27, 2014 | www.goldensparrow.com
India, US have stake in each other’s success: Modi
Prime minister in The Wall Street Journal says that both countries should use their complementary strengths ‘to transform lives across the world’
IANS
Washington: India and the US have a fundamental stake in each other’s success, said Indian prime minister Narendra Modi and added that “it will be of great value in advancing peace, security and stability in the Asia and Pacific regions”. India and the US have a fundamental stake in each other’s success “for the sake of our values and our many shared interests”, wrote Modi in an Op-Ed article in the Wall Street Journal. The article appeared Friday, a day when Modi arrives in the US to begin a fiveday sojourn. Modi said that it “is also the imperative of our partnership”. “And it will be of great value in advancing peace, security and stability in the Asia and Pacific regions; in the unfinished and urgent task of combating terrorism and extremism; and in securing our seas, cyber space and outer space, all of which now have a profound influence on our daily lives,” he said. The Indian prime minister said that the
complementary strengths of India and the US can be used for “inclusive and broadbased global development to transform lives across the world”. “Because our countries’ values and interests are aligned, though our circumstances are different, we are in a unique position to become a bridge to a more integrated and cooperative world. With sensitivity to each other’s point of view and the confidence of our friendship, we can contribute to more concerted international efforts to meet the pressing global challenges of our times,” he added. Modi noted that this is “a moment of flux in the global order”. “I am confident in the destiny of our two nations, because democracy is the greatest source of renewal and, with the right conditions, offers the best opportunity for the human spirit to flourish,” he said. IANS
Edit Deaths due to electrocution
A matter of distress On Thursday evening, the city witnessed a tragedy when two young people lost their lives due to electrocution from a snapped electric cable in the Range Hills area of Khadki. Poonam Joshi (32), a corporate executive, was electrocuted and died, when her two-wheeler was caught in a puddle of water that had been electrified by a snapped overhead cable, near a railway bridge. A 25-year-old Samaritan, Atish Bhagwan Shinde, was also killed when he tried to rescue Joshi. The incident happened at around 6.50 pm, after it had rained heavily in Poonam Joshi the area and the problem of waterlogging was compounded by the snapped electric cable. Earlier in the week, a three-foot slab of an under-construction flyover caved in on the Pune-Satara Road. Fortunately, no one was hurt in that incident. It is a matter of distress that deaths and injuries due to electrocution by snapped electric
cables are not always a result of freak accidents as say, caused by negligence. This factor, also resulting from the “chalta hai” (easy-going) attitude, is the cause of much distress in the country - be it on the roads, in hospitals, factories, public utilities and almost every area of life. In this most recent incident too, the state electricity corporation officials are puzzled that the power supply was not automatically switched off after the cable snapped. Will this trend continue, leading to more accidents and tragedies as the growth story unfolds in India with greater vigour? Or will we change our way of doing things, giving the highest priority to our own safety and that of others? This is an issue that needs to be addressed with the utmost urgency, individually and collectively. editor_tgs@goldensparrow.com
THE GOLDEN SPARROW ON SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 27, 2014
Welcoming the Goddess P4
PUNE
“The rich in India needfor to fischool nd their own conscience; “During our programmes children, we found givechildren a little ofofwhat earn. Weall must learn the thattoeven 10-12they years know about art of giving beforemodules the art to of create living!” alcohol, drugs. Proper awareness can —Bindeshwar Pathak, — founder, be developed for youngsters.” Mukta Puntambekar, Sulabh International project director, Muktangan De-addiction Centre
Connecting gastronomically P6
‘Our biggest challenge is raising funds’ Set-up by Vilas Chaphekar in 1985, Vanchit Vikas has now launched Abhaya — an initiative for empowerment of single women projects across Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh. The organisation runs Abhiruchi Twenty years ago when Meena (for destitute children), Neehar Kurlekar and Sunita Joglekar joined (rehabilitation of sex workers) and Vanchit Vikas, an organisation for Fulwa (helping sex workers’ children). upliftment of the Joglekar said, deprived, they were “Working for society unaware that it would brings in satisfaction change their lives. and changes the way Business manageyou look at life. We ment graduate, Kurlelaunched a programme kar always wanted to called Abhaya in May, help the needy. Being wherein we invite the director at Vanchit solitary women to Vikas gives her the opcome and share their portunity to do this. problems with us. We “The core meet on fi rst Sundays work areas of the of the month and have organisation include conducted six meetings upbringing of till date. The idea is to —Meena Kurlekar prostitutes’ children encourage these women by providing education to voice their problems and basic amenities, re-settling abused and find solution to their issues.” women and provide help for working The biggest challenge faced by the women, child labours and adivasis. organisation is collection of funds and Th is has helped bring in a new maturity donations. level in my thoughts and also helped “There is a lot of development work me look at society differently. We not that takes place on an everyday basis only identify the problems areas but which needs funds. Another issue we also find solutions for the same,” said face is getting the right volunteers for Kurlekar. our projects. We do have dedicated Vanchit Vikas undertakes several people working for us but we need
ANIRUDDHA RAJANDEKAR
ANJALI SHETTY @shetty_anjali
“We not only identify the problems areas but also find solutions for the same.”
anjali.shetty@goldensparrow.com GET IN TOUCH 405/9, Behind Modi Ganpati, Narayan Peth, Pune-30 020-24454658, 24483050 Mail Ids: vanchitvikas2007@ gmail.com; vanchitvikas85@gmail.com http://vanchitvikas.org Meena Kurlekar and Sunita Joglekar, directors of Vanchit Vikas
SSM: Strengthening social bonds
The Buddha philosophy of education
Swatantryaveer Savarkar Mandal aims at the welfare of society through various initiatives
For over three decades, Swatantryaveer Savarkar Mandal (SSM), a social organisation at Nigdi-Pradhikaran, has been organising social, cultural and educational events at the twin township of Pimpri-Chinchwad. It has become a role model for organisations working for the welfare of society. SSM was started in 1983 under the Bhaskar Rikame guidance of retired Captain G S Kadam. In its early years, it was only a cultural and social network, but now it also includes environment and nature; women’s welfare and cultural activities. The Mandal’s secretary Bhaskar Rikame said they plan to start a competitive examination centre and military training for children. “It is the need of the hour to impart military training to our future generations,” said Rikame. THE MANDAL’S INITIATIVES Ravindranath Thakur Public Library “The library has a huge collection of Marathi and English books. It has a separate
section for children called ‘Bal Vibhag’. The library has nearly 2,000 members. The monthly fee is between Rs 10 and Rs 60,” said librarian Neeta Jadhav. “We started the library in 1985 with just 100 books and two daily newspapers. And now we have 70 different magazines, 18 newspapers and over 48,500 books in the library. The state government has given ‘A-grade’ to this public library. We have books on literature, history, Vedas and other subjects. There are about 5,000 books for kids, with 500 children as members,” said Bhaskar Rikame. Chhatrapati Shivaji Lecture Series The Chhatrapati Shivaji Lecture series is one of the popular events of the Mandal. Started in 1985, it’s an annual event organised in May. More than 200 speakers have delivered lectures on various subjects. All such programmes are conducted at the Mandal’s auditorium that has a seating capacity of 500. Ladies Wing Explaining the Mahila Wing’s initiatives, Jadhav said, “Our ladies wing has around 250 members. Apart from hosting the cultural programmes, the members also help village students of Rajgurunagar, Vadgaon through ‘Dan Parti Yojana’. Under this, they raise funds to meet these students’ educational needs. Every Saturday, volunteers of the wing hold tuition classes. They have also
appointed two trainers for these students. Apart from this, the women’s wing organises several other cultural events. .”
The Wise Buddha, a non-profit project started by Synapse Learning Solutions, has devised a learning system to aid Marathi medium schools
RAHUL RAUT
BY ARCHANA DAHIWAL @ArchanaDahiwal
more youth to help us eradicate these problems from society,” added Kurlekar. Blind faith, superstitions and rigid mindsets also hold back development. Vanchit Vikas works towards eradicating these very thoughts with workshops and activities that create awareness. “We are inviting women, single or who live without any support of a family, to share their problems with us. We will try to find out a solution to their problems. Th is recently launched project is called Abhaya. We urge more and more people to participate and volunteer in our ‘body and organ donation’ programmes too.”
Environment Wing The Environment Wing nurtures 2,000 trees on Ghoradeshwar hill near Somatane phata. It also educates youth on celebrating festivals in an eco-friendly way by organising different programmes. Their other programmes include ‘Fort-making competition’ and ‘Nisarg Sahal’ (nature trek). Sanskriti Sanvardhan Vikas Mahasangh SSM has formed ‘Sanskriti Sanvardhan Vikas Mahasangh’ to promote communal harmony. 85 different organisations have united to form this mahasangh. Savarkar Puraskar Every year on the eve of Savarkar’s death anniversary (February 26), the Mandal felicitates organisations or individuals for outstanding contribution towards the society. It also organises a blood donation camp every year on May 28, to mark Savarkar’s birth anniversary. archana.dahiwal@goldensparrow.com
Team of Wise Buddha along with its director and chief programme mentor Arpita Katkarey (second from right with the banner)
BY YASH DAIV @yash009
GET IN TOUCH Sector no. 25, Pradhikaran, Nigdi Contact No. 020-27659010 E-mail: info@savarkarmandal.org ANIRUDDHA RAJANDEKAR
Ravindranath Thakur Public Library has a huge collection of over 48,500 books, 70 magazines and 18 newspapers
These worksheets, now in their phase I, demand optimum attention from the students and minimal investment from the teachers. In three or Having realised the poor quality of teaching and four years the team plans to design sheets and other learning in municipal and Zilla Parishad schools, a aids that would demand 50 per cent participation group of educationists decided to do something about from the teacher. “It will enable them to scale it. While providing education aids to private schools, their own creative ideas and introduce classroom educationist Arpita Karkarey decided to extend her activities,” said Karkarey. work to government schools. She established The Schools from Shirur and Ranzangaon have Wise Buddha, an NGO, in July 2014 under Synapse requested the organisation for the worksheetLearning Systems. system. They have received the The team conducted surveys funding to go ahead with this in the schools to get an idea of programme. Many city based the kind of syllabus that was schools have approached too. to be designed for them. “Our “The success is growing. These surveys tried to measure how simple classroom management much learning really took place in techniques have struck the 30 minutes. The results were not balance between learning encouraging,” said Karkarey. and implementing. It shows The team then introduced how reliability, scalability and their tailor-made learning system consistency above any principle can through the teacher’s training bring a change,” says Karkarey. programme that was conducted Smita Deshpande too, claims in these schools. This system the simplicity of the whole primarily comprises of carefully campaign, as the reason for designed worksheets based on success. She says, “The project has the prescribed portion for every given me a chance to understand subject. “Every worksheet adheres the background of these kids. —Arpita Karkarey to a certain part of a lesson. After The change that has come into every lesson there are challenging their previously ignored state has exercises which test a student’s touched me.” comprehension about the whole topic,” said Smita She narrated an interesting anecdote about a Deshpande, chief academic officer. Class V student of Nathubhau Baburao Bhegade This learning system broke-through the much Patil School, Talegaon. Rohit Mithapalli is a son of talked about teacher’s resistance to new methods, a garland-maker, who preferred helping his father within the first week itself. “We received an than attending school. Ever since the worksheets extremely positive response from teachers, students have been introduced, he enthusiastically attends and parents alike, as soon as we introduced the school. Post school, he helps his father. Today, he sheets. The attendance shot up and we received dreams of joining the police. letters from schools asking for more sheets with more number of questions,” said Karkarey. yashdaiv@gmail.com
“Reliability, scalability and consistency above any principle can bring a change.”
THE GOLDEN SPARROW ON SATURDAY PUNE
The Pimpri Chinchwad Science Centre was built by the National Council of Science Museums at a cost of Rs 8.5 crore. The capital was equally shared by the Government of India and the Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation. (www.pcmcindia.gov.in/)
Rock band performing at PRC
Rock concert for paraplegic soldiers Mitra Welfare Foundation had organised a music concert in honour of brave ‘paraplegic soldiers recuperating at Pune Rehabilitation Centre (PRC). The programme was held at PRC, Kirkee. ACP Abdur Rahman was the chief guest at the function.
100 years of Bollywood music Rotaract Club of Pune Sinhagad Road and Niche Entertainment has organised a programme on Bollywood musical journey — ‘100 years of Bollywood Music’, on September 28 at Yashwantrao Chavan Natyagruha, Kothurd, from 9.30pm onwards. The show will highlights the essence of Bollywood music and contributions of great artistes. Film-making started in India on May 3, 1913 when Dadasaheb Phalke released the silent film Raja Harishchandra. In this programme, the club will take a nostalgic yet forward looking journey through decades of Bollywood Music from the 1940s into the new millennium. The show is conceived and directed by Milind Oak with singers Chaitanya Kulkarni, Jitendra Abhyankar, Dipika Datar and Rama Kulkarni. The choreography is by Kunal Phadke and Aishwarya Kale. The lights and sound are arranged by Tejas Deodhar and Sagar Khambe.
TGS Quiz Contest
A
No. 15
nswers to the following 10 questions are embedded in the stories featured in this edition. Send us the correct answers at contest.tgs@ gmail.com and be one of the three lucky winners to receive gift coupons. 1.
What is the name of the radiologist with whom Devieka Bhojwani started ‘Women Cancer Initiative’
2. Which two oldest Bengali communities will be celebrating Durga Puja 75 years this year? 3. How old is entrepreneur Brice Poisson? 4. Who are the directors at Vanchit Vikas? 5. How many hosts have signed up for Connect with local? 6. Which theme did the Ringan literary theme revolve around this time? 7.
How much does the Bombay Thecha Roll at WTF cost?
8. What does 34-year-old Ameet Palkar loves shopping for? 9. Where will violinist Liya Petrova perform in the city this weekend? 10. How does actor Teja Deokar start her day?
Contest # 14 winner Sanjeev Gupta
Police probe deaths due to electrocution
Combating cancer with determination, smiles P11
‘Maha Gold Fest’ in city Saraf Association’s mega event will be held from Sept 25 to Oct 30
Victims’ families demand action againt MSEDCL officials TGS NEWS SERVICE @TGSWeekly The Khadki police on Friday sought a detailed report from the authorities of Maharashtra Electricity Distribution Company Limited (MSEDCL) in the accidental deaths with two persons on the Range Hill Road on Thursday evening due to electrocution. A 33-year-old woman and a Samaritan, who tried to rescue her, were electrocuted when in the waterlogged area of the road, where a live overhead wire had snapped and fallen. The incident took place at Range Hill Road, off Mumbai – Pune Road in Khadki, late Thursday evening. The deceased have been identified as Poonam Hrishikesh Joshi (33), a resident of Baner and Aatish Bhagwan Shinde (25) of Mula Road in Khadki. Aatish tried to help her after Poonam’s scooter broke down. Another person escaped with minor injuries. Thursday evening witnessed heavy showers in parts of Pune. Many roads were flooded and were waterlogged. The city recorded 58.2 mm rainfall in just an hour. Electricity overhead wires run parallel to the road leading to Range Hills from old Mumbai – Pune highway. A live overhead wire snapped, after a tree branch fell on it, and the wire fell in to the water on the road. Poonam’s scooter stalled and she was pushing
Fatehchand Ranka (centre) informing about the Maha Gold Fest. Also seen are Abhay Gadgil (left) and Nitin Ashtekar
TGS NEWS SERVICE @TGSWeekly The spot at Range Hill Road, off Mumbai – Pune Road in Khadki, where the 33-year-old was electrocuted
it. Aatish, who was at the spot decided to help her. As soon as Poonam waded to the water, she screamed and trembled as she was hit by the electric charge. Aatish attempted to save her but he too came into contact with the charge and was electrocuted. A passer by attempted to save both, but he fell down. Poonam was working in a private fi rm in Camp and had gone to Range Hills area to meet a doctor. Her husband is a reporter in prominent business newspaper. Speaking to The Golden Sparrow on Saturday, senior police inspector P D Patil of Khadki police station said that the police registered the incident as accidental death. “However, we have sought a
detail report from the power supply company to initiate further legal action. It will fi x the liability, if there is any,” Patil added. Patil said that he has written a letter to the Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company Limited (MSEDCL) seeking explanation on the incident. The MSEDCL has installed safety mechanism for such incidents where power supply is automatically disconnected after a live wire snaps. However, it was not clear how the power supply continued even after the wire snapped. Aatish’s family demanded strong action against the MSEDCL officials. editor_tgs@goldensparrow.com
54 years of igniting minds British Council Library has completed 54 fruitful years in Pune. For most members, BCL means more than just a library. Ishani Bose describes the BCL experience
"YEH SOFA AAP HI KO NIKALNA PADEGA, ...WOH KHUD NAHI NIKLEGA"
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TGS NEWS SERVICE @ishani_bose The British Council Library, (BCL) on Fergusson College Road in Pune, is much more than just a readers nook. It’s probably more than a landmark for its members, for whom it’s a place of refuge, comfort and a treasure house of books that are impossible to find anywhere else. The BCL, besides British writers’ works, also stores fi lm DVDs, BBC series and documentaries. It also hosts workshops, authors’ meets and more. On the occasion of its 54th anniversary, The Golden Sparrow on Saturday got in touch with some of its oldest members to know what they love the most about the library. Established in 1960, the library has been creating opportunities to expand knowledge of the English language and to connect to the UK, whether it is for someone who wants to learn or teach English or take an exam, study in the UK or acquire a qualification from a UK university. For 45-year-old chartered accountant, Anant Govande, BCL has not only been a place of solitary reading but also a medium to pursue his higher education in the UK. “I have been a member of BCL since college days. Thanks to BCL, I also received of British Council scholarship through which I got the opportunity to pursue education in Management in Leeds University in 1999,” he said. Mahrukh Bharucha, founder of Expressions Unlimited, has also been an old and loyal member of the library. “It was a self-intro. Back in the college days, my friends and I used to bunk classes
The Pune Saraf Association has organised a ‘Maha Gold Festival’ from September 25 to October 30. Over 150 jewellery shops in the city are expected to participate in the fest. Fatehchand Ranka, president of Pune Saraf Association, said, “Puneites have confidence in Pune’s Saraf Association and we want to walk the extra mile for our customers. Th is is a golden opportunity for our customers to buy jewellery of their own choice. During the festival season there are many auspicious days when people buy gold. After the Diwali season is over, the wedding season sets in. The scheme is for 25 days where customers can buy gold, silver and diamonds. All jewellery pieces will carry
Hallmark and the customers will not be charged extra for this.” Ranka said during this period, for every purchase of Rs 10,000, buyer will receive a coupon. The customer has to tick the right answers for the question in the coupon, write their names, address and phone number and put it in the drop box at the same shop. The weekly winners will be declared on October 6, 13, 20, 27 and November 3. As weekly prize, the fi rst winner will get 100 gms gold, for the second slot there will be three winners who will receive 20 gms gold each, for the third slot there will be 20 winners, who will get 10 gms gold each and so on. The winner of the final bumper draw will get 5 kg gold and 50 kg silver. A special event will be organised between November 16 and 30 where the Maha winners will be declared and awarded the prizes.
Flat
40% Discount* The British Council Library
and spend hours at Vaishali. A book lover like me drawn to the library across the road almost instantly,” she said. “We have a seven-year-window, wherein any book older than that period, except for history and literature ones, are sold off in the withdrawn books sale. At this sale, books are available at a throwaway price and is really looked forward to by our members,” said Kajari Mitra, senior manager for programmes, BCL. ishani_bose@goldensparow.com
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SEPTEMBER 27, 2014
THE GOLDEN SPARROW ON SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 27, 2014
Signposts
Deepak Baid, Director, Siddhi Vinayak Logistic Ltd felicitating drivers
Driver’s Day celebrated More than 200 bus and truck drivers took part in the Driver’s Day celebration held on September 17, at Shikrapur in Siddhi Vinay Logistics Ltd facility. On this occasion different programmes like health check-up, yoga camp, highway safety training and educational guidance were organised for drivers and their families.
Pratibha Patil to inaugurate book fair The 13th edition of Pune Book Fair will be inaugurated on October 9 at 12 noon, by the former president Pratibha Patil at Ganesh Krida Kala Manch. Considering the demand of foreign language books, the exhibition will have a section dedicated to foreign collaborators. Students who have excelled in academics or extra-curricular activities will be felicitated on the occasion. For details, contact PNR Rajan at 9422030326 or log on to facebook.com/punebookfair.
Mega blood donation camp Samruddha Jeevan Foundation organised a mega blood donation camp on September 26. The event was organised across 350 locations throughout the country, continuing its legacy of arranging pan India blood donation camps annually.
“I have been constantly telling people to encourage people, to question the unquestioned and not to be ashamed to bring up new ideas, new processes to get things done.” —Ratan Tata
The positive results of stem cell therapy trials P13
Welcoming the
GODDESS
ANIRUDDHA RAJANDEKAR
Bringing a slice of France to Pune P9
What have the city’s Bengalis lined up for Durga Puja this year? TGS NEWS SERVICE @ishani_bose Bangiya Sanskriti Samsad (BSS) and Kali Bari Samiti, two of the oldest Bengali cultural and social organisations in Pune are commemorating 75 years of celebrating Durga Mahotsav in the city this year. The former was established in 1966 and the latter in 1979. The Bengali community celebrated the fi rst ever Durga festival in the city in 1939. “The fi rst puja was held in the Khadki Cantonment area which was attended by Bengalis from across the city. Back then, the population of the Bengalis in the city was not all that much. That is why celebrating together under one roof was possible. As the city began to grow, and the number of Bengalis in the city started to rise, the group disintegrated to form two groups. In the following years many more have come up,” said Dr S K Sarkhel, president, Kali Badi. Cu r rent l y, there are over S K Sarkhel 25 Durga Puja celebrations in different parts of the city. Since its inception, the two organisations have been promoting Bengali cultural heritage and literature within the community and with society at large. For BSS, the Platinum Jubilee celebration of the festival commenced a month before Durga Puja, with
c u l t u r a l programmes held on the weekends. “Th is year, in order to celebrate the festival in a grand way, we started our c e l e b r a t i o n s Arun Chattopadhyay almost a month in advance. We had the Suchetna Dance Troupe come all the way from Kolkata to perform for us; Jagganath Basu and Urmimala Basu, both renowned Bengali poets, present an enchanting evening of Bengali poetry and Shruti-Natak (talk-theatre) and the renowned Bengali singer, Alok Ray Chowdhury perform for us,” said Arun Chattopadhyay, general secretary, BSS. He said that this year, they will be beginning the Durga Puja celebrations from the fourth day rather than the sixth day. Bengali Association Pune, which is the third oldest Bengali Community in the city (established on 1st Baishakh 1981 (Bengali New Year Day), is holding its 34th Durga Puja celebration this year. “ T h i s Association has been growing steadily year after year and has not only been celebrating Durga Puja but all other festivals of Bengal with Deepankar Basu much pomp and
Artists give finisihing touches to the idol of Durga at the Bangiya Sanskriti Samsad (BSS), Congress Bhavan, ShivajInagar
gaiety. Th is is a homely and closely held organisation,” said Deepankar Basu, vice president, Bengali Association, Pune. The celebrations will commence Monday, September 29 and end on Saturday, October 4. Bangiya Samsad at Nagar Road is commemorating their 10th celebration of Durga Puja this year. “Th is year, we are really looking forward to celebrating it with great pomp and fervour. We are putting in a lot of creativity into making the murtis which will be a replica of the murtis that one sees in Kolkata,” said Mala Chaudhuri, cultural secretary, Bangiya Samsad, Nagar Road. The highlights of the puja this year at Vimannagar are the decorations of the mandap by artists from Kolkata, who have been staying in Pune for over the last one and a half months to make the idol; the lights brought from Chandannagar, West Bengal, famous for their lighting and display and the idol of Goddess Durga in a warrior avatar.
Some highlights of Durga fest- 2014 Bangiya Sanskriti Samsad, Congress Bhavan, Shivajinagar
Deepankar Basu on 9822078421
Monday, Sept 29: 8.30 pm — performance by Kolkata Ballet Group Tuesday, Sept 30:8.30 pm Music and Dance Program presented by Surajhankar, Pune Wednesday, Oct 1: 9.30 pm — Musical evening with artists from Kolkata Thursday, Oct 2: 7.30 pm —Baul Gaan from Bengal Friday, Oct 3: 8.30 pm — Musical evening with Parama Bandyopadhyay and Supratik Das from Kolkata Contact: General secretary, Arun Chattopadhyay on 08805112500
Bangiya Samsad, Nagar Road (Vimannagar) Saturday, Oct 4 1 am to 4 am — Vijoya Dashami Puja 11 am — Sindur Utsav 2 pm — Immersion Pashchim Pune Bangiya Parishad,Govind Mangalkaryalay, Baner, near Hotel Rajwada Wednesday, Oct 1: 8 pm — In-house drama titled ‘Shriman Nabolok’ Thursday, Oct 2: 8pm — Musical ballet Friday, Oct 3: 8pm — Anando Sandhya Contact: 020-25888365
Bengali Association, Siddhi Gardens, Erandwana, near Mhatre Bridge
Nandanik Sanstha, Sarodik Durga Puja, Koregaon Park Tuesday, Sept 30: 8 pm — ‘Yatra’ dance recital by renowned dance exponent Aparna Gandhi and her group. Thursday, Oct 2: 8 pm — musical extravaganza by several artists from Mumbai
Thursday, Oct 2: 8.30 pm – ‘Bichitranushthan’ featuring Durga mantra recital and dance Friday, Oct 3: 11 am — Dhunuchi dance competition 8.30 pm — Musical programme by Jitendra Bhuduk and troupe Contact: Vice president,
ishani_bose@goldensparrow.com
A glimpse of Korean culture Organised at Green Park, Baner by the Korean Consulate General of Mumbai and hosted by the Korean Association of Pune, the festival today will highlight the Korean way of life BY PRACHI BARI @prachibari SunKyung Choo, a Korean living in Pune, is working on her steps. She rewinds the tape and Korean Pop group Sistar’s famous ‘So Cool’ plays while they practice. She and her Indian friends are among the nine finalists performing for the fi rst ever Korean Cultural Festival today, between 3 pm and 9 pm. “I am excited to be part of this festival. Th is is for the fi rst time when
I am performing with my Indian friends,” says Choo, a dance lover and a homemaker. “Th is is a chance for me to introduce our culture and music and make friends,” she adds. Her group ‘You N Me’ is one of the 23 participating groups, selected after the initial rounds. ‘K pop’ contest is one of the hottest and most awaited highlights of the festival. Other Koreans are also contributing in the fest. Meejung Kim is a volunteer while Kim Hyun Souk is
a homemaker. The Korean C u l t u r a l Festival is the brainchild of Mikyuong Ku, a teacher and part-owner of Café Maroo in Aundh. Th is Mikyuong Ku festival has been organised by the Korean Consulate General of Mumbai and is hosted by the Korean Association of Pune. “The government wants to spread goodwill to create a harmonious relationship between India and Korea. By holding a cultural festival in Pune, we want to bring all the 900 Korean
SunKyung Choo and other participants preparing for the cultural fest
families, students together. There will be games, flea market, sales expo of various companies like LG, Posco and Hyundai, and also Korean food
samplings from various Korean hotels across Pune,” says Mikyuong. Mikyuong Ku said, “We have been working on organising this
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fest for almost a month. We are even having people try out the Hanbok (the traditional Korean dress). We want to introduce our local friends to the Korean language. For this we have organised introduction to the Korean alphabet Hangeul where we will write the visitors names on a special Korean paper. In the cultural section, Indians and Korean will perform together. We have put up Korean songs that our Indian friends will sing while we will attempt to sing Indian songs.” The Vidya Valley School choir will perform, while the girls from St Felix School, Bund Garden will perform a special Taekwon dance. They have been trained in this by Balkrishna Bhandari, a 6 Dan black belt in Taekwondo. “It is Korea’s national martial arts and we are happy to perform the Shibomdan (demonstration) for the festival,” said Bhandari. prachibari@gmail.com
editor_tgs@goldensparrow.com
Need stringent cyber laws against breach of privacy Th is is a generation that is probably communicating more through technology and very little of personal contact. The phones and tablets may have got smarter but the kids also need to be smarter. Technology can be a boon or a bane and the biggest threat is addiction which is as dangerous as any other addiction. Social apps may seem convenient but the threat of losing ones data and personal details to unknown sources is also there. Every app has certain settings but most kids seem to ignore these security settings. A fake profi le with a cut and paste photo can easily be created and unfortunately there is no feedback from Facebook or Twitter. We need to have stricter cyber laws. A stricter verification method is needed because in a virtual world an identity can be replicated and create havoc. Technology may seem simple
on the surface but the lurking threats need to be corrected. —Sunil Melwani (Gets best letter prize)
Time to encourage Modi’s good work
Narendra Modi reached out to children and this was truly an action from the heart. Today’s generation need to be inspired and try and combat the negativity that certain sections of the media thrive on. It is rather disturbing that Bollywood stars are put on a pedestal and if a nation considers such personalities as inspirational, then we need to prepare for the rot. The job of being PM is not easy and these couch media journalists just criticise and don’t introspect their own actions. Modi spoke from his inner self and was
a revelation of sorts. People may keep finding faults in his behaviour, but the time has come to see the good. A nation is built in the same way a wall is constructed. Citizens need to believe in themselves and simply ignore the crap that selfish TV channels promote. Breaking news is more about crime and rape and we rarely get to hear pleasant news as breaking news. TV channels are pretending to run the nation instead of just being reporters. Nations are run by the system and not by cosy airconditioned studios. —Chirukandan P
Natural disaster in J&K
The state of Jammu and Kashmir has been completely wrecked by the flood fury that began on September 2. It has claimed many lives and caused heavy damage to public and private properties. The woes and sufferings of the people of Kashmir are beyond one’s imagination. However, timely and mammoth rescue operations by the Army, the Air Force, the Navy, the NDRF and other agencies mitigated the sufferings of the people to some extent. But it will take years of rehabilitation. Even during the rescue operations (after a gap of four days) the relentless rains added to the difficulties of the people. It is hoped that aid and assistance pours in from all over the world for the rehabilitation of the people of J&K who will need to
re-start a new life, once again. — Vijay Dattatray Patil
Write to Us Letters to the Editor may be emailed to editor_tgs@goldensparrow. com or mailed to Golden Sparrow Publishing Pvt Ltd, 1641 Madhav Heritage, Tilak Road, Pune-411030. The Best Letter of the Week will receive a special gift from Venus Traders, Pune’s finest stationery departmental.
TGS MARKETING INITIATIVE
THE GOLDEN SPARROW ON SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 27, 2014
WORLD TOURISM DAY
PUNE
special
RAHUL RAUT
Tourism opens doors to new experiences Vishwas Kelkar, president, Travel Agents Association, Pune reflects on the occasion of ‘World Tourism Day’
V
NEW DELHI: There has been a 16.9 per cent rise in foreign tourist arrivals (FTAs) in August 2014 over the corresponding period last year, the tourism ministry said recently. In August 2013, FTA growth was logged at 9.1 per cent over August 2012. The ministry computed the figure on the basis of data received from major ports and Foreign Exchange Earnings (FEEs) from tourism available from the Reserve Bank of
Vishwas Kelkar
BY BARNALEE HANDIQUE @barnalee
ishwas Kelkar, 55, has been the president of Travel Agents Association (Pune) for two years. The association has over 80 agents as members. On the occasion of World Tourism Day that falls on Saturday, September 27, Kelkar spoke of the ever increasing scope and magnitude of the tourism industry and how it has evolved. “Tourism brings everyone together. One should explore new places and get acquainted with new culture, traditions and local customs. It will help us come together and bond well,” Kelkar said. He believes that guidelines and ethics are crucial for the industry. Reminiscing about how he started his travel agency in the city in 1984, he said, “The focus of Sahyadri Institute of Mountaineering Adventure Sports (Simas) Travel agency was adventure sports. There were not many agencies in the city that organised trips catering to this particular sector. Activities were limited and were not explored commercially. That’s when the idea cropped up to set up this agency.” The travel agency became a pioneer in trekking, snow skiing, jungle safaris and white water rafting. In 1994, scuba diving was also included in the packages. Trips were organised from Pune to all over Maharashtra. Soon, people from all over the state were attracted by these travel packages that Kelkar offered. After 1995, Kelkar entered into leisure tourism. He said, “Leisure tours are comfortable tours where adventure is limited. It is a holiday package for families. Adventure activities can be included as per clients’ demand. In this
“Travellers look for good food, comfortable stay and a vehicle at their disposal.”
FOR GOD'S SAKE CALL US BEFORE YOU FINALISE A KERALA HOLIDAY
barnalee.handique@goldensparrow.com
14 042/quiksel.com
THIS DIWALI. package, safety always comes first.” Holiday packages were tailor-made for families and included a ski camp at Shimla, snorkelling and kayaking at Lakshadweep, scuba diving and glass bottom rides in Andaman Islands. To make the trips even more attractive, Kelkar tied up with 12 state tourism departments like Garwal, Kumaon, Madhya Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Lakshadweep and Goa. Before coming up with packages for these places, Kelkar visited these places to get a first-hand experience. He even went to remote areas and interior villages. He believes that every destination has something to offer, besides the popular holiday sites. With offices at Sadashiv Peth and Laxmi Road, Simas Travels is known for its holiday packages. Kelkar says that the concept of tourism has changed over 25 years. There are different age group of travellers — those between 30 and 40 years, while youngsters are always interested in something new. They are keen on exploring new places and adventure sports. On the other hand, senior citizens need well organised tours. “The three most important things that any traveller looks for are good food, comfortable stay and a vehicle at their disposal so that one can explore the destination according to convenience,” he said. Kelkar’s sons Aniket and Chetan assist him in his travel business. His travel agency’s third branch at Sadashiv Peth deals with corporate clients. The latest office has fund transfer, online booking and international ticketing facilities.
The hotels, the flights, the daily programs will leave you stunned. www.byondjourneys.com/kerala (type byond without the 'e')
Foreign tourist arrivals rise 16.9 per cent in August
(020) 4129 4501 98505 00903
India (RBI). “FTAs during August 2014 were 5.69 lakh as compared to FTAs of 4.86 lakh during August 2013 and 4.46 lakh in August 2012,” said the ministry in a statement. The percentage share of FTAs in India during August 2014 among the top 15 source countries was highest from Bangladesh (14.03 per cent), followed by the US (12.74 per cent), Britain (9.22 per cent), and Sri Lanka (6.79 per cent). IANS
THE GOLDEN SPARROW ON SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 27, 2014
A learning disability cannot define your talent P 11
A movable feast best left behind P 13
A “twillionaire” is a twitterer with a million or more followers. www.powersolution.com
Connecting gastronomically
TECH GURU BY SORAB GHASWALLA
Shreeram Kunte and Mangesh Wagh gave up their corporate jobs to promote cultural interaction in the city
ANIRUDDHA RAJANDEKAR
BY ANJALI SHETTY @shetty_anjali A Ganeshotsav lunch, hosted by a Maharashtrian couple attended by a German couple, a Japanese woman, a Himachali, Kannadiga and an Assamese family and Maharashtrian guests is a special occasion. Shreeram Kunte and Mangesh Wagh’s joint venture, Connect with local, (www. connectwaithlocal.com, https://www.facebook. com/connectwithlocal) is an online portal that allows one relish local cuisine by just signing in, makes it possible. “We as a country are known for our hospitable ways of welcoming guests. But this practice has been disappearing lately as we are busy fending for ourselves and nurturing nuclear families. This is not just an online platform for foodies but a way of tapping into factors like lending a global platform to unsung cooks, creating microentrepreneurs, promoting the local economy, reviving forgotten foods, encouraging meetings of real people in the real world and expanding our horizon by enabling true cultural understanding, saya Kunte. The idea behind Connect with local is to connect with like-minded people and create a platform that helps share and interact. Kunte’s earlier job required travel for 18 days a month. But, constant travelling, gave him the opportunity to taste various local cuisines. A foodie at heart, Kunte has friends who love food just like him. So he decided to start a portal like Connect with Local, with Mangesh — a friend and an equally passionate foodaholic like him. “The society is undergoing a sea change and the people are gradually opening up to the idea of welcoming a stranger into their homes,” said, Mangesh, co-founder and CTO of Connect with Local. So far, Connect with Local has conducted 19 events and 23 hosts have signed up with them in Pune from the Maharashtrian, Parsi, Uttaranchali, Mangalorean, Lucknowi, Muslim, Marwadi, Sindhi and Gujarati communities. The group also has about 200 guests signed up so far. “All of the events are testimony to our spirit of bringing different cultures together,” he said.
(L-R) Mangesh Wagh, Shreeram Kunte and Sameer Athalye
Recently, the online food portal also conducted a Lucknowi food event, hosted by a couple, where the husband was a Bihari and the wife a Maharashtrian, which was attended by guests from Arunachal Pradesh. Similarly, a Parsi host organised a Parsi non-veg dinner, which was attended by an Assamese and a Sindhi couple and few Maharashtrian guests. The site has a unique revenue model and offers its services free of cost to the hosts. The hosts undergo a careful selection process that includes referral checks, cultural representation, hygiene, uniqueness about the location and food offered et. The site aims to have a representative from almost every culture in the world. The site works on a reviews and ratings
system that is used by sites from across the world. In this system a host rates his/her guests after an event and vice versa. Eventually, only hosts or guests with good ratings remain on the website and people with bad reviews get weeded out of the system. “The payments are also done through a secured payment gateway using credit cards, debit cards or net banking. This means that the details of guests are with the banks they choose to make payment with. In addition to this, the host has a right to reject a booking by a guest before the event starts,” said Kunte. Another interesting feature about Connect with local is that no major investment was required in starting it as the founders are not doing this as a business initiative. “This is what we love and enjoy.
At this moment, we are not focussing on the monetary aspect of it. Right now we are just concentrating on building a platform for like-minded people,” said Kunte. HOW IT WORKS? www.connectwithlocal.com is an online platform which connects foodies with people who love cooking and treating their guests. People can sign up as hosts, create the food event and display the event on the website. People can sign up, decide on their favourite food event, make an online booking and attend the event on the scheduled date. The guests get authentic home cooked food from different cultures and also get to know the host’s culture. anjali.shetty@goldensparrow.com
Solar portable cold storage to prevent food wastage KOLKATA: In a pioneering step aimed at zero food wastage, a group of Indian engineers have designed a solar powered, portable micro cold storage system for small farmers that will help them store agricultural produce at low temperatures in areas with poor or no access to electricity. Put together at the Science and Technology Entrepreneurship Park (STEP) of the Indian Institute of Technology (Kharagpur), the energy efficient cold storage units run on solar power harnessed
through 2.5 KW - 3.5 KW panels and can be customised according to the crops. “The thermal storage concept does not depend on grid electricity and after a two-year break-even, can generate over 40 per cent increase in profits. Normally cold storages work on electricity and require battery backups. But with our innovation, the solar powered ones does away with need for battery backups and eliminates running cost,” Vivek Pandey, one of the engineers from IIT-Kgp, told IANS.
Pandey said that by using the novel storage unit, farmers will have the flexibility to store their produce and sell it in the market when prices increase. “This will reduce wastage sustainably, increase margins for farmers, and stabilise the supply chain, while preventing gluts. Moreover, the normal units cost four times the solar powered ones designed by us. We have filed for four different patents for the technology,” he said. At a dimension of eight foot by eight foot by eight foot (for five metric tonne unit)
and varying storage capacity of 3.5, 5 and 10 metric tonnes, the units can be hauled onto small trucks and cargo vans for transport. Having sold three to four units in Karnataka already, under the aegis of Ecofrost Technologies, the group is focusing on standardisation of the units so that prices can be lowered. Presently the units range from `6 lakh to `9 lakh. “We will set up an assembly facility for the units at Pune by the end of this month,” he said. IANS
‘Teaching and learning should be a joy’ Educator Rita Pierson believes that a teacher must be someone in whom children have complete faith TED is a global platform where people from different fields come together and speak for 18 minutes or less about their respective disciplines. It was started in 1984 by a non-profit organisation called Sapling Foundation, under the slogan — Ideas worth sharing. Initially it organised conferences where matters related to technology, design and entertainment merged, but today it includes varied topics such as business, photography, art, science and the like.
BY ISHANI BOSE @ishani_bose American politician and member of the Republican Party James Comer said that no significant learning can occur without a significant relationship. American scientist, botanist, educator, and inventor George Washington Carver said that learning is nothing but understanding relationships. Educator Rita Pierson, in her Ted Talk, stresses on the importance of connections and relationships in education, and how every child deserves to have someone believe in him completely. “I come from a family of educators. My parents and maternal grandparents were educators, and I have been doing the same thing for 40 years. Needless to say, over these years I’ve had a chance to look at education reform from different perspectives. Some of the reforms have been good, some not so good. There are several reasons behind a child dropping out — be it poverty, low attendance, negative peer influences etc. However,
one of the things that we never discuss is the value and importance of human connection, or relationships,” she said. Everyone has been affected by a teacher or an adult in their lives and for years she had watched people teach. “A colleague once said, ‘They don’t pay me to like the kids. They pay me to teach a lesson. The kids should learn it. I should teach it. They should learn it. Case closed.’ I said to her, ‘You know, kids don’t learn from people they don’t like’.” She gives the example of her mother who for years had taken the time at recess to review, go on home visits in the afternoon, buy combs and brushes and peanut butter and crackers to put in her desk drawer for kids that needed to eat, and a washcloth and some soap for the kids who didn’t smell so good. “It’s hard to teach kids who stink. Years later, after she retired, I watched some of those same kids come through and say to her, ‘You know, Ms Walker, you made a difference in my life. You made it work for me. You made me feel like
I was somebody, when I knew, at the bottom, I wasn’t. And I want you to just see what I’ve become’,” she said. Rita’s mother passed away in 2011 at 92, and there were so many former students at her funeral, that it brought tears to her eyes — not because she was gone, but because she left a legacy of relationships that could never disappear. “Teaching and learning should bring joy. How powerful would our world be if we had kids who were not afraid to take risks, who were not afraid to think, and who had a champion? Every child deserves a champion, an adult who will never give up on them, who understands the power of connection, and insists that they become the best that they can possibly be,” she said, adding that although it’s difficult its worth striving for. “We can do this. We’re educators. We’re born to make a difference,” she said. ishani.bose@goldensparrow.
PUNE
This is an interactive column. Like today, every week, we will be replying to technology and internet related queries sent in by readers. You may email your questions with the subject line ‘Tech Guru query’ to tgstechguru@gmail.com
Your Android needs occasional spring cleaning Dear Tech Guru, I love to download apps on my Android phone, but recently, I got this warning, “Insufficient storage”. What should I do? Decluttering is something that many of us are loathe to do. One needs to “clean out” our modern-devices, mostly “smart” ones, in order to have them running smoothly. That`s why, even an Android operated device needs to have space freed up to allow the downloading of more content on it. Nothing, after all, comes with unlimited storage space. Most Android devices have two types of storage space– internal and external or the SD card, where you can save your music, images and other stuff. Today`s devices come with much more “space” than their predecessors. But then again, there are million more apps out in the marketplace as compared to yester-years, so I guess, it evens things out. Both types of storages need to be cleaned up occasionally. If not, your device also starts slowing down. The SD card is easy to scrub – just start manually deleting any unwanted music, photos, or data. Cleaning your phone`s internal memory is where the problem lies. Most of the apps reside here. Technically, one can simply delete apps from the internal memory of your Android device to free up space. If your device is“rooted”, there are ways around this problem. Rooting is the process wherein you can bypass the limitations put on your device by your phone manufacturer in order to gain access to the Android sub-system; it’s the equivalent of Apple iOS “jailbreak”. But I shall not spend time here explaining those hacks since they can get to be complicated. So hypothetically speaking, if you require all the installed apps, yet want to download more, then what? That’s not going to happen, right; remember the “memory full” warning? Perversely, here`s where people with older Android devices are luckier than those who have the “latest” phone. Only those with older Android versions (2.3 + earlier) can manually move their apps from internal to the SD card. Google disallowed this feature from Android 4.0. But there are ways. To transfer apps to your SD card, you could resort to some apps like ‘Move App to SD Card’ (http://bit.ly/ Z7eYbJ) which claims to be able to move multi-apps from internal memory at a click if you grant them root access to your phone. I cannot vouch for such apps nor their claims, so all the best. Here are some tried and trusted methods of freeing up space in your Android device: • Use a microSD card for storage if your device permits • Move a major portion of your content into the Cloud like Dropbox. While it will free up space, you will need an internet connection to view all your photos • Uninstall any bloatware that might have come preinstalled such as maps, etc. Same for rarely used apps. • Use an Android app manager like the free one called App Manager Move 2 SD by the Indian developer iRobotz (http://bit.ly/1sUodmC) or an app SD Maid Pro (http://bit.ly/1myljr7), available for Rs 149. • Start using a wireless, portable hard drive with your device. There are many available in the Indian market. Seagate’s 1TB, though rather steeply priced at `11,200 (http://bit.ly/1sgeU62), is one you may check out. • Last but as important a method as any – clear your phone’s cache memory to delete frequently accessed data, temporary files.
(Sorab Ghaswalla is a former old-world journalist who now wears many hats, entrepreneur, Internet consultant, Online Marketer, new media and technology journalist, and the Editor/publisher of four sites of his own, all related to the Internet, smartphones, startups and the Internet of things. You may find him at www.newagecontentservices.com) (Disclaimer: The Tech Guru column is more in the nature of a reader-initiated, advisory feature. Readers are urged to check or confirm for themselves the features of all hardware/ software mentioned here before making a purchase. Prices quoted are indicative and not final, and subject to availability of product/service. This newspaper nor this column shall, in any way, be liable for any physical, personal or monetary damage/losses arising out of advice given herein.)
THE GOLDEN SPARROW ON SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 27, 2014
PUNE
A fortnight ago, the world eagerly awaited the launch of the iPhone 6, perhaps one of the most coveted gadgets for an Apple fan. When the phone is available in India for sale later this year, undoubtedly many consumers will either upgrade to the new handset or aspirational buyers will own their first Apple product. In either case, there will be an old handset that will be discarded. But as a consumer you would never perhaps think of where your discarded electric or electronic equipment will go. The fact is that WEEE (waste from electrical and electronic equipment), commonly known as e-waste, is perhaps one of the biggest, most dangerous crisis we face. BY RITU GOYAL HARISH @ritugh
THE PROBLEM OF
E-WASTE
THE DEAR CONSUMER, THIS IS YOUR PROBLEM E-WASTE THE EXISTING SYSTEM The biggest problem is the lack of recognition of e-waste as an impending environmental and human health disaster. Electronic waste is made up of many components, some of which are highly toxic.
There is no precise estimate on Pune’s annual generation of e-waste but it is expected to be quite significant given the city’s profile as an educational and IT hub. An Indian Market Research Bureau (IMRB) survey of ‘e-waste generation at source’ in 2009 found that out of the total e-waste volume in India, televisions and desktops, including servers comprised 68 per cent and 27 per cent respectively. Pune companies that generate such e-waste are supposed to give their e-waste to authorised recyclers. But this system is far from being foolproof or complete. Maitreyi Shankar, co-ordinator at SWaCH, the only organisation authorised by Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB) to collect e-waste said, “Many midlevel companies willingly sell their e-waste to us, but that number is not very high.” According to a recent report released by Toxics Link, an environmental NGO, most reputed electronic and electrical equipment companies — both Indian and multinational — have failed grossly in fulfilling their responsibilities under extended producer responsibility (EPR) as defined under the e-water (Management and Handling) Rules, 2011. How are Puneites disposing their e-waste? While both the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) and MPCB claim that the bulk consumers of e-waste have a streamlined process of disposal, the problem arises when tackling household e-waste that constitutes a meagre 5 per cent of all e-waste produced but can cause damage to human health and the environment when handled without care. Most households dispose of their e-waste in the regular garbage posing a problem for ragpickers who segregate the dry waste. “There is a greener and cleaner way of handling e-waste but it is not happening on the ground level. The disposal of e-waste with other household garbage affects the health of workers” said Shankar. The unorganised sector Most often citizens give away their discarded e-waste to scrap dealers (kabadiwalas/bhangarwalas) for a pittance. A lot of recyclers also send the e-waste to scrap dealers. “These people don’t know the ramifications of mishandling this waste and they end up dismantling and breaking the e-waste causing harm to themselves and the environment,” said Shankar. The high value e-waste, the kind that actually fetches money is collected directly by large recyclers and reprocessors, and the low value items such as bits and pieces of wires, table fans, toasters etc are left to the local kabadiwala for disposal. “Large recyclers will not collect the low value e-waste from a kabadiwala due to the overhead costs involved,” Shankar pointed out. Since this sector is not scientifically trained and is unaware of the serious hazards of irresponsible disposal, the goods either end up in our already overflowing landfills or are burned etc. At the end of the day, when the horrors of e-waste as a potential disaster emerge, this kabadiwala is victimised as the bad guy.
NEED OF THE HOUR BRING THE INFORMAL SECTOR INTO THE VALUE CHAIN The informal or unorganised sector has a huge potential in terms of skills and expertise and must be made part of the value chain in e-waste. “There is a huge difference in existing rates of e-waste in the formal sector where there is compliance of norms, and thus large overhead costs, and the informal sector where there is no compliance or understanding of the laws and therefore low costs,” said Shankar, who believes that there must be an incentive to the informal sector to adopt compliance and safe disposal practices. ENSURE THREEWAY SEGREGATION IN HOMES AND CENTRALISED COLLECTION Home-generated e-waste is very small in volume but is equally harmful and should be disposed of as per norms. Individual homes should segregate their garbage in three bins and the e-waste can be centrally collected by the housing society. Once a month, an authorised collector or recycler can then collect the e-waste. “The challenge would be to get the consumer to forego the Rs 100 or 200 they get for an old phone or non-functional household appliance and give it away for free,” Shankar said.
Mobile phones
Personal computers/tabs/ handhelds/laptops
Printers including cartridges
Televisions CD/DVD players/ MP3 players/iPods
Washing machines/dish washers
Batteries – alkaline, lithium included
Mixer grinders/ microwave ovens/ OTG ovens/toasters
Air conditioners/ table fans
Electronic toys
Refrigerators
Cordless/corded telephones
Electrical wires
CDs/floppy disks/ pen drives
Alarm clocks
Hair dryers/ straighteners etc WET
LEDs/CFLs
DRY
Know the law
e
RECYCLE, REUSE AND REDUCE The only option to reduce the amount of e-waste that we produce is to consciously recycle – upgrade instead of buying a new EEE, reuse – get gadgets repaired rather than throw them away, and reduce – go minimalistic. ritugoyalharish@gmail.com
• The e-waste (Management & Handling) Rules, 2011 came into effect on May 1, 2012 • The rules affix responsibilities on the producer in line with the principle of ‘Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR)’ for proper recycling and disposal of the e-waste • The EPR includes ‘financing and organising a system to meet the costs involved in the environmentally sound management of e-waste generated’ • The rules also affix a responsibility on consumers and bulk consumers
E-waste at Hi Tech Recycling India (Pvt Ltd)
“E-WASTE RECYCLING FACILITY IN RANJANGAON WILL COME UP WITHIN A YEAR” The Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB) is the authorised agency to oversee the collection, handling and disposal of e-waste. MPCB Pune division regional officer Anil Mohekar said that there is no dedicated team to address the city’s e-waste issues due to staff crunch, while the city bursts at its seams in trying to handle its municipal solid waste (MSW). Excerpts from an interview with Ritu Goyal Harish. According to the e-waste (Management and Handling) Rules 2011, state pollution control boards can authorise bodies to collect, dismantle and recycle or reprocess e-waste. What was the process of authorising SWaCH as a collection agency, for example? Did they undergo any training to handle the waste? No, they applied for the authorisation and are authorised only to collect e-waste, not reprocess. They are just a collection agency. We have authorised them as they are doing work in other fields also. Household waste constitutes a very small part of the e-waste collection in the city. Most of it goes to the unorganised sector. Is MPCB working with PMC to get this e-waste collected properly so that it is not disposed of in the daily garbage? We are yet to concentrate on houseto-house collection. Our focus is industries, particularly the IT sector. We are instructing them to hand-over this e-waste to authorised recycler only. We are planning to have one facility in Ranjangaon that will not only dismantle
How to dispose of household e-waste • Adopt three-way segregation – Wet, dry & e-waste • Create a central e-waste collection bin in your housing society as per norms • Give your e-waste to an authorised collection or recycling agency once a month. SWaCH (Contact details: 65000817; helpline: 9765999500; swachcoop@gmail.com; www. wastepickerscollective.org) and Hi-tech Recycling India (Pvt) Ltd (Contact details: 66521000 or info@hitechrecycling.in or www. hitechrecycling.in) are some of the agencies in Pune.
but will also reprocess e-waste. This facility will come up within a year. What do you think is the responsibility of bulk producers as per the rules? Actually the responsibility of recycling e-waste should lie with the producer only. A television manufacturer should also accept old sets. The buy-back car battery system is very well set up. If my old battery gets spoiled I give it to my authorised dealer. Do you think that the e-waste management in the city can improve if MPCB and PMC work together? At least there is some system in Pune; it is not there in other cities. We have to take the help of the civic body since they have a good system in place. MPCB has a manpower crunch as we have only 730 people to cover the whole state. Citizens should segregate e-waste. The city is facing a huge crisis in terms of garbage disposal. Where do you think is the lacuna, in the policy or implementation, or both? There is a lacuna in the policy. For
Sources
Constituent
Health Effects
Data tapes, floppy-disks
Chromium VI
Acutely poisonous and injurious to health, causes allergic reactions
Rechargeable batteries, Printer Inks & toners Cadmium (CD)
Toxic irreversible effects on human health, accumulates in kidney and liver, causes neural damage, teratogenic
Light-emitting diode (LED)
Injurious to health
Gallium arsenide
CRT screens, batteries, printed wiring boards Lead
Causes damage to the nervous system, circulatory system, kidneys, causes learning disabilities in children
Found in the fluorescent lamps that provide Mercury backlighting in LCDs, in some alkaline batteries and mercury wetted switches
Acutely poisonous and injurious to health
Pipes, upholstery etc.
Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC) Causes respiratory problems
e-waste in figures* India produces
13 lakh MT of electronic waste every year Less than 2% of the total
e-waste produced in India is recycled, rest of it is ending up in our landfills, rivers etc. Pune produces nearly
19,000 MT
of e-waste per annum * Figures in metric tonnes (MT). Source: ASSOCHAM
Be a responsible independent producer • Prevent waste - Buy products made of fewer toxic constituents and recycled constituents, reduce plastic consumption • Upgrade instead of buying new electrical & electronic products • Exchange as buy-back from companies • Donate working condition electronics for reuse to schools, non-profit organisations, and lower-income families etc • Don’t dispose e-waste with your garbage • Don’t give away e-waste to the scrap dealer
PMC FIGURES DON’T ADD UP BY RITU GOYAL HARISH @ritugh The figures just don’t add up. The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) claims that the city produces about 1,700 metric tonnes (MT) of garbage per day, and 17 per cent of it is ‘plastic’ and ‘miscellaneous’. In an interaction conducted by the civic body and Mahratta Chamber Of Commerce Industries and Agriculture (MCCIA) on the solid waste management (SWM) crisis faced by the
Waste Composition in Pune Miscellaneous 17%
HOUSEHOLD E-WASTE – LIST OF TOXINS*
example, plastic should not come under MSW. There should be a complete ban on plastic carry bags irrespective of thickness. A milk supplier for example should take back the plastic they use to package their product.
Inert Materials 22% Leather/ Rubber 1%
Paper 6% Plastic 13% Metal 3% Glass 5% Organic 33%
city, the civic body presented the details of garbage in the city (see figure). These figures are contrary to an Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM) paper on e-waste that pegs Pune’s contribution to annual e-waste generation at 19,000 MT. The paper* also states that e-waste is growing at a compound growth rate of 25 per cent per annum. By 2017, this will be a staggering figure for Pune as much as for other cities. SWM incharge and PMC joint municipal commissioner Suresh Jagtap
said that according to a study conducted by MPCB in 2007, Pune produced about 2,500 MT of e-waste per year. “This number must have doubled by now. We also don’t know how much e-waste is being given by bulk generators through EPR,” he said. A United Nations report predicted, “By 2020, e-waste from old computers would jump by 500 per cent on 2007 levels in India. Additionally, e-waste from discarded mobile phones would be about seven times higher than 2007 levels and, in India, 18 times higher by 2020.” By this yardstick, the PMC is still way off the mark in its estimation of e-waste produced by Pune. SWaCH coordinator Maitreyi Shankar said that their collection of e-waste is approximately 70 per cent of their authorisation – ie 70 per cent of 1 MT per month. This puts the figure at 9.4 MT per annum approximately. Hi-tech Recycling India (Pvt) Ltd, an authorised recycler of e-waste that directly collects only valuable waste from industries and corporates, is authorised to collect 500 MT per annum. In India, e-waste is considered a constituent of municipal solid waste and the figure of 1,700 MT MSW produced by Pune per annum becomes an impossible figure to reconcile. According to MPCB regional officer Anil Mohekar, all figures are approximations as a proper data for e-waste is unavailable with anyone. including the PMC or MPCB. ritugoyalharish@gmail.com
TGS Marketing Initiative
THE GOLDEN SPARROW ON SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 27, 2014
PUNE
Good news for homebuyers as developers line up festive offers Navratri is considered an auspicious time to invest in property BY BARNALEE HANDIQUE @barnalee The nine-day Navratri festival is considered one of the most auspicious times of the year to invest in real estate. Real estate developers like Vilas Javdekar Developers, The Pinnacle Group, Pride Group and Achalare Realtors have launched their projects. The fi rms are known for their
outstanding work quality housing, with the latest amenities and facilities, thereby providing the best value for money. The Pinnacle Neelanchal township has been planned in three phases. All together there will be 10 residential buildings in the three phases. The first two buildings will come up in the first phase. The phase I of the project consist
of 200, 2-BHK apartments, and will be ready in two and half years. The project has two options; compact and large apartments of 887 sq ft and 1065 sq ft, respectively. For senior citizens there are apartments that are specially designed.
The added attraction of the township is the dense tropical forest of 50,000 sq.ft. Vilas Javdekar Developers’ premium project ‘Portia’, on Baner Road, is a 26-condominium housing plan with two condominiums on each floor. The carpet area is 3,790 and 3900 square feet. The flats will have separate servants quarters. “The entrance lobby at ‘Portia’ will
be fully air-conditioned with Wi-Fi, photocopying machine, printer and fax machine for the residents,” said Aditya Javdekar, CEO and managing director, Vilas Javdekar Developers. The terrace will have a swimming pool with sunken bar, jacuzzi, kids pool, barbeque deck, vista studio and gym. Achalare Realtor’s ‘Honeydew’ residential project at Pirangut will have 142 flats in the fi rst phase with 1 and 2 BHK options in the 2P (2 levels of parking). Each building will have 12 floors and the flats will range between
572 and 825 square feet. The cost of units will be around `25.5 lakh and `37 lakh. The group is also planning residential projects at Wagholi, Moshi, Hinjewadi, Ghotawade and Urawade. Pride Group’s Pride World City (PWC) at Charholi, near Lohegaon airport, will have an integrated megacity with independent infrastructure and ultra-modern facilities and amenities in the midst of an unpolluted environment. barnalee.handique@goldensparrow.com
THE GOLDEN SPARROW ON SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 27, 2014
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“If the business model is not working, banging your head against the wall is not the right thing to do. The best entrepreneurs sniff opportunity and change.” —Samir Kumar, MD, Inventus Capital
Signposts
Bringing a slice of France to Pune ANIRUDDHA RAJANDEKAR
Soft skills for support staff
“In India, as long as the entrepreneur is willing to survive, the company won’t go down.” —Narasimha Suresh, Founder and CEO, TELiBrahma
MCCIA will hold a workshop on ‘Soft Skills for Support Staff’ at Shekhar Natu Conference Room, MCCIA, SB road, Pune from 10 am onwards on September 30. This workshop will employ techniques from Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP). Veenu Shivdasani will be speaking at the programme. For details contact Sandhya Acharya on 25709243
Knowing machine maintenance
Workshop on welding skills
START-UP MENTOR Vishwas Mahajan
On March 23, 2012, Frenchman Brice Poisson and his wife Rohena Gera set up the Sweet Lavender Foods as a limited liability partnership that runs Pune’s first French bakery Bouche D’Or Boulangerie (a mouthful of gold bakery) at Gera Plaza on Boat Club Road. Although 33-yearold Brice trained as a baker in Champagne, France, baking was not his first job. He began as a racing car driver as he wanted to be a mechanic for Formula One. “But I chose baking because it’s more artistic and as a French pastry chef you get to travel around the world,” he said. He came to India as a tourist in 2004 and took a liking for the country. It was in 2007 that he first got to show his baking skills. “Someone I knew was turning 40, I baked something for him and everyone who tried it loved it,” he said. Brice was persuaded to settle in India and set up a café in Mumbai. “Something more on the lines of a typical French style
thing where you host people with food and drinks like having very cordial relationships,” he said about the idea to open a restaurant. Warming up to the idea of setting up a bakery, Brice found that though there were many good places to eat, there was not a single good bakery. After working in Mumbai as a consultant for three years, he shifted base to Pune and decided to set up something ‘small and manageable’, something that he would enjoy doing and fulfil his dream of opening up his own place. Brice opened his second outlet in Aundh in June 2013. “The success of the first bakery was surprising and everyone requested me that I should have one in the city’s western part,” he said. Brice believes in high quality and the idea behind the bakery was to be really genuine – ‘close your eyes and you will be in France without paying for your ticket’. “Let me stay French. I don’t want to disappoint people. They come to the bakery to taste the original flavours and the way it is served there. When I set it
up, I thought I would sell more pastries and less bread but it’s the opposite. The demand for French bread is so much that I have to bake twice in a day,” he said. Brice faced challenges while setting up his bakery. The biggest hurdle was getting the supply chain together. From getting the right kind of machinery, some had to be sourced from France, to planning the whole set up. He points out that there is no real food grade paper in India (it is recycled) and therefore he imports it from Germany. “It’s 100 per cent safe and clean,” he said. Brice had to modify his French recipes as the climate in India is not the same. “I worked on this for three years before opening the bakery. I also sent the ingredients to France to understand the problems I would face, as baking is a science and taken seriously in my country,” he said. Getting the right staff and training them was another challenge to dealt with. Brice speaks in Hindi with employees while switching to English and French to interact with customers. His future plans are simple: expanding the original bakery with more comfortable sitting. “I want to consolidate the store, add more varieties and train my people to serve the people in French style.” prachibari@gmail.com A TGS MARKETING INITIATIVE
Making a difference through social message creatives Brice Poisson opened the second outlet of Bouche D’Or Boulangerie in Aundh last year
Networking, an important skill for entrepreneurs
This feature is a collaboration between The Golden Sparrow on Saturday and The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE), the world’s largest non-profit network of entrepreneurs. For additional questions about your entrepreneurial challenges, write to mentoring@pune.tie.org
I would like to be an entrepreneur but I consider myself a shy or little introvert. What skills should I develop in preparation for my entrepreneurial instint? - Sunil Kakutwar NETWORKING… Depending upon the kind of work you do, being introvert or shy may not necessarily be a limitation. For example, if you are an engineer writing algorithms on your computer or a research scientist, you do things that need not necessarily involve a lot of interaction or collaboration with others. Importance of networking skill for entrepreneurs: However, if you want to become an entrepreneur, networking and interpersonal skills become very important. Entrepreneur creates product or services; starts an enterprise and fi nds users, customers, investors, employees; creates thought leadership and impacts society. As you can see, all the things above have to do with the ability to be extrovert and be a strong networker, so that you can achieve your objectives. WHAT IS NETWORKING: Networking is a skill to create value by forming and maintaining a strong circle of contacts. A solid network serves you very well for years and is the key tool in your tool box during your journey as an entrepreneur. Networking can be both internal and external. Internally within your organisation you can start to be more visible, make yourself available expand your base of co-co-workers meet and talk with a few people and communicate with everyone in regular basis. Even if you are in the job, you can develop your networking skills. However, this become very critical as you follow external networking which is to create and nurture a circle of contacts that are outside of your organisation that will support you for various needs over a period of time. Where can networking be useful? NETWORKING IS USEFUL To fi nd the co-founder or early team members for your venture. As you start your new company or new venture, you have no brand equity. Nobody knows your organisation and it doesn’t attract high-quality people. In this situation, your ability to go back to your circle of friends or coworkers whom you think you can get along and who you have trust and confidence in their capabilities can become a part of your co-founding team or your early employees. They know you as a person and willing to trust, and you have easier access to them to sell your idea.
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BY PRACHI BARI @prachibari
“The demand for French bread is so much that I have to bake twice in a day.”
MCCIA will be holding a workshop on ‘World Class Maintenance Strategies with Predictive and Preventive Maintenance Practices’ on September 30. This event will take place at Navalmal Firodia Hall, MCCIA Trade Tower, SB road from 10 am onwards. Harcharan Singh, a metallurgist, will be main speaker. For details, contact Shriram Joshi on 25709132.
Maharatta Chamber of Commerce, Industries and Agriculture (MCCIA) and Ador Welding Academy will be organising a workshop on ‘Improving Welding Skills and its Cost Benefits’ at Navalmal Firodia Centre for Excellence, MIDC, Bhosari from 3:30 pm on September 29. For details, contact Snigdha Goliwadekar on 27130700.
French pastry chef Brice Poisson’s believes in keeping it simple and authentic
Networking to validate your idea and to secure early customers: Your venture will require people
who will keep faith on you and start doing business with you. These are your early adopter customers. They leverage your technology even when if it not proven and become excellent source of product validation and publicity. However, unless you are in the circle where your customers are, like trade associations or professional bodies; you may not be able to access them easily. Attending regular meetings or professional bodies volunteering in these events can lead to connections with such early potential customers to get your business started sooner. There is nothing important as fi rst few customers of your business. Networking for funding: Many investors 3 tell me that they receive thousands of fund requests. Obviously, they will not be able to look at every proposal that comes. However, if you have nurtured these contacts, you already have a warm entry in this competitive landscape. Investors also tell us that they are more likely to fund people that they know and have seen over the period of time. Networking is an excellent way of make that happen. Networking is not just social media networking: Today, various tools like LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and others make it easy to create and develop network. But, that is not enough as to generate entrepreneur success. Casual network which is not nurtured, for example ‘likes’ on the Facebook page, is not necessarily adequate to give your business. You will have to work harder individually creating these contacts and nurturing them Networking and creating thought leadership: You can contribute knowledge, write blogs train younger people in your chosen area of expertise to establish yourself as a thought leader. Th is type of networking will create a good recall value. When you actually meet your potential customer or your potential employee; he or she has is already been exposed to your persona due to some of the things that you have done. A few tips: When you meet someone exchange the contact information and follow up, maintain the database of contacts. It is quite easy to do that with some tools that are available now. Keep notes so that you don’t have to jog your memory for every single detail. And create a plan to keep in touch with your network in regular basis. In summary, consciously developing networking skill is one great ingredient for success. If there was one skill that you were to develop as you prepare for your entrepreneurial journey, I would say start building your network. Good luck! Vishwas Mahajan, president of TiE Pune Chapter, answers real life questions of entrepreneurs
Dear Readers, The Golden Sparrow on Saturday has invited Pune’s advertising and creative fraternity to participate in
a Social Message Creatives initiative. The Quiksel Communication’s creative is against using cellphone
while driving. The firm is headed by Prakash Bang. The artwork is prepared by the firm’s artist Gaju Petkar.
MISSED CALL You will be hated for missing their calls. But they will be happy to see you alive.
SWITCH OFF WHEN DRIVING Created by Quiksel Communications Missed Call: 16 x 25 cm
THE GOLDEN SPARROW ON SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 27, 2014
Will your portfolio blow up? P 14
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“Growing up in this region, I thought all this was natural. It was only after I came to New Delhi that I realised that the situation was not at all normal. The “war” in Manipur is foreign, but to deny its existence is willful indifference.”
—Binalakshmi Nepram, Founder, Manipuri Women Gun Survivor Network
Maha polls: Sena vs BJP vs Congress vs NCP The four major parties will come face to face in the upcoming Assembly polls, giving voters a chance to vote for their favourite candidates and not the alliance BY MATHEW V NEW DELHI: The public squabbling and the subsequent break-up between the BJP and the Shiv Sena over seatsharing in Maharashtra is a direct outcome of the combine’s heady success in the recently concluded general election in May 2014. The spectacular victory spurred ambitions, most of them justified given the growth and survival needs of political entities, and its cascading effect on the politics of the state is clearly visible – there’s a double divorce; not only have the BJP and Shiv Sena parted ways after 25 years, the NCP-Congress alliance has disintegrated as well. However, the BJP needs to be cautious about its optimism. Issues that influence assembly elections are different from those which impact the outcome of the Lok Sabha elections. The arithmetic and chemistry at play are different in both cases. Unlike the Shiv Sena, which has Uddhav Thackeray as a pan Maharashtra leader, the BJP does not have a leader with a similar appeal. The ‘Modi wave’ which had propelled the NDA to a victory in an unprecedented 42 of the 48 Lok Sabha seats, may be waning now. Moreover, local issues will dominate the voting behaviour. The BJP believes that the upcoming assembly election in October will be a repeat of the general election results. Its leaders perhaps read the signs too early
and decided to rock the boat. The five-cornered contest is a psephologist’s dream and nightmare. The split in the two alliances may also lead to a division of votes. There were many complementarities between the Shiv Sena and the BJP and they were seen as “natural allies”. The Hindutva vote may be split three ways with Raj Thackeray’s MNS playing spoiler in a few seats. Maharashtra has now thrown all poll calculations off track. Traditionally the Congress and then its breakaway faction the NCP has benefitted with Dalits (15%) and Muslims (12%) rallying around them. The numerically significant Marathas (30%) will also back them although recent election trends suggest that the NCP may be getting a higher share of the Maratha vote vis-à-vis the Congress. The Shiv Sena and the MNS also are keen contestants for the votes of the Marathi manoos. The OBC vote at slightly more than 50% is critical as they could swing it in favour of any of the four principal parties in the fray. However, the BJP may walk away with a majority of the OBC vote in these elections if trends in the Lok Sabha are anything to go by. The Hindutva vote will also be split between the BJP and the MNS. The Marathi manoos vote bank will also be split between a belligerent MNS
Maharashtra has now thrown all poll calculations off track
‘If Indians want to meet, they can approach us’ NEW YORK: Regarding prospects of a meeting between Pakistani and Indian officials who are in New York for the 69th session of the UN General Assembly, Pakistan Foreign Secretary Aizaz Ahmed Chaudhry Friday said that if Indians are interested in a meeting, they should approach the Pakistani side. “The onus is on India since it cancelled the foreign secretary-level talks which were scheduled to be held in Islamabad last month in a resumption of the peace dialogue,” Chaudhry said. Pakistan desired peaceful relations in South Asia but after unilateral cancellation of the Pakistan-India talks, the ball is now in New Delhi’s court vis-a-vis revival of the peace process, Chaudhry said. He said officials from the two countries have not had any meeting during a Commonwealth foreign ministers’ conference, Dawn online reported citing Asscoiated Press of Pakistan (APP). He also revealed to journalists during a briefing that Pakistan Prime
Minister Nawaz Sharif would speak about the decades-old Jammu and Kashmir dispute in his address to the UN General Assembly. Islamabad believed, as part of its core policy, that Kashmiris should have the right to self-determination, Chaudhry said. Responding to a question, he said Pakistan has a longstanding policy to engage Kashmiri leaders as part of its consultation process. He said the Kashmir issue could not just be wished away. Chaudhry, who is part of the delegation led by Sharif, said Pakistan was not part of the international coalition being cobbled to fight Islamic State (IS) militants. He said Islamabad has no confirmation that any Pakistani is fighting alongside IS militants in Iraq or Syria. Besides, he said, Prime Minister Sharif was having bilateral meetings with world leaders, including US Vice President Joseph Biden, on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly. IANS
63 per cent youth in Asia have had unsafe sex NEW DELHI: Around 63 per cent of young men and women in Asia aged 16-18 have had unsafe sex, said a survey released Friday on the occasion of World Contraception Day. The survey called the “Youth Love Check” reveals that 63.3 percent of respondents have had sex with a new partner without using contraception. In addition, 37.2 percent of survey respondents - young men and women in Asia - had an unplanned pregnancy in the last few years. The data was collected between Nov 2009 and June 2014 and a total of 13,986 people participated in the study from 35 countries. Among
which 81.1 percent were female and 18.9 percent male, and aged 10-30 years, most respondents between 16-18 years of age. The survey has been released by World Contraception Day (WCD) coalition of eleven organisations dedicated to increase access to family planning services and education, and underline the importance of empowering young people to learn about contraception from reliable sources. The survey also revealed variations in the sources of information most trusted by young people seeking knowledge about contraception. IANS
and a beleaguered Shiv Sena. The BJP will be relieved that it will now be able to openly woo the North Indian vote bank, which had largely stayed away from them due to the strong arm tactics of the Shiv Sena in the past. Mumbai-Thane region, which has a representation of about 60 seats, has a fairly large Gujarati population, which will now openly back the BJP. The Sena may be a loser in the Mumbai region as Gujaratis (20%) may abandon them completely. However, the Shiv Sena may strongly counter attack by playing the regional pride identity. Pan Indian parties like the Congress and the BJP often make the mistake of underestimating the issue of regional pride and the sentiments attached to the son-of-the-soil narrative. The BJP is hoping that prime minister Narendra Modi’s appeal will see them through in the Mumbai-Thane region and in other urban centres of Maharashtra. Voters who were accustomed to vote for the alliances are now unshackled and can now vote for any party them deem will win the elections. Geographically, the Shiv Sena has traditionally been weak in Vidarbha (60 seats) and North Maharashtra (36 seats). The BJP established complete dominance in the Lok Sabha elections in both these regions. The NCP and the Congress are no pushovers here and the seats will be keenly contested. In the Marathwada (48 seats), a traditional Shiv Sena bastion, a three way fight between the NCP, Congress and the Sena appears likely. The BJP is not a strong player in the region. In the sugar belt of western Maharashtra
IN THE
NEWS
(72 seats), the Congress-NCP have traditionally scored a higher tally than the Shiv Sena and the BJP. This region may continue to see fierce fights for control between the NCP and the Congress with the BJP also giving a tough fight in many of these seats especially due to their alliance partners. In Konkan (12 seats) there could be keen contest between all the players. At stake is the future of Konkan strongman Narayan Rane, who will be keen to show his clout after the drubbing his son received in the Lok Sabha elections.
In the Mumbai-Thane-Konkan belt and in a few urban centres, the dark horse may still be Raj Thackeray, who had damaged the prospects of the Shiv Sena-BJP combine in the last assembly elections. He could fight on an aggressive Hindutva card, an antimigrant plank and a strong Marathi manoos platform to fire the imagination of his cadres and supporters. The disintegration of old alliances and new social formations like the Dalit-centric Republican Party of India (RPI), supporting the BJP and farmers’ organisations like Raju
Shetty’s Swabhimaani Shetkari Sanghatana aligning with the BJP could see unexpected outcomes in these upcoming elections. What could be interesting is if there is a last minute tie-up or even a tacit understanding between the NCP and the Shiv Sena, with both fighting on the regional pride plank. The best bet for the Congress is to play up the clean image of the chief minister, Prithviraj Chouhan although very few political observers seem to be giving the party a chance in these elections. Copyright: Firstpost.com
Catch up with major developments in Pune as the week comes to a close
PMC launches dengue eradication week Dengue cases are on the rise and the number of patients is increasing in city hospitals. To eradicate dengue, PMC has started a major week-long drive. In this 11,000 PMC workers are in the field to arrest mosquito breeding and create awareness among citizens. PMC has also approached city schools to participate in this drive. This drive is being implemented at ward office level and the staff have been trained by the PMC health department. Under this drive, the PMC team identifies breeding centres of mosquitoes, checking water storages and under construction sites, and is distributing handbills containing information about dengue. PMC has started a helpline as well. For assistance and queries, citizens can contact 020-25508474.
Slab caved in
A three ft slab of the under construction flyover at Pune–Satara Road collapsed on late Wednesday night. No one was injured in the incident thanks to less traffic on the road. The workers and engineers at the site were fitting the gutter slab when it fell down.
Gokhale award presented “I don’t know who kept his hand on my head. But he really encouraged me to concentrate on my dreams and achieve my goals,” said 14-year-old Vikranti Vijay Ghanekar, from small village of Khandotri in Ratnagiri. Vikranti, a Class VIII student, and 15 other children from
Dacoity at temple premises
Gokhale Awards: Dr Vijay Kelkar (centre) interacting with teenagers
rural areas of the state, were the winners of the competition organised by Pune International Centre (PIC) and Gyan Key Library ‘Namdar Gopal Krishna Gokhale Vichar Spardha’, on the occasion of 100th death anniversary of Namdar Gopal Krishna Gokhale. The winners were facilitated on Wednesday, September 24 at YASHDA. Over 7,000 students participated in the competition. The students were asked to select two topics, from education, water, energy, health and cleanliness, and write about ‘The rural Maharashtra in the thoughts of Namdar Gopal Krishna Gokhale’. Children between the ages of 11 and 16 were eligible for the competition. The participants interacted with veteran scientist Dr Raghunath Mashelkar, veteran economist Dr Vijay Kelkar, city-based businessmen Ravi Pandit, co-founder chairman and Group CEO of KPIT Technologies, Arun Firodia, chairman of Kinetic Group, Satish Magar, managing director Magarpatta Township Development and Construction Company Limited and others. Prashant Girbane, honorary director, PIC and Pradeep Lokhande, director of Gyan-Key Library had organised the competition and hosted the programme.
Rahul Sancheti to assist Sohail Khan as navigator Producer-director and actor Sohail Khan will be competing this year at the 16th Maruti Suzuki Raid de Himalaya, October 3. He will be assisted by Pune’s Rahul Sancheti, who ranks among the top motorsport navigators in the country for TSD rallying. Sancheti, 42, was ranked first in the TSD categories of the 2010 edition of the race and Desert Storm in 2011. The duo will be part of Team Maruti, and will drive a Maruti Gypsy in the adventure category at the Raid. The race will begin from Shimla and competitors will drive on the rocky terrain, to some of the highest motorable roads before finishing at Manali.
A watchman was beaten to death, while two others were injured when dacoits attacked their house located in the premises of Shree Balaji Temple at Wadmukhwadi on Pune-Alandi Road during the early hours of Wednesday. The robbers decamped with gold ornaments worth Rs 5 lakh. The deceased has been identified as Nagesh Pawar (54) of Bhosari, while priest Chiranjilal Trivedi (72), his wife Manorama (65) and another security guard, Tukaram Nimba Kate (54), sustained injuries in the incident. Cops said the looted ornaments included two gold crowns and other jewellery of the temple deity Around Rs 9,000 in cash was also stolen.
Dada JP Vaswani, others honoured The 30th Anniversary Priyadarshini Global Awards held at the Trident Hotel in Mumbai on September 19 was a grand affair. Dada JP Vaswani received the Spiritual Leadership Award, Nita Ambani received the Harish Mahindra Memorial Award and actor Priyanka Chopra received the Smita Patil Memorial Award. Chairperson of the Priyadarshni Academy, Niranjan Hiranandani said that the institution has done commendable service to society. “We have brought great artists to the fore, music, dance, scholarships, education and all this in 30 years. The awardees of the evening are few of these great personalities,” he said.
THE GOLDEN SPARROW ON SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 27, 2014
PUNE
“It is well-established that increasing physical activity and reducing obesity play an important role in reducing the risk of diabetes. Studies show that weight loss surgery benefits overweight patients with type-2 diabetes.” — Dr Arun Prasad, obesity surgeon at Indraprastha Apollo Hospital
Combating cancer with determination, smiles
Cancer survivor Devieka Bhojwani has set up a foundation called the Women’s Cancer Initiative, in partnership with the Tata Memorial Hospital in Mumbai, 10 years ago. Ahead of the third edition of Breast Cancer Survivors Conference to be organised by Nag Foundation on October 4 and October 5, she spoke to Ishani Bose about her experience... For Women’s Cancer Initiative vice president Devieka, life was good and fulfilling, with a loving husband and children and her popular event management company Brite Ideas. Until she discovered that she had cancer.
THE BAD NEWS Accompanying her daughter to a hospital for a check-up prior to her leaving for the US for further studies, Devieka decided to get her first mammogram done as her gynaecologist had advised her to do it after she turned 40. “The X-ray report detected a few microscopic spots on the right breast. The doctor went for another mammogram and noticed the presence of micro calcifications. He said that as the specks were seen close to each other as a cluster, it was advisable to go in for further investigations,” she said, adding that she was referred to an oncologist. THE TREATMENT The oncologist said that a microcalcification can at times be the earliest stages of a tumour and advised its removal to ensure that the cancer did not spread. “On removal, if the biopsy reports showed it to be malignant, the doctor asked for immediate treatment. Much to my shock, it turned out to be malignant and I was advised two months of radiation, and five years of hormonal treatment,” she said. THE TRAUMA AND POSITIVES When Devieka knew she had cancer, her world came crashing down. “I couldn’t breathe. The only time I had a health scare before was when I had my tonsils removed,” she said. She started reading about breast cancer and realised that there were chances she
“We can improve our relationships with others by leaps and bounds if we become encouragers instead of critics.” — Joyce Meyer, author and speaker
The Way Forward With Compassion & Hope
Making life stress free with the P3 mantra Is a problem bothering you and you are unable to decide what to do? Write in to us at wayforward@goldensparrow.com for advice and suggestions from C Ravindranath
P Devieka Bhojwani
Five lessons learnt • Devieka found that women are generally unaware about cancer. • She realised that cancer is not a death sentence. If detected early, it can be cured. • She decided to create awareness among women to get themselves checked at the right time • She believes that women in India possess the potential to fight cancer • She learnt that whatever happens in life, happens for a reason
would have to undergo mastectomy if the disease progressed. “Before I started with the treatment, my biggest fear was of losing my breasts,” she said. Devieka then started looking at things from a different perspective. “Once you change the way you look at things, and this is a potential we all have, things begin to change. I was grateful that the cancer was detected
at an early stage, which meant that a minor lumpectomy would suffice,” she said. During her hospital visits, she found people handling their illnesses and disabilities with immense courage, which motivated Devieka. THE TURNING POINT During the radiation sessions she became friends with radiologist Dr Katie Dinshaw, the then director of Tata Memorial Hospital. “Our conversations would be on the rising cases of women diagnosed with cancers in India and the urgent need for them to take their health more seriously. I took the talk as an opportunity to understand and reach out to other women, who were suffering from breast, cervical and other gynaecological cancers,” she said. They set up Women’s Cancer Initiative in 2003. “We educate women on various cancers. We also organise fund-raising events like Lavasa Car Women Drive and Pinkathon to reach out to those who cannot afford to visit the clinic,” she said. ishani.bose@goldensparrow.com
Understanding the nature of learning disabilities
ause. Prioritise. Pursue. Th is P3 mantra was mentioned by one of my mentors many years ago. Having retrieved it from an obscure corner of my mind, let me present it to you. Who knows – it may even be of use some day! Most of us meander through life aimlessly, wanting to do too many things, having too many desires and interests. Having many interests is good, for it indicates zest for life. However, too many interests often clash with one another, making it difficult to focus on one. When I was a schoolboy, my father one day called me out into the sun and gave me a sheet of paper. “Hold it and let the heat of the sun rays burn it,” he said. I told him the heat was not enough to burn the paper. He smiled at me. “What can you do to make the sun burn the paper?” While I was still pondering over the solution, he took out a magnifying glass from his pocket. I got the idea and quickly burned a few holes in the paper.
“What did you learn?” After some thought, I answered, “The sun rays get focused on a spot and therefore burns the paper.” “Right,” he said. “Because they were spread over a larger area, they did not have the power to burn the paper, but once all the energy was concentrated on a smaller area, the intensity increased and the same energy burnt holes in the paper. “That’s how it is with life too,” he added. You can either be a ‘Jack of all trades and master of none’ or be a specialist in your chosen field. It is up to you to decide what you want to be.” At that time, it was just a logical, academic bit of information. I applied it later when I had to juggle my time between my job, my home chores that included looking after three young kids of my uncle who was posted in a nonfamily station then and studying for my B.A. that I had decided to do externally. It was tough. I cut myself off from friends. I stopped going to movies. I refrained from playing football.
I rotated between three points – job, home and studies. After a few months of this, I appeared for all 11 papers in one go (against the advice of my friends who wanted me to take a drop in some papers and appear for them later) and got through. I did not get a fi rst class but I did not do too badly either. I had learnt my lesson to focus and prioritize. Small events and occurrences often play significant roles in our lives, many times without our even being conscious of them. What event will act as the stimulus or provide impetus to our lives is unpredictable. Maybe some of you might find this column interesting and useful and benefit from it. In writing these words, I feel like the farmer who scatters seeds on his field. Some fall on fertile soil, germinate and become plants. Some seeds fall on stones and produce nothing. Just because some seeds fall on infertile ground, does the farmer stop scattering seeds?
FOR THE
THRILL OF DRIVING
Dyscalculia and dysgraphia are unknown to people and seen as shortcomings in a kid’s IQ. Psychologist Salma Prabhu’s counselling centre treats these disabilities BY YASH DAIV @yash009 Academy for Counselling and Education (ACE) advocates students with learning disabilities like dyscalculia and dysgraphia. ACE director Salma Prabhu wishes to g e n e r a t e awareness about these disorders to protect the children from social trauma. Salma Prabhu Ten per cent of schoolgoing children suffer from a varying scale of learning disabilities. Majority of these go undetected, even something as well known as dyslexia. “The teachers are the first people who need to inform parents when they see a gap between the age of the child and his performance. They need to be aware of the basic primary symptoms of dyscalculia and dysgraphia. They just complain to parents who either force their child into overwriting and over practicing of math, or put them into tuitions, which further reduces the level of interest,” said Prabhu. Along with teachers, she thinks it is the parent’s responsibility to address the problem. There are tell-tale signs to detect this disorder. Firstly, the handwriting
is shabby, the books are incomplete, homework is avoided, there are spelling mistakes, mirror images, omitting of words or sentences. These kids tend to have good oral presentation skills. ACE has the facility to run proper tests for these disabilities. The systematic screening procedure includes a checklist followed by confi rming the IQ of the child. Lower IQ would mean that it is not dyscalculia or dysgraphia but an existence of developmental disorders. The next step includes specific tests which would exactly give the gap analysis between the current grade and the actual grade comfort the child is having. “These test results help to prepare an Individual Education Programme (IEP) to help the child fi ll the gap. There are also tests of checking if there is any organic brain damage due to a head injury or birth trauma,” she said. IEP is a unique methodology which brings about complete integration of the child to the mainstream from six months to two years depending on the severity. The therapy includes helping the child develop academic concepts, confidence building, yoga and meditation, group activities, developing the right and the left brain, parent and teacher counselling, group therapy to develop social skills, occupational therapy to develop fine motor skills. Along with the therapy parents are encouraged to get their child through audiometry, vision tests and vitamin tests.
Salma Prabhu’s organisation has conducted free seminars for teachers and parents across Mumbai and Pune. “These disorders will only be recognised when they are acknowledged. The medical professionals have no clue especially the paediatrician or the child specialist who often tells the parents that the child will be fine. Everyone waits till the disorder goes to the extreme level,” she said. yashdaiv@gmail.com
What is dyscalculia? Dyscalculia is difficulty in learning or comprehending arithmetic, such as difficulty in understanding numbers, learning how to manipulate numbers, and learning facts in Mathematics. It is generally seen as a specific developmental disorder like dyslexia.
What is dysgraphia? Dysgraphia is a deficiency in the ability to write, primarily in terms of handwriting, but also in terms of coherence. Dysgraphia is a transcription disability, meaning that it is a writing disorder associated with impaired handwriting, the storing process of written words, processing the letters in those words and finger sequencing (the movement of muscles required to write).
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TH E EDIT PAGE Elections belong to the people. It’s their decision. If they decide to turn their back on the fire and burn their behinds, then they will just have to sit on their blisters.” - Abraham Lincoln
THE GOLDEN SPARROW ON SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 27, 2014
PUNE
Editor’s pick
MAHA POLLS, 2014
To each his own
The state assembly elections in Maharashtra next month will prove to be one of the most dramatic political events after the Lok Sabha polls in May which catapulted Narendra Modi to the prime minister’s post. As during the previous elections, this time too there was much bickering between the traditional allies and fronts comprising the ruling Congress-NCP and the Shiv Sena – BJP. There was jockeying for more seats than the other, hard bargaining for a better deal than the previous polls and demands made on each other that were seen as unreasonable by the competing alliance partner. The pre-poll alliance t a l k s would have reached a settlement with some pluses and minuses on all sides, but for the fact that this time round what was at play was the M-factor or the Modi factor. If it was Narendra M o d i ’ s leadership at the BJP that saw it capture power at the centre, it was this very factor that was seen as a sure shot winning card for the BJP in Maharashtra. Thus, the BJP did not feel it necessary to give in to the demands of the Shiv Sena for 151 seats and also concede the chief minister’s post. Likewise with the NCP – Congress, all eyes were on the talks between the BJP and the Shiv Sena to ascertain whether the two parties were going their different ways or ironing out their differences. Within hours of the split being announced between the BJP and the Sena, the NCP was not far behind in announcing the end of its alliance with the Congress. The new assertiveness in all the major political parties of Maharashtra is the result of the Narendra Modi wave that has swept the country in the Lok Sabha polls. Although the recent assembly elections in UP, Gujarat and Rajasthan saw some reversals for the BJP, the fact remains that when it comes to Maharashtra, the BJP is hopeful of making substantial gains with the promise of a Modi-style governance. The BJP leaders rightly felt that the time was ripe for them to stake claim to the top position of power in the state and therefore saw no reason to give in to their erstwhile alliance partner, the Shiv Sena. The assertiveness on the part of the Sena was partly because it did not want to lose out on its advantages in the anti-incumbency sentiment in the state that has been rather strong this time round. Added to this factor is the speculation that the Sena would do naturally better than the previous polls and could receive support from
“unexpected” quarters catapulting it to the seat of power. With the Congress at its weakest over the last 15 years, the NCP too did not want to budge and was clearly waiting for the BJP-Sena alliance to break before snapping its own ties with the Congress. Each party, thus sees an opportunity in improving its stakes for power with a new set of permutations and combinations after the election results in mid-October. What is on display before the people of Maharashtra is this mad scramble for power more than anything else. Although the break-up of the alliances means an end to the joint
Cartoon by: Vaijnath Dulange
Modi’s defence of Muslims - a little too late? BY AMULYA GANGULI
programmes and promises made to the people of the state, there is a brighter side to this development. Each party and in a sense, each candidate will now be on their own, giving the people an opportunity to elect candidates on their merit. While the BJP has a clear advantage in view of the popularity that Modi has been able to generate with his leadership qualities and promises of good governance, a number of surprises await those who are set to contest the polls. With each political party now forced to put up candidates for the maximum number of seats to try and secure the half-way mark of 144 on its own, the people will get an opportunity to see whether corrupt and criminal elements will continue to be favoured by political parties in their lust for power. Rattled by land deals, irrigation scams and poor governance, Maharashtra has been desperate for reforms, result-oriented policies, good leadership and good governance. The state has been blessed in many ways, primarily because of its commercial and industrial activities; but this has not seen translate into developmental initiatives for the backward regions of the state, especially in Vidarbha and Marathwada. As during the Lok Sabha elections, the people of Maharashtra are desperate for an overhaul of the system and a turnaround from the past where good governance becomes the dominant sentiment. The existing alliances had lost their relevance and their breakup ought to be welcomed rather than mourned. Maharashtra now has a fresh opportunity to make a new beginning in the right direction and it is the people of Maharashtra who will exercise a fi nal say in the matter as they cast their vote in the forthcoming assembly polls next month.
What is on display before the people of Maharashtra is this mad scramble for power
Vol-1* lssue No.: 15 Printed and Published by: PRI – Media Services Private Limited CIN: U22222MH2012PTC232006 on behalf of Golden Sparrow Publishing Pvt. Ltd. CIN:U22200PN2014PTC151382 Printed at Diligent Media Corporation Ltd., Plot No. EL-201, TTC Industrial Area, MIDC, Mahape, Navi Mumbai. Published at Golden Sparrow Publishing Pvt. Ltd. 1641, Madhav Heritage, Tilak Road, Pune-411 030, Tel: 020-2432 4332/33. Editor: Abhay Vaidya (Responsible for the selection of news under the PRB Act, 1867)
Considering some of the recent statements of the saff ron netizens and the actions threatened by Hindutva outfits, it can seem that the hardliners have learnt nothing from the setbacks suffered by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the recent by-elections. Except for winning an assembly seat in West Bengal, presumably as a result of chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s travails caused by the chit fund scam, the BJP has lost ground to the Samajwadi Party (SP) in UP and to the Congress in Rajasthan, the two states where the BJP had done so well only a few months ago. Even in the BJP’s supposed bastion of Gujarat, the Congress has managed to wrest three seats from the ruling party. What these results show is that there is no final word in politics. It is possible for an apparently overpowering political tide to retreat, and for parties like the Congress and the SP, which appeared to be down and out, to make a comeback, perhaps to their own surprise. The Congress will be delighted because it has shown that despite the bickering at the top between what Rahul Gandhi calls “multiple voices”, there is still life in the 128-yearold party. Evidently, at the ground level, the party does have leaders and followers who can benefit from the BJP’s missteps. The SP’s rejuvenation, too, will be a matter of considerable satisfaction to the party considering how its poor record of governance under a young and inexperienced chief minister has long been held against it. Yet, if the voters have chosen to forgive him, the reason probably is the BJP’s and the Sangh parivar’s fl irting with a communal agenda which held up the unnerving prospect of continuing tension and violence. However, the saff ron activists do
not seem to care whether their divisive tactics will add to the BJP’s discomfort. As much is clear from the Vishwa Hindu Parishad’s (VHP) decision to play the so-called “love jehad” card during the run-up to the Maharashtra elections although the Shiv Sena has been emboldened by its ally’s problems to drive a hard bargain in the matter of seat-sharing. Besides, the VHP’s decision fl ies in the face of the fact that there is apparently no unanimity in the
There is little doubt that much of the confusion has arisen because the prime minister has taken an unconscionably long time to react to the party’s and the parivar’s venomous utterances. And, when he finally spoke his mind, it was primarily to an international audience via the CNN. Although the Indian media lost no time to pick up the key points in his interview, one has to wait and see how the hotheads respond to Modi’s praise for the Indian Muslim, who has
been belied. The increase in the growth rate to 5.7 per cent after two years of stagnation in the twilight period of the Manmohan Singh government, and the announcements of large inflows of foreign funds, have aroused middle class hopes. But, it is also patent enough that the investments will not fructify in an atmosphere of communal bitterness. Unless the hardliners are reined in, the BJP’s electoral prospects will
Hindutva camp about the utility of the provocative campaign. For instance, while a BJP netizen has said that the lives of thousands of Hindu girls have been “ruined” by love jehad, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh feigned ignorance about the very term. Clearly, these confl icting views are being expressed because the BJP has been unable to make up its mind on the line it wants to follow - whether that of development, as desired by Narendra Modi, or of advancing towards the goal of a Hindu rashtra (nation). It is this dithering which is largely responsible for its poor electoral showing.
long been the bête noire of the saff ron brotherhood. There is little doubt, however, that if he had spoken a few months earlier, the BJP would have been spared the electoral setbacks which started in Uttarakhand in July, continued in Bihar in August and have now hit the party in UP, Rajasthan and Gujarat. It isn’t only the inherent communal slant of the parivar which have let down the BJP. What has also undermined its prospects is a sense of disillusionment among the PM’s supporters, whose expectation that the promised achhe din or good days are in the offing have
remain dim. Already, the unpropitious signs are visible. For instance, the setbacks are likely to prevent the BJP from trying to supplant the Shiv Sena to become the fi rst party in the saff ron alliance in Maharashtra with a claim to the chief minister’s post. Although the Shiv Sena-BJP combine is likely to win, it will not be as comfortable a victory as the two may have earlier believed because even the fractious Congress-Nationalist Congress Party alliance has undoubtedly received a boost from the by-election results. Indo-Asian News Service
Be anchored in now
BY ANIL K RAJVANSHI
place. Th is is the power of “now” since nature takes time and effort to remain Most of the time we worry about anchored in that time frame. In case it events both past and likely to happen cannot come in equilibrium with the in future and have anxiety about them. given time it branches later on into the Th is is the nature of the mind since it path which can do so. either thinks about the future or about There is a great lesson for us in the memories of the past. this. If we get anchored in “now” then I feel that happiness and peace of by coming in equilibrium with all the mind can come if we are anchored in forces around us we resolve the confl ict “now”. and can live sustainable and happy “Now” is very difficult to define lives. because by the time we get down The saying “We will cross the to it is already in the past! Even, bridges when we reach them”, is apt for Einstein, who was the high priest of this situation. It helps us to concentrate time, it remarked that we do on the work in hand and hence not understood “now”. He said allows us to be anchored in we understand both future and “now”. past, but it is very difficult to If we focus on “now” then grasp “now”. Thus for practical automatically the correct path purposes “now” can be defined is shown by nature. Even if as work in hand and living on we make a mistake (by not day to day basis! allowing all the forces to come Many people feel that we into equilibrium) then when we need to think about the future the bridge we can make a THINK reach also, since most of us live on decision to either cross it or not. hope. There is nothing wrong with it The reason why the power of except this “hope thinking” should “now” shows us the correct path is occupy a small fraction of our time and because it gives us the ability to grasp the major portion of our efforts should the opportunities that come our way. be given to “now”. Th is happens since the direction of Being anchored in “now” is how further progress becomes evident as nature evolves. It comes in equilibrium all other eventualities are exhausted in with all the forces at a given time and being anchored in “now”. It also makes then the next evolutionary step takes us aware of the path because when we
delve deeply in the work at hand it enlightens us and gives us better sight! The ability to anchor in “now” also prevents us from dwelling on any negative events of the past. Thus the cycle of bad memories and their consequences is forgotten or resolved. Th is is the genesis of peace of mind and happiness. Nevertheless it is difficult to remain anchored in the present because the brain keeps on either dwelling on the past memories or keeps on making movies for the future. The brain is a dynamic entity and hence the energy goes in continuous production of thoughts. Th is is how brain chatter takes place. The only way to stop this chatter and be anchored in “now” is to focus on the work in hand or a single thought for a long time. Th is is the basis of Sanyam of Patanjali Yoga darshan. When we get anchored in “now” through Sanyam then it allows our brains to function optimally and helps us to see the opportunities present at that time. Thus the whole basis of Yoga is to be anchored in now! © Anil K Rajvanshi The writer is director, Nimbkar Agricultural Research Institute, Phaltan, Maharashtra. He may be reached at anilrajvanshi@gmail.com
Limericks of the week BY C RAVINDRANATH
Increasing wage-price gap Potential resources to tap But it’s more important To rave and rant Over mistakes in a map. Politicians are very caring When it comes to seat sharing While they shout The jury’s out To decide who they’re ensnaring. News channel rating Is based on berating He who shouts more Comes to the fore It’s all so frustrating!
THE GOLDEN SPARROW ON SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 27, 2014
PUNE
Shooters brighten up India’s day P 15
“This is pride of India and pride of Asia and also is a landmark progress in humankind’s exploration of outer space. So we congratulate India on that.” —Hua Chunying, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson, on India’s successful Mars Mission
The positive results of stem cell therapy trials
Edgar Irastorza, who had stem cells injected into his heart after a major heart attack, was break-dancing again a few years after the procedure
Japanese researcher Shinya Yamanaka, who later won a Nobel Prize, discovered a way to turn adult cells back into stem cells. Today, scientists still use embryonic stem cells, which are considered the standard against which other stem cells are measured. But the field is much less dependent on them. Using cells created from patients with specific ailments, it’s possible to reproduce and study diseases in a dish. Kevin Eggan, also with the Harvard Stem Cell Institute, uses the technique to study amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or Lou Gehrig’s disease. Five years ago, he took skin cells from two women dying from the same genetic form of ALS. He turned these skin cells into stem cells and then into nerve cells, and noticed an electrical problem: The cells were not signaling to one another properly, which was probably
A movable feast best left behind
With robbers targetting more Chinese tourists in Paris, the popularity of this dream destination is losing its charm
PARIS: Before arriving in the French capital, Wu Shuyun, a 56-year-old Chinese housewife, imagined Paris to be like a pristine film set for a romantic love story, picturing herself as a glamorous princess surrounded by elegant Parisians, decked out, perhaps, in Chanel. Instead, Wu from Kunming in southwest China, said she was shocked by the cigarette butts and dog manure, the rude insouciance of the locals and the gratuitous public displays of affection. Though friends had warned her about thieves targeting Chinese people, she said she was nevertheless surprised when a member of her tour group was mugged on a packed Metro car, as other riders watched. “For the Chinese, France has always been romantic, mysterious and desirable. We have been told that ‘God lives in France,’” she said recently after a two-week tour that included stops at the Eiffel Tower and Galeries Lafayette, an imposing, upscale department store with stained-glass domes where tour buses stop hourly to deposit tourists for marathon shopping sessions. “Once I realised that the Parisians were indifferent, I made the decision: Try to make the most of this trip, but never come back to Paris again.” A growing number of Chinese tourists in Paris - armed with wads of cash, typically unable to speak French and still somewhat naïve about the ways of the West after decades of China’s relative isolation are falling victim to their unrealistic expectations of the city, while also being victimised by brazen thieves who target them because they are easily identifiable as Asian, Chinese tourism industry officials here say. Alarm that Chinese tourists are
Marlene Awaad / The New York Times
DAN BILEFSKY
A growing number of Chinese tourists are falling victim to their unrealistic expectations of Paris
at risk from bandits is so acute that the Chinese government recently considered sending police officers to Paris to help protect them. Paris tourism officials said the proposal was shelved amid concerns over how they would operate. The French capital — celebrated for its beauty, culture and savoir faire — still retains huge allure, making it the number 1 destination in Europe for China’s burgeoning middle class and growing legion of millionaires, according to the European Federation of Chinese Tourism. Nearly 1 million Chinese tourists came to Paris last year, according to the Paris Tourism Office, spending more than 1 billion euros on everything from Cartier watches to Michelin-starred restaurants, and outspending both Japanese and Americans on shopping. Now, however, Paris’ glittering image in China is losing
its luster amid reports of robberies of Chinese tourists, according to Chinese newspapers and social media. A group of 75 French luxury brands, including Louis Vuitton, Chanel and Hermès, warned last year that highspending Chinese tourists fearful for their safety could choose to go to Italy or Britain instead. Concerns about the consequences for the country’s vaunted tourism industry have intensified as the French economy has stagnated. According to the Parisbased European Federation of Chinese Tourism, which represents 30 travel agencies catering to Chinese tourists, the number of group tours coming to the
For the Chinese, France has always been romantic, mysterious & desirable
French capital has fallen 20 per cent so far this year compared with 2013. Chinese nerves were already frayed after a group of 23 Chinese tourists on a tour of Europe were attacked in March of last year in the gritty northern suburbs of Paris just hours after they landed at Charles de Gaulle Airport. The group leader was injured, and the thieves fled with 7,500 euros - about $9,600 passports and plane tickets. After six Chinese students studying winemaking were mugged in Bordeaux three months later, Beijing demanded that the French government take action. Pierre Shi, secretary general of the European Federation of Chinese Tourism, said Chinese visitors were being preyed upon because they were known to carry large amounts of cash to avoid paying multiple currency exchange fees. Bargainseeking Chinese tour operators were also booking hotels in Paris’ northern suburbs. “Chinese tourists are attracted to Paris by the glamour, by the desire to buy designer brands, by an image of France as a country of philosophers and revolution,” said Shi, who runs his own travel agency, ID Travel Pro. “But now, they are afraid to come. Before, they wouldn’t think twice.” Psychologists warned that Chinese tourists shaken by thieves and dashed expectations were at risk for Paris Syndrome, a condition during which foreigners suffer depression, anxiety, feelings of persecution and even hallucinations when their rosy images of Champagne, majestic architecture and Monet are upended by the stresses of a city whose natives are also known for being among the unhappiest people on the planet. © 2014 New York Times News Service
causing the neural degeneration that characterizes ALS. He replicated these nerve cells thousands of times and then tested thousands of drug compounds to see which would correct the electrical signaling problem. He found a candidate drug - an existing medication approved for epilepsy - that will be tested in ALS patients as soon as the end of this year. To be sure, a neuron in a dish is a far simpler thing than a disease in humans, with our many trillions of cells and interwoven systems. “Part of the study is to now see whether the drug we discovered changes the same electrical problem in the intact patient” as it does in a nerve cell in a dish, Eggan said. Scientists presumed, for instance, that a patient’s heart would repair itself better when injected with its own
stem cells. But the study that Irastorza volunteered for at the University of Miami showed that patients fared just as well with someone else’s stem cells, and their bodies did not mount an immune attack against the cells. If supported by further studies, this means that future patients won’t need immune suppressants, and that stem cells can be made in large batches - and therefore more cheaply. “That’s incredibly important, because that means off-the-shelf therapy is possible,” said Joshua Hare, founding director of the University of Miami’s Interdisciplinary Stem Cell Institute, who led the research trial. Treatment for Irastorza, who received his own cells, began with the withdrawing of some of his bone marrow. Researchers took adult cells believed to be stem cells from the marrow and then inserted them through a catheter directly into Irastorza’s heart. About a third of his left ventricle had been destroyed by his heart attack, which was attributed to a hereditary cholesterol problem. It’s impossible to know for sure whether the bone marrow cells’ descendants became heart muscle cells or if repairs were spurred some other way, but today, his doctors tell him his heart is one-third of the way back to normal. Why, then, are there not more success stories, given all the money poured into stem cell research? “Progress comes in fits and starts,” said Scadden, of the Harvard Stem Cell Institute, comparing the halting advances in the field to the “war on cancer” declared in 1971. “No one would say it has fully delivered, but many thousands are alive today because of it and the smallerscale, very real triumphs along the way. And those triumphs increase with every year,” he said. Using stem cells to routinely treat disease “will take time, but when we look back 20 years from now, I think medicine and human health will be transformed by it.” © 2014 New York Times News Service
Women outnumber men!
London: In developments which could lead to books on human evolutionary history being rewritten, new DNA analysis has found that women outnumbered men throughout humanity. Studying DNA samples of 623 males from 51 populations around the world, researchers took the DNA samples from each male and compared the paternally inherited Y chromosome (NRY) with mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA), passed by mothers to their children. The genetic findings offered evidence of polygyny - when one man has many wives, Live Science reported. These
practices resulted in females making a larger genetic contribution to the global population than males did. Females migrated more than males did, spreading their female mitochondrial DNA far and wide and reducing genetic variability between populations. “For much of human history, a greater proportion of women in the population reproduced relative to men,” explained lead researcher Mark Stoneking, a professor from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Germany. The paper appeared in the journal Investigative Genetics.
With this issue
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Fresh faces
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In the issue ON TH EI N
podiatrists promising better bunion care, dermatologists offering smoother skin or overseas medical spas peddling miracle cures are doing anything but putting patients at risk. “Nothing other than people’s skepticism can protect them” from the misuse of science, said Dr David Scadden, a co-director of the Harvard Stem Cell Institute and an oncologist at Massachusetts General Hospital. “That’s true for any emerging technology of great potential; it will have its dark side.” In 2001, US President George W Bush prohibited the use of federal research funds to create new embryonic stem cell lines. At the time, destroying embryos was the only viable way to create stem cells, stimulating vigorous debate about the ethics of developing treatments with them. In 2006, the
ON TH ER E
In 2006, the Japanese researcher Shinya Yamanaka discovered a way to turn adult cells back into stem cells
HRILL OF DR ET IV H I T
Edgar Irastorza was just 31 when his heart stopped beating in October 2008. A Miami property manager, breakdancer and former high school wrestler, Irastorza had recently gained weight as his wife’s third pregnancy progressed. “I kind of got pregnant, too,” he said. During a workout one day, he felt short of breath and insisted that friends rush him to the hospital. Minutes later, his pulse flat-lined. He survived the heart attack, but the scar tissue that resulted cut his heart’s pumping ability by a third. He couldn’t pick up his children. He couldn’t dance. He fell asleep every night wondering if he would wake up in the morning. Desperation motivated Irastorza to volunteer for a highly unusual medical research trial: getting stem cells injected directly into his heart. “I just trusted my doctors and the science behind it, and said, ‘This is my only chance,’” he said recently. Over the last five years, by studying stem cells in lab dishes, test animals and intrepid patients like Irastorza, researchers have brought the vague, grandiose promises of stem cell therapies closer to reality. Stem cells broke into the public consciousness in the early 1990s, alluring for their potential to help the body beat back diseases of degeneration like Alzheimer’s, and to grow new parts to treat conditions like spinal cord injuries. Progress has been slow. The Michael J Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s
Research, an early supporter of stem cell research, pulled much of its financial backing two years ago, saying that it preferred to invest in research that was closer to providing immediate help for Parkinson’s disease patients. But researchers have been slowly learning how to best use stem cells, what types to use and how to deliver them to the body — findings that are not singularly transformational, but progressive and pragmatic. As many as 4,500 clinical trials involving stem cells are underway in the United States to treat patients with heart disease, blindness, Parkinson’s, HIV, diabetes, blood cancers and spinal cord injuries, among other conditions. Initial studies suggest that stem cell therapy can be delivered safely, said Dr. Ellen Feigal, senior vice president of research and development at the California Institute of Regenerative Medicine, the state stem cell agency, which has awarded more than $2 billion toward stem cell research since 2006 and is enrolling patients in 10 clinical trials this year. But enthusiasm for stem cells sometimes outstrips the science. When Governor Rick Perry of Texas had adult stem cells injected into his spine in 2011 for a back injury, his surgeon had never tried the procedure and had no data to support the experiment. A June review in The New England Journal of Medicine found that “platelet-rich plasma” stem cell therapies praised by a number of athletes worked no better than placebos. And there is no evidence that
ON
KAREN WEINTRAUB
Max Reed/The New York Times
As many as 4,500 clinical trials involving stem cells are underway in the United States
Fails to take off
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Tasty treats
MONEY MATT ER S “With euphoria around the newly-elected Modi government, even hardcore NRI investors have started looking at Indian markets.” —Gaurav Gupta, director, Omkar Realtors and Developers
Signposts Insurance sector needs over `50,000 crore capital: IRDA Indian insurance industry needs huge capital infusion of over Rs.50,000 crore ($8 billion) and foreign direct investment (FDI) can make things easy, its regulator said Friday. Insurance Regulatory Development Authority (IRDA) chairman T.S. Vijayan said the regulator welcomes any type of capital infusion. “If foreign capital is increased, it will be easier flow of capital than all put together by Indians. We are not saying FDI has to come. Capital is required and Indians may not have that much ability to put all the capital,” he told reporters.
Sensex tanks 168 points; auto stocks plunge A benchmark index of Indian equities markets Friday was trading 167.60 points or 0.63 percent down as auto stocks tanked. Selling pressure was seen in auto, consumer durables and banking sectors, while some good buying was observed in healthcare sector. The 30-scrip Sensitive Index (Sensex) of the S&P Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), which opened at 26,429.30 points, was trading at 26,300.76 points (at 12.31 p.m.), down 167.60 points or 0.63 percent from the previous day’s close at 26,468.36 points.
Maruti Suzuki: India can become largest car manufacturer Automobile major Maruti Suzuki Thursday said the country has the potential of becoming the largest car manufacturer in the world. The company’s view coincided with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s new campaign ‘Make in India.’ “We are fully confident that, under the Make in India programme of the Prime Minister, factors that adversely affect the competitiveness of manufacturing will now be removed quickly,” said Kenichi Ayukawa, managing director and chief executive, Maruti Suzuki.
1. Do they have durable competitive advantage? Is it the kind of company that is hard to compete with, either because it has cornered a difficult market or because competing with it would require an unreasonably high investment by others? 2. What is the purchase value of the company relative to its free cash flow? If someone were to come in and buy the entire company, would the free cash flow being generated be well in excess of simply investing in a 10-year Treasury bond? After all, the cash flow on a 10-year Treasury bond is said to be ‘risk-free’ while the free cash flow from a company is not without risk. 3. What is the return on invested capital of the company?
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“PM Modi’s ‘Make in India’ endeavour is a ‘lion step’ that has the potential to change India’s economic future. — Harsh Pati Singhania, director, JK Organisation
Scary anecdotal evidence, poor performance, opaque disclosure standards and candid responses to an online survey — all show that portfolio management schemes, aggressively pushed by brokers and banksters, are weapons of wealth destruction. Moneylife brings you a detailed analysis DEBASHIS BASU & JASON MONTEIRO Portfolio management services (PMSs) have a strange lure. Run mostly by banks, broking companies and mutual funds, PMSs promise to manage your portfolio of investments more smartly. A singledigit return from bank fi xed deposits and investment in equity mutual funds through SIPs (systematic investment plans) is for the dumb masses. The smart-affluent deserve their money to be invested by select market experts, the portfolio managers, who know what and when to buy and sell. They run your money in and out of stocks or mutual funds or commodities and, often, exotic structured products and derivatives. Of course, you need to pay fat fees for their skills. That is the sales pitch. We did two things: One, dug for performance data, fighting with the market regulator with Right to Information (RTI) Act, in the process. Two, conducted an online survey for actual customer experiences. Here is what we have found about the vaunted PMS skills of banks, brokers and mutual funds. PERFORMANCE DATA While customers walk into PMS believing in the prowess of portfolio managers, persuaded by aggressive brokers and bank relationship managers, reported data and cries of complaints from investors tell a different story. The returns are average-to-poor. How do we know? For months, we hunted for PMS data, believing that a database of returns across PMS would give us a bird’s eye view of the returns, the good and the bad—exactly the way our mutual fund industry does. Well, there is no such database. The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), regulates the PMS. Maninder Cheema, who until recently oversaw PMS at SEBI, told us that companies offering PMS are supposed to disclose their performance. They don’t. SEBI has ensured that disclosure of PMS is pathetic. Moneylife used RTI to force
and -14.62% in FY11-12 and -41.26% and -27.50% in FY10-11. This data covers only the portfolio management companies that have disclosed their data. A vast majority of asset managers have not. If portfolio managers’ performance was good, would they hesitate to provide the data in the public domain? Is poor performance the reason many asset managers do not put up their PMS document in the public domain?
SEBI to start disclosing some data about PMS. Once this data started appearing on SEBI’s excruciatingly slow website, we painstakingly started to download this data. Out of a total of 253 PMS companies, we fi ltered the data for only those which have more than an average of Rs10 crore of discretionary assets under management (AUM). There were only 46 companies which fit the bill. We decided to look up the websites of the selected 46 companies, out of which 20 companies had placed their disclosure documents on their websites. We then contacted the remaining to send us the data. Nine of them did. This means that out of the 46 companies from our sample, 29 had their risk documents uploaded or sent the documents to us on request. Among the 17 that have still not put up their disclosure document online, are: HDFC Asset Management Company, Alchemy Capital Management and Avendus PE Investment Advisors. From these documents, we pulled out the performance data of the PMSs
Is the company using its money wisely to create returns below its cost of capital? It is using its money well
to create returns, or is it taking o n bad investments that don’t pay off. 4. Can it pay off its long-term debt quickly? There are several companies that are making a lot of money, but should revenues stall or decelerate, could their long-term debt be paid off within a short period with free cash flow? Wiley claims to have spent years refining the principles behind this— back-testing data and putting his own money on it; the results have been impressive. He asserts that his clients— those willing to take a slightly different approach to investing their requirement dollars—have never been happier.
and their benchmark performance. Here again, the schemes followed different formats of the disclosure documents which, again, makes it difficult to compile and analyse the data. As per SEBI’s circular, portfolio managers are mandated to disclose the performance over the past three financial years. Since the periods of performance varied for different PMS companies and, since all of them have different strategies, we compared the performance of the schemes to their given benchmarks. We had a list of 107 schemes from the 26 PMS companies with performance data of FY11 onwards. In our analysis, we came across schemes with fancy names such as Emkays Prodigy Portfolio, HSBC Alpha Account Strategic Portfolio, Motilal Oswal Blue Chip Prodigy Investment Strategy, Reliance Royale, etc. These are just a few names, but the performance of these schemes compared to their benchmark has been really poor. Schemes such as K Energetic and K Sensible (of Karvy Stock Broking) have delivered returns as poor as -32.49%
“As per SEBI, portfolio managers are mandated to disclose the performance over the past three financial years”
An interesting formula that helps to buy stocks when they are down
There is a variety of ways to make money from shares. But, over time, it has become clear that all successful investing is based on accepting one essential feature of the markets: it is impossible to know what will happen to the price of a stock in future. From this understanding flow multiple trading and investing strategies. One of them is buy-low, sell-high. While this is one of the most popular and oft-repeated investment maxims, how does one define what is ‘low’? Luke Wiley suggests a simple formula. Look for stocks that have hit 52-week lows and judge them on four basic questions:
SEPTEMBER 27, 2014
Will your portfolio blow up?
‘The 52-week low formula’ BY DEBASHIS BASU
THE GOLDEN SPARROW ON SATURDAY
SEBI to soon notify norms for REITs MONEYLIFE DIGITAL TEAM
The 52-week low formula is based on the idea that even the best companies go through problems when their stock value heads down. This leads you to investing in a good business trading at an attractive valuation. You are buying into a company that is out of favour with the investing public and Wall Street analysts. Of course, you don’t just buy any company, trading close to its 52-week low. You have to always keep an eye on the first part of the investment approach: good quality business (that is temporarily out of favour with the market). The idea is to bet on something afflicted with a mild infection rather than a terminal disease. Buying 52-week low strategy is a clever way to take two important steps while buying stocks: narrow down a wide universe of stocks and remove behavioural bias. “It narrows down the wide world of possibility when it comes to investing by starting with an end goal—outperforming the market, with less downside risk-and working backwards. It is a logic-based, disciplined approach to narrowing down the 3,000 publicly traded companies in the market to the 25 that represent the best opportunities for creating real value in the coming months,” writes Wiley. I believe this facet of the approach (helping to deal with behavioural biases) makes it one of the best I have come across. The 52-week low approach helps you remove your biases more easily. Definitely worth applying. @moneylife
New norms will enable listing and trading of Real Estate Investment Trusts -REITs as any other security on the stock exchange Market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) said it will soon notify norms for creation and listing of business trusts to help attract greater foreign and domestic investments into real estate. Addressing a conference organised by Assocham in New Delhi, SEBI’s Executive Director Ananta Barua said, “We will soon notify the new norms on Real Estate Investment Trusts or REITs.” Like mutual funds, REITs would pool in money from investors and issue units in exchange. Most of the money collected would be invested in commercial properties which are completed and generate income. The new norms will enable listing and trading of REITs as any other security on the stock exchange and also help create new platform for raising of funds by real estate companies. The guidelines, approved by SEBI board, have fi xed the minimum requirement for asset sizes permitted to be listed in India at Rs500 crore. Earlier there was a minimum requirement of Rs1,000 crore in this regard. REITs may invest directly in properties or through a special purpose vehicle (SPV). As per the norms, 80% of the value of a REIT shall be invested in completed and revenue-generating assets, and the remaining 20% may be invested in developmental properties and other assets. @moneylife
SURVEY FINDINGS Our survey on PMSs fetched over 350 responses. Onethird of the respondents have invested in PMS; one-fourth of them for five years or more. Nearly 40% have been investing for three to five years and as many as 30% have been investing for the past one to three years. A common complaint against the performance of these schemes is that they racked up losses for investors and churned portfolios aggressively; the stock selection was poor and some did not even return the entire principal. This is not a surprise for regular readers of the anguished stories on PMS and wealth-management services on www. moneylife.in. Investors are systematically lured into subscribing to schemes that yield high commissions to banks and incentives for their executives. A BLIND BET In a disclosure-based regulatory regime, why is disclosure of PMS providers
so poor? The basis of deciding to invest in any asset class is a calculation of expected risk and return, based on historical data. We know, for instance, what returns to expect while investing in a basket of stocks like the Sensex or what have been the long-term returns of gold. Can we do this for PMS? No. The problem with PMS starts with the poor disclosure norms. Data about the performance of PMSs is hard to come by. As investors pointed out in our online survey, they did not know how and where to check, to compare the performance of PMS schemes or portfolio managers. In fact, there is no
place one can check apart from going to the portfolio managers’ website and locating the disclosure document. Even this is not convenient, as not everyone uploads the risk disclosure document—which contains the threeyear performance—on their website for the public to download. We also found, at many places, the documents were outdated. That takes us to regulator’s role regarding PMSs. While SEBI is trying to promote ‘investor education and awareness’, when it comes to PMS, it has strained every nerve to ensure that investors are denied of timely, accurate and comparable data. The circular regarding the disclosure of PMS, known as disclosure document and performance record, has been kept deliberately vague. KINDS OF PMS An investor can opt for portfolio service on a discretionary, nondiscretionary or advisory basis. What do you get under each of these? Discretionary: The portfolio manager makes the investment decisions and has the power of attorney (PoA) to buy and sell shares on behalf of the investor. Non-discretionary: The portfolio manager needs the client to confirm whether to buy or sell the stock recommended. Advisory: The portfolio manager mainly gives advice on the portfolio; it’s up to the investor to execute the decisions. It’s the discretionary service, which creates the maximum trouble. These services earn the PMS companies the highest fee because of their ‘expert’ knowledge and ‘quick action’ in moving in and out of different market-linked products. As on 30 June 2013, there are around 49,000 clients registered under discretionary services, 5,000 under non-discretionary services, and 11,000 under advisory services, SEBI data shows. The assets under management (excluding debt) amount to Rs38,400 crore for discretionary services and Rs10,800 for nondiscretionary services. (To be continued) @moneylife
Insurers are shifting costs to the sick
By charging higher prices for drugs, health insurers may be violating the spirit of the Affordable Care Act BY CHARLES ORNSTEIN This story was co-published with The New York Times’ The Upshot. Health insurance companies are no longer allowed to turn away patients because of their pre-existing conditions or charge them more because of those conditions. But some health policy experts say insurers may be doing so in a more subtle way: by forcing people with a variety of illnesses — including Parkinson’s disease, diabetes and epilepsy — to pay more for their drugs. Insurers have long tried to steer their members away from more expensive brand name drugs, labeling them as “non-preferred” and charging higher co-payments. The Affordable Care Act bans insurance companies from discriminating against patients with health problems, but that hasn’t stopped them from seeking new and creative ways to shift costs to consumers. In the process, the plans effectively may be rendering a variety of ailments “nonpreferred,” according to the editorial. The authors reviewed the drug lists, called formularies, of six prescription drugs plans: Harvard Pilgrim Health Care in Massachusetts; Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan; Blue Cross and Blue
Shield of Illinois; Geisinger Health Plan in Pennsylvania; Aetna; and Premera Blue Cross Blue Shield of Alaska. They wanted to see how each plan handled expert-recommended generic drugs for 10 conditions. The conditions are not all high cost like H.I.V. and Parkinson’s. They also include migraine headaches, community acquired pneumonia and high blood pressure. Health plans that participate in Medicare’s prescription drug program, known as Part D, have been moving rapidly to create two tiers of generic drugs. This year, about threequarters of plans had them, according to an article co-written by Jack Hoadley, a health policy analyst at Georgetown University’s Health Policy Institute. The practical effect of such arrangements probably varies based on the difference in cost, he said. Dan Mendelson, chief executive of Avalere Health, a consulting firm, said the increasing number of drug tiers in some plans was confusing for patients. “Consumers often don’t understand which drugs are where,” he said. “They don’t understand the purpose of tiering. They just get to the pharmacy counter and it gets done to them.” Courtesy: ProPublica.org @moneylife
“Insurers have tried to steer their members away from expensive drugs.”
THE GOLDEN SPARROW ON SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 27, 2014
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SPORTS
“ I fully agree that Indian coaches should get due recognition as we have a lot of accomplished domestic coaches as well as some great former players.” — Indian sports minister Sarbananda Sonowal
Signposts Samuels aiming to peak in India KINGSTON: Middle order batsman Marlon Samuels is relishing his return to the West Indies team ahead of the tour of India. Samuels, who was dropped in June, was recalled to the regional side preparing to play five One-Day Internationals (ODI), three Test matches and one T20 International in India, reports CMC. The 33-year-old Jamaican cricketer says he plans to use his new opportunity to play to his full potential. “I am looking at staying on another two or three years to go hard and set the record straight with my talent,” said Samuels. The 2012 Wisden Cricketer of the Year was dropped from the West Indies Test team after failing to score in both innings of the first Test against New Zealand at Sabina Park.
‘Postponing BCCI AGM will be illegal’ NEW DELHI: Aditya Verma, the petitioner in the 2013 Indian Premier League (IPL) scandal, Thursday protested any possible move by the Indian cricket board to postpone its Annual General Meeting (AGM) at its working committee that meets in Chennai on Friday. “In this meeting the BCCI (Board of Control for Cricket in India) will pass a resolution to postpone the AGM and the elections by three months. The AGM was scheduled for Sep 30 and the Supreme Court has already accepted the interim appeal of the Cricket Association of Bihar (CAB). Postponing the AGM is a violation of BCCI’s own constitution,” said Verma. Verma launched a scathing attack on interim president Shivlal Yadav, secretary Sanjay Patel and treasurer Aniruddh Chaudhary saying they are in collusion with the ousted chief N Srinivasan.
“ Indian athletes’ achievement is an example of what can be accomplished through hard work and dedication. They have made all Indians proud. ” — President Pranab Mukherjee
Shooters brighten India’s day Men’s team clinches silver in 25m centre fire pistol, Kashyap crashes out in Asian Games; archers also disappoint on day seven
INCHEON: India bagged their second silver in the 17th Asian Games as the men’s shooting team finished second in the 25-metre centre fire pistol at the Ongnyeon International Shooting Range on Friday. The Indian trio of Pemba Tamang, Gurpreet Singh and Vijay Kumar scored a combined 1740-68x to finish behind China’s team of Yongde Jin, Chuanlin Li and Feng Ding, who fired 1742-56x to take gold. Olympic (2012) silver medallist Vijay shot 285-21x, to help India get their 16th overall medal and eighth from the shooting range. However, none of the Indians managed to finish on the podium in the individual event. Pemba Tamang, Gurpreet and Vijay finished eighth, ninth and 12th respectively. Meanwhile, the Indian women’s team finished sixth in the rifle three positions event while in the individual category, Lajja Goswami came seventh. The Indian women’s team comprising Lajja, Anjali Bhagwat and Tejaswini Muley scored 1722-68x at the Ongnyeon International Shooting Range. China, South Korea and Kazakhstan won gold, silver and bronze, respectively. In the individual section, Lajja, who was the only Indian to sneak in to the final, shot 401.6 (150.5 in kneeling, 153.7 in prone and 97.4 in standing) to finish seventh.
Shuttler Kashyap ousted
Leading shuttler Parupalli Kashyap was knocked out after he lost his men’s singles pre-quarterfinal to World No 1 Lee Chong Wei of Malaysia. It was a tough outing for the reigning Commonwealth Games champion who has never even won a game, let alone a match against the top seeded Malaysian. Chong Wei needed only 34 minutes to move past the Hyderabadi, winning 21-12, 21-11 at the Gyeyang
the third set, which was a 28-28 draw, he was outscored in all the other three sets. Deepika, who won two gold medals in the 2010 Commonwealth Games, failed to get into the quarter-finals after losing her 1/8 elimination round match to Indonesia’s Diananda Choirunisa 0-6. Deepika came into the 17th Asiad with hopes of ending her individual medal jinx in the Asian Games. The 20-year-old won a bronze medal in the women’s recurve team event in 2010 Guangzhou Games but missed out an individual bronze by a whisker.
Men’s recurve team eliminated
Men’s archery recurve team also disappointed following their 1/8 elimination round loss to Hong Kong. The Indian men’s team of Atanu Das, Tarundeep Rai and Jayanta Talukdar lost 3-5 (53-54, 54-42, 51-51, 52-53). The Indian trio were edged out 5354 in the first set but came back strongly in the second set 54-42 to erase the 0-2 deficit against the Hong Kong consisting Man Chun Chui, Calvin Wai Kar Lee and Kin Hing Ma. Shang Chunsong of China competes during the beam of the women’s individual all-around final contest of gymnastics artistic
Gymnasium. Later Manu Attri and N. Sikki Reddy also lost their mixed doubles Round of 16 encounter to Singaporean combine Danny Bawa Chrisnanta and Yu Yan Vanessa Neo. The sixth seeds won the contest 21-18, 21-23, 21-15 in 49 minutes.
Sanam, Bhambri in quarters
Yuki Bhambri and Sanam Singh reached the men’s singles quarterfinals while compatriot Ankita Raina was ousted in the pre-quarterfinals of the tennis competition.
Bhambri, the highest seeded Indian in Incheon, eased to a 6-3, 6-3 straight-set win over 13th seed, Christopher Benjamin Rungkat of Indonesia in an hour and 30 minutes in the third round match. The fourth seeded Indian took the first set in 40 minutes and registered a similar scoreline win in the second, taking eight minutes more. Meanwhile, Ankita’s participation in the Incheon Games came to an end after she lost 2-6, 6-4, 6-1 to seventh seed Eri Hozumi of Japan. Earlier, Sanam Singh, staged a remarkable comeback to beat sixth seeded South Korean Hyeon
Chung 7-5, 6-1 in an hour and 24 minutes in their third round match.
Talukdar, Deepika crashed out
India’s Jayanta Talukdar and Deepika Kumari were knocked out of the recurve individual men’s and women’s elimination round archery events. Talukdar, who had blanked Witthaya Thamwong of Thailand 6-0 in the 1/16 eliminations, was thrashed 1-7 by a rampaging Khairul Anuar Mohamad of Malaysia in the 1/8 round match. The Malaysian was in superb form with all his shots fetching nine points or more. In contrast, the Indian archer lacked the consistency to get top scores and barring
Women squash team in final
The women’s squash team assured India of a possible gold or at least a silver after defeating South Korea 2-0 in the semifinals of the 17th Asian Games at the Yeorumul Squash Courts on Friday. The women’s team set up a final date with Malaysia after it beat the hosts 2-0 with Joshna Chinappa and Dipika Pallikal, winning the first two rubbers for India. World No.21 Joshna thrashed Eunok Park 3-0 (11-6, 13-11, 11-8) in 34 minutes while World No. 12 Dipika, who won individual singles bronze here, registered a 3-1 (11-4, 11-5, 8-11, 11-5) victory over Sunmi Song in 37 minutes. - IANS
Professionalism and a bloody-mindedness Why India’s tennis Asian bronze medalist Abhinav Bindra’s insane search for perfection should inspire all Indian athletes BY ASHISH MAGOTRA The final of the 10m Air Rifle event was on at the Incheon Asian Games. Abhinav Bindra was in a tight spot - Iran’s Pourya Norouziyan was in third place, 0.7 pts ahead of the Indian shooter and looking good for a bronze medal. Bindra shot a 10.5 with what seemed like his final shot. A 10.5 is more than a decent score when you consider that 10.9 is the best one can do. But this was an event in which the lead was being decided by mere decimals. So after shooting the 10.5, Bindra shook his head, looked down and was all set to put his gun down — for the last time as a “professional” athlete. Then, he heard the crowd gasp. He looked up to see that Pourya, the Iranian shooter, had shot 9.6. It was the Iranian shooters lowest score of the final. It meant he crashed out of the event and handed the bronze to Bindra. Bindra’s look back at his corner was a mixture of puzzlement and amazement. He couldn’t quite believe how the medal had landed in his lap but he wasn’t one to begrudge it either. Bindra’s sequence of shots in the final was quite amazing (once again keep in mind, the best possible shot is 10.9) — 10.4, 10.5, 10.2, 10.5, 10.4, 9.9, 10.3, 10.9, 10.4, 10.7, 10.3, 9.6, 10.4, 10.5, 10.3, 10.5, 10.6, 10.7. Only two shots below 10 but yet it was only good enough for a bronze. The levels of perfection required are insane and so is the pressure. It comes down to millimetres. It comes down to one wrong breath of air that puts you off. It all points to the bloody-mindedness that one needs to medal at an event of the stature of the Olympics/Asian Games. A bloody-mindedness that only Bindra and a precious few Indian athletes have been able to display. A bloody mindedness that we can say with certainty that no Indian official shares. Bindra’s versions of bloodymindedness have changed over the years. But they remain just as potent. At the Sydney Olympics in 2000 as an 18-year-old, he was just testing the
Bindra (extreme right) at the podium finish in his last professional tournament
waters. A junior champion scouting the seniors. In the 2004 Games in Athens, a 22-year-old Bindra set an Olympic record with a score of 597/600 across his first 60 shots — and still ended up seventh. After his final ended, it was found that the No 3 shooting position where Bindra was shooting from had a wobbly floor. They fi xed it before the next final but it was too late for Bindra. He had to wait for another four years; four years for another shot at glory. For a year and a half after Athens, he took an intense meditation course. Then, he ensured that the time wasn’t wasted. He hired a personal coach at his own expense, hooked himself to a machine that identified what activity was going on
in his brain when he was shooting well. He did commando training for three weeks prior to the Olympics. He tried negotiating a rock face blindfolded and even climbing a 40ft “pizza” pole. To get accustomed to the atmosphere, he hired a wedding hall in Chandigarh for a day and converted it into his shooting range. He was on the shooting tour constantly; training, living and breathing every little aspect of shooting. He was lost in a world that was his very own, focussing on that elusive gold. At age 26, his dream came true. He had become the first Indian to win an individual gold when he won the 10 m Air Rifle event at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. His victory ended a gold drought that had lasted since 1980. India
hasn’t won a gold medal at the Olympics since. We have got close but a gold has been beyond us. The Olympics dream took so much out of Bindra that he took a break from shooting after the event. For six months he stayed away from the sport. He wanted to know if he could approach the London Olympics with the same kind of intensity; with the same kind of madness. He decided, he couldn’t. He decided that he wanted to find a new way to the medal. So for the London Olympics he didn’t climb mountains. Instead, he got his eyes Lasiked; a chiropractor alignined his bones to probably help with posture. It didn’t work as well. He shot 594 out of 600 and crashed out in qualifying. The second Olympic medal was not to be. By this point, Bindra was not competing on the circuit as regularly as he once did and injuries stalled his progress. His focus was there in patches. He fought the bigger battles against officialdom in a way few Indian athletes have. He fought against corruption in sport. He found new battles to fight and new causes too. At the end of the day, he remained someone who had experienced the ills of the Indian system and was determined to set it right. Just a few days after he won the gold medal at Beijing, Suresh Kalmadi, the then president of the Indian Olympic Association, got his name wrong. He kept calling him “Avinash.” The lack of support was galling. For Indian officials, none of this mattered. In his book, A Shot at History, Bindra dedicated a chapter to sports administrators titled “Mr. Indian Official: Thanks for Nothing.” “In India, we must swim through chaos on the way to a medal. It almost feels as if our medals are more meaningful, considering what we go through to win one,” he said in the book. After this, he will continue as a “hobby shooter,” practising twice a week because he really loves the sport. And if that gets him to Rio in 2016 for the next Olympics, then so be it. — Firstpost
federation was right India is the only Test cricket playing country that is unrepresented at the Asian games BY RASHI KAKKAR
At the 2014 Asian Games in Incheon, there are two groups of Indian sportspersons that are missing - our cricketers and our “star” male tennis players. The explanation that the cricket and tennis boards have given for the absence of their respective players is quite similar – a packed international schedule that did not permit the athletes to spend time at Incheon. The All India Tennis Association (AITA) did the right thing. The Board Of Control For Cricket In India (BCCI) did the wrong thing. The simple answer is that there is no absolute truth. You cannot analyse any situation by ignoring its context or sandarbh. Context gives the scope in which a particular situation can be assessed. If we are not aware of the context then we cannot be sure to what extent the particular situation is right or wrong. It is this context that can make the same fact or outcome seem right in one place and wrong in the other. Somdev Devvarman, Leander Paes and Rohan Bopanna play an extremely competitive individual sport. Professional tennis rewards the players through money and points. For most players, these points are more important than the money. Without these points they cannot get direct entry into tournaments. No direct entry means additional matches in qualifying. Imagine giving a job interview every second Monday. Playing the qualifiers almost feels like that. The ranking system is brutal. The three players in question were in a situation that if they did not spend time colleting ATP points, then they could potential risk losing their bread and butter. Jingoistic supporters did question Devvarman, Paes and Bopanna’s patriotism but the truth is
these men did what most of us would do, save their jobs. After all a tennis player in India learns to fend for himself or herself. There is close to zero support from the government or the private sector. In such a situation we should actually be grateful that professional tennis players in India take the time to represent us. And for once if they choose not to, I think we should have the maturity to understand that. For a nation that is obsessed with cricket. it is strange that we are the only Test country in Asia that is unrepresented at the games. The BCCI’s decision not to enter a men’s team? The Asian Games clash with the Champions League Twenty20. If there is one thing that India has a surplus of it is cricketers. We have enough above average cricketers to form 10 teams. Surprising then that we chose to send no one. Wouldn’t this tournament be a great platform to test our bench strength? Wouldn’t it be an ideal tournament for the India A side? Or how about creating a U-23 side for the games and giving these boys some international exposure? If nothing else send the U-19 team. Send someone. They may come back with a medal and lots of confidence. The BCCI’s decision not to enter a women’s team? Turns out the thought never crossed the BCCI’s mind. It never came up for discussion. They seem to have forgotten that they also represent women who play cricket. Former captains Diana Edulji and Anjum Chopra have voiced concerns about the lack of international exposure and the apathy of the BCCI towards the women’s game. Since it came under the BCCI’s folds in 2006, women’s cricket in India has gone from bad to worse. Once you understand the context you will understand why as far as the Asian games are concerned it is AITA 1, BCCI 0. — Firstpost
SPORTS “We lost a game, we didn’t lose the tournament. Drawing or losing 1-2 doesn’t make a difference, we had to win this game to finish on top in the pool, so we took some risks” — Indian hockey team head coach Roelant Oltmans
All India veteran tennis from Sept 29 PUNE: Rajabhau Ranade Veteran’s All India Tennis Championships will be held at Deccan Gymkhana from September 29. The event offers a total prize money of Rs 1 lakh. Over 100 players from across the country will be seen in action in the 45 plus, 55 plus and 65 plus categories in singles and doubles. Mukund Joshi and Abhishek Tamhane will be the tournament directors, while Vaishali Kannamwar has been appointed as the supervisor.
Nimbalkar trophy cricket from today PUNE: Bhausaheb Nimbalkar Trophy conducted by Maharashtra Cricket Association will be held from Sept 27 to Oct 11. Eight teams (3 from Maharashtra and 5 from other state) will participate in this tournament. Eight teams are divided into two groups. Each team will play three league matches and the group winners will compete in the final. These matches will be held at MCA Stadium Gahunje, Poona Club, Deccan Gymkhana and PYC Hindu Gymkhana.
Open tennis tourney from Oct 18 PUNE: NS Sports Academy will conduct a Pune Open Tennis Tournament at Deccan Gymkhana from October 18. The event will offer total prize money of Rs5 lakh. For details contact Navnath Shete (9011997279 / 9730907771).
Says tennis player Nitten Kirtane, who grabbed five national ranking titles this year, beating opponents almost half his age
PUNE: It is is said that champions do not settle for that day’s practice, that day’s competition, that day’s performance. They are always striving for better. That’s just Pune’s veteran tennis star Nitten Kirrtane has been doing always. The former Davis cupper, who recently turned 40, is not just actively participating in various tournaments but has been winning most of them. This year he has won three singles and two doubles titles in the national ranking tournament and is ranked 12th in the men’s category. Asked about, how he won against the younger opponents almost half his age, Nitten said, “I feel, it’s in the mind. Age is just a number for me. The effort I am putting on court is like a 21-year-old and I make sure that I am always ready for the battle. I could have taken the easy way out and become a coach. But, I have chosen the hard way and I am not enjoying every minute of it.” “However, at this age, it’s not easy play a three-set match with the same energy. The toughest part is recovery. Fortunately, I have got good physical trainers. My previous trainer Mihir Ternikar, and current trainer PVK Raman have had a great influence in my life. Raman sir helped me improve my body structure using a combination of techniques. If I had such a scientific system during my playing days, my performance would have been much better,” said Nitten, who is greatly inspired by Indian icons like Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi. Elaborating on the treatment, trainer Raman said, “It’s basically a mixture of various therapies including Japanese Shiatsu, Kerala martial arts, German touch therapy etc. This combination has helped Nitten a lot. He was injury prone earlier, but with proper exercise
he has managed to improve his fitness and resistance level.” Nitten noticed the change, when he suffered in injury to his right elbow during a national tournament in Mumbai. “I was out of action for three weeks, but to my surprise, I recovered much faster than I had expected. Not just that but I even won a title, which was very positive sign at my age,” said Nitten, who works as a welfare manager in Western Railway, Mumbai. Nitten’s day starts early and his intensive morning workout involves the gym, fitness programmes, kick boxing and practice sessions. His evening sessions are with younger players and his two sons Arjun and Aryan, who want to follow in their father’s footsteps. “I believe fitness is the foundation of a sporting career and I follow it strictly. I never miss my workout. Even after the late night duties, you will find me at the court early next morning. But some youngsters don’t understand the importance of keeping fit. They spend hours on the tennis courts but that will not help them in the long run,” he said. Nitten is not just involved in on-court activities. With the help of the city’s sports enthusiast Aniruddha Deshpande, he has started on a new path by organising the Maharashtra Tennis League (MTL) in 2012. “It’s a mistaken notion that tennis players are rich and earn lots of money. But, that’s not true. During our playing days, we always faced financial issues. We travelled in over-crowed and unreserved train compartments and survived on junk food while playing abroad. I believe players should get financial backing when it needed the most,” said Nitten, who feel the biggest disappointment of his career was not getting a chance to represent India in the Olympics. ashish.phadnis@goldensparrow.com
Big time tennis returns to city Pune to host Challenger event after Davis Cup tie against Russia in 1974 TGS NEWS SERVICE @TGSWeekly PUNE: Big time men’s tennis will return to the city after 40 years. Pune will host the $50,000 KPITMSLTA ATP Challenger at the Shiv Chhattrapathi tennis complex at Balewadi, from October 18. The last big men’s tennis event the city hosted was the Davis Cup tie against Russia in 1974. It will also be for the fi rst time that Maharashtra State Lawn Tennis Association (MSLTA) will be hosting a men’s Challenger of such a calibre. The city had last witnessed the $12,5000 WTA Challenger event in 2012. The event will offer a total prize money of $50,000 (Rs 30 lakh) plus hospitality putting it into a bracket of a $75,000 event. The players will be
provided hospitality courtesy of Vipin Sankhe of River and Forest Nature Exotic Resorts. Top players in the 75-140 rankings including Aleksander Nedovyesov, Alexander Kudryatsev, Aljaz Bedene, Yuichi Sugita, Adrian MaceriasMenendez as well as Indian stars Somdev Devvarman, Yuki Bhambri, Saketh Myneni and Sanam Singh have signed up for the event. More players are expected to feature in the event. The city had hosted Davis Cup ties at Deccan Gymkhana against Pakistan (1963), Japan (1969), West Germany (1970) and Russia (1974) the MSLTA last hosted a Davis Cup against Pakistan in Mumbai in 2006. “It will be a great opportunity for Indian players to pick up valuable points, as we have many players in the
150-200 ranking bracket currently and high ranking events such as Challengers will help to boost their rankings. Th is year, amongst Indian players Somdev Devvarman won the Delhi Challenger, and finished finalist at Shanghai earlier this month, and Yuki won the Chennai Challenger. Also, six Indian pairs have won Challenger doubles titles so far this year,” said Sunder Iyer, who has been recently elected as the Hon Secretary of the MSLTA Apart from the Chennai Open ,which is the biggest event on the ATP tour in India, this will be the third biggest event in the country in terms of points. Earlier this year Delhi had hosted a $10,0000 Challenger followed by $50,000 events at Chennai and Kolkata.
Too cool for school
Not sending cricket teams to the Asian Games is yet another example of our board’s frog-in-a-well vision MALAY DESAI By virtue of the numbers of people playing and interested in the sport, cricket is the second-most popular game on the planet after football. But if you go to a far European or Scandinav ian country and m e n t i o n cricket at a bar, chances are that you might have to use the words ‘not the chirping one.’ Truth is, the International Cricket Council (ICC) may have 38 associate 59 ‘affi liate’ members today, several of them Asian, but the sport has barely grown outside our sub-continent. And by not sending teams to the ongoing Asian Games in Incheon, big daddy BCCI has only done what an arrogant A-list actor would when invited to a sarkari fi lm award. Medal sports at international eventsare conceptualised so as to
provide a level playing field for all participants, to inspire the sportsmen and to boost or revive a sport in certain regions. It took fairly long for the Asian Games to give cricket that status in 2010, but they rightly adopted the T20 format which, much as I loathe, is perfectly cut to popularise cricket - less arduous for participants, more entertaining for viewers. India did not participate then; and not even the women’s team was sent. Fast forward to 2014 – mission ‘world domination’ in a certain N Srinivasan’s head is in its final stages, and he won’t let minor distractions such as some Asian Games hamper it. India said no again, as the dates clash with the Champions League T20, which, let’s just say is ‘camera print’ if the IPL is high-definition. Clearly, it didn’t strike any of the powers-that-are that sending even the winners of Pune District’s Inter-Taluka Cricket cup would be competitive. But who wants medals when one has hefty telecast rights money and favours to seek from other cricket boards? No surprise, we have not sent the women’s team either, perhaps due to
PUNE
“I used to hate England because they ruled my country but I am happy they gave us the game of cricket, which they can’t play very well and the English language, which I can’t speak very well — Former India captain Kapil Dev
‘Age is just a number’ BY ASHISH PHADNIS @phadnis_ashish
SEPTEMBER 27, 2014
the minor technical glitch in BCCI bosses’ heads called ‘forgot about it.’ That said, the folks at the Chinese Cricket Association are stepping in with full force, and even if we snigger, are serious in their plans to become a major force in world cricket by 2020.With their ‘basketball model’ already showing wonders, the Chinese thirst for medals will show in cricket soon. Another Asian contender is the host South Korea, who have prepared by following the principles of baseball, which is already a sub-culture. Interestingly, unlike European cricket teams whose squads consist of many second-generation Patels, Solankis and the like, South Korea has put together a fully local team. As the unofficial power centre of the sport, it is India’s responsibility to ensure the sport truly goes beyond the 10 nations it is currently most popular in, especially now when the truly viewer-friendly product of ‘Twenty20’ is at hand. Or else, at every World Cup, even after a win, football fans will be able to snigger at us by asking, ‘Is it truly a ‘World’ cup?’
ANIRUDDHA RAJANDEKAR
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