Innholdsfortegnelse for February 27, 2017 i India Today

The first phase of India’s long-delayed twolayered missile shield, designed to intercept incoming ballistic missiles with a range of 2,000 km, got a boost with a successful test on February 11. The interceptor missile, fired from Dr A.P.J. Abdul Kalam island, destroyed a missile launched from a naval warship in the Bay of Bengal. LRTR (Long Range Tracking Radar): Can detect incoming ballistic missiles 600 km away. Intercepting 5,000 kmrange IRBMs requires LRTRs that can detect incoming missiles at ranges of 1,500 km PAD (Exo-atmospheric interceptor): Can intercept medium range ballistic missiles up to 100 km altitude. Successful test carried out on February 11; intercepted target 97 km away AAD (Endo-atmospheric interceptor): Can intercept short-range ballistic missiles upto 30 km altitude. 12 tests till date…

Figures recently released by the home ministry offer an intriguing look at India’s narcotics habits. The standout fact is the astonishing rise in popularity of methaqualone, sold as ‘Quaalude’ in the US and ‘Mandrax’ in Britain. It diminishes sexual inhibition, and was used by both Roman Polanski and allegedly Bill Cosby to drug women before sexually assaulting them. Curiously, only a fraction of the drugs seized are disposed of. Where does the rest go? 182,623kg Amount of ganja seized 24,106kg Amount of methaqualone seized (up from 90 kg in 2015 Rs 4,700cr Value of methaqualone seized in Delhi 967kg Amount of heroin seized in Punjab and Haryana 11,304kg Amount of ganja disposed of 23,518kg Amount of methaqualone seized in Delhi alone 1,600kg Amount of heroin seized in India 375kg Amount…

Across Uttarakhand, huge mist-laden hoardings of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Harish Rawat signal the election fever that is warming up the freezing Himalayan winter here. But it’s an election curiously bereft of issues pertaining to dev e - lopment. Successive defections between the ruling Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party over the past six months have confounded voters. Contesting faces have changed camps. Within the BJP, for instance, they now see faces the saffron party had for the longest time dubbed as “corrupt”. In the other corner, the Congress too has embraced rebels from the other side. And while the Congress has proclaimed Rawat their CM face, the BJP, with its surfeit of new entrants, has found it impossible to name a leader and is once again banking…

Barely a month ago, the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections seemed like a cakewalk for the Bharatiya Janata Party, which was riding high after its ‘strong’ response to the Uri attack in September and the avowedly ‘pro-poor’ move to demonetise currency in November. The Samajwadi Party, in contrast, appeared on the verge of a split, with the young UP chief minister Akhilesh Yadav embroiled in a battle with his uncle Shivpal Yadav and father Mulayam Singh Yadav. The Congress seemed clueless after Congress vicepresident Rahul Gandhi’s khat sabha came to an abrupt end. Then came the SP-Congress alliance in January, and the electoral wind changed direction completely. A classic gamechanger, the alliance began dictating the campaign, with the BSP and BJP reduced to playing catch-up and scrambling for ways to counter the alliance.…

Six days after her birthday on January 15, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) president Mayawati called a press conference at the party’s state headquarters on Mall Avenue in Lucknow. Here, she introduced Ambika Chaudhari, MLA from Ballia and till recently a minister in the Samajwadi Party government. A week later, on January 29, another ex-minister in the SP government who had been sidelined, Narad Rai, joined the BSP. Both were quickly given party tickets. This open courting of leaders from other parties is a first for Mayawati. Sources say party general secretaries Satish Misra and Nasimuddin Siddiqui were expressly saddled with the task of identifying “disgruntled elements”. Her plan is to get the Muslim vote on her side. Which explains the rapprochement with jailed don and politician Mukhtar Ansari (whom she…

His years as a stalwart of Jayalalithaa’s naalvar ani (four-man army) have paid Edappadi K. Palanisamy, 62, rich dividends. He was also second in command and PWD minister in the Pannerselvam cabinet. Palanisamy is with Sasikala now and is her man for the chief minister’s post. No one from his Gounder community, also referred to as the Kongu Vellalar Gounders, traditional landowners and farmers from the western districts, has ever held the top post since P. Subbarayan who was chief minister of the erstwhile Madras Presidency (1926-1936). Palanisamy’s electoral debut came in somewhat similar circumstances to what the AIADMK is facing now, split into two factions, one headed by party founder M.G. Ramachandran’s widow Janaki and the other by rebel J. Jayalalithaa. He joined the Jayalalithaa group and won the…

Indian tabla player Sandeep Das won a Grammy in the world music category for his collaboration with renowned Chinese-American cellist Yo-Yo Ma, titled ‘Sing Me Home’. The ensemble album edged out entries by Celtic Woman, Ladysmith Black Mambazo, Caetano Veloso and Gilberto Gil and Indian sitarist Anoushka Shankar. This was your third nomination. Was it third time lucky? Luck, God’s grace and blessings from my gurus—Pt Shiv Kumar Singh and Pt Kishan Maharaj. I come from a family with no musical lineage, so it was a struggle and a long journey—from Bihar to Banaras to Delhi to Boston. How was this album different from other Indian collaborations? In India, it is more cacophony in the name of fusion. While collaborating, you need to invest in each other to understand each…

This year, Jammu & Kashmir kicked off a 15-day snow festival in Gulmarg close on the heels of avalanches that killed more than 20 soldiers on both sides of India’s disputed border with Pakistan. Bad timing? Maybe. But despite the avalanches and an uptick in militancy, India’s only world-class snow town is safe to ski, says Luke Smithwick—the contracted Snow Safety Officer with the Jammu and Kashmir Tourism in the Gulmarg ski area since 2005. “I issue a daily backcountry avalanche advisory on my personal website: gulmarg-avalanche-advisory.com. The response due to militancy this year, there have been fewer foreign visitors, says outfitter Hilal Ahmed Kolu of Gulmarg Ski. com. But tour operators still hope to match 2015’s figure of 5,000 foreign skiers. n service is the best it can be…

LESS IS A LOT MORE IN THE LIVING ROOM Loud, over the top, filled with bric-a-brac, living spaces do not always have to be made of these. This living room setting shows that minimal but striking furniture, clean straight lines, dollops of colours and inspiration from tribal crafts is all you need to design a beautiful showstopper. CORNERS ARE MEANT FOR CREATIVITY Efficiently utilising those awkward areas (be it under the staircase, or an oddly angled corner in the living room), happens to be one of the biggest design conundrums. This setting, addresses just that. The exposed brick wall goes well with the burnt orange side wall, while the simple sofa is brought to life with colourful cushions. Pair them with offbeat pieces like a half-wood-half-tiled coffee table, cage lights,…

1 ARTY ATTACK FEBRUARY 1 TO 28 Latitude 28 gallery presents ‘G/rove’ by world renowned artists, Krishnaraj Chonat, Elin Vister and Nobina Gupta. Against the backdrop of dramatic ecological shifts that has come to define the Anthropocene, the exhibition will attempt to redraw the social contract between the human and the non-human components of the planet. As the title ‘G/ rove’ suggests, the show envisages non-anthropocentric modes of thinking/being through mythical and science fictional frames. By inviting the viewer to rove through the progressively disenchanted forest that constitutes the world in search of myths and utopias, the exhibition hopes to uncover the key to appeasing a provoked Gaia. At F 208 GF, Lado Sarai Time 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. 2 MUSICAL EXTRAVAGANZA ON MARCH 5 One of dance music’s…

Toys on Call TOY MAHAL Why buy a toy when you can rent it— that’s the concept behind the Toy Mahal, an online toy rental service that’s been launched by five young entrepreneurs in Ahmedabad. If you’re among those who have cupboards overflowing with toys that the kids have outgrown, the new venture will strike a chord. They have thousands of toys and games for children between the age of one month to eight years, with international toy brands like Fisher Price, Mee Mee, Hot Wheels and Lego that you can rent from the comfort of your home. Started by Vipul Jain, 34, Jayprakash Chechani, 33, Vikas Asawa, 32, Gautam Jha, 32 and Rohit Nair, 28, Toy Mahal has a dedicated repair and maintenance department that services and sterilises and…

Three fierce encounters in the space of three days, resulting in 15 deaths and gunshot or shrapnel injuries to dozens—the winter calm one expects in the Kashmir Valley is clearly not on the cards this year. Early on February 14 morning, a joint ‘cordon and search’ operation by Jammu & Kashmir Police Special Operations Group, CRPF and two Indian Army Rashtriya Rifles (RR) units escalated into a full-blown encounter with four terrorists. Armed with Kalashnikov rifles and grenades, the four men, suspected Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) militants, were hiding inside a house in Parraypora village, some 65 km from Srinagar in Bandipora district. It ended with three army jawans and one terrorist killed. Eleven security personnel including a major and six policemen were injured, many of them critically. Three terrorists managed to…

According to the organisers of the event, 109 couples tied the knot in a mass ceremony in Bahirkhand, a village some 70 kilometres north of Kolkata. The couples—tribal, Muslim and Hindu—came from all across West Bengal. The event is an annual affair, one intended to assist those who might otherwise be unable to bear the high costs of an Indian wedding. Loans taken for wedding expenses, and the usurious interest rates charged by moneylenders often force already poor people deeper into penury. (Sadly, there was no news on whether the gorilla found a mate.)…

SEAT DISTRIBUTION IN 2012 ASSEMBLY ELECTIONS 7 REGIONS, 75 DISTRICTS 1. West UP: Saharanpur, Muzaffarnagar, Meerut, Baghpat, Ghaziabad, Gautam Buddh Nagar, Bulandshahr, Prabuddha Nagar, Panchsheel Nagar and Bhim Nagar 2. Rohilkhand: Bijnor, Moradabad, Rampur, Jyotiba Phule Nagar, Budaun, Bareilly, Pilibhit, Shahjahanpur 3. Awadh: Sitapur, Kheri, Lucknow, Unnao, Hardoi, Rae Bareli, Sultanpur, Pratapgarh, Faizabad, Barabanki 4. Northeast: Bahraich, Shrawasti, Balrampur, Gonda, Siddharthnagar, Basti, Sant Kabirnagar, Maharajganj, Gorakhpur, Kushinagar, Deoria 5. Purvanchal: Kaushambi, Allahabad, Ambedkarnagar, Azamgarh, Mau, Ballia, Jaunpur, Ghazipur, Chandauli, Sant Ravidas Nagar, Varanasi, Mirzapur, Sonbhadra 6. Bundelkhand: Jalaun, Jhansi, Lalitpur, Hamirpur, Mahoba, Banda, Chitrakoot 7. Doab: Aligarh, Mahamaya Nagar, Mathura, Agra, Firozabad, Etah, Mainpuri, Farrukhabad, Kannauj, Etawah, Auraiya, Kanpur Dehat, Kanpur Nagar, Fatehpur SEAT DISTRIBUTION IN 2014 LOK SABHA ELECTIONS VOTE SHARE (%) IN ASSEMBLY SEATS WON IN ASSEMBLY ELECTIONS…

SHORTLY after the conclusion of campaigning for the second round of polling for the Uttar Pradesh assembly election, a confident and assertive AKHILESH YADAV met with Group Editorial Director RAJ CHENGAPPA, India Today (Hindi) editor ANSHUMAN TIWARI and ASHISH MISRA at his residence in Lucknow. The UP chief minister spoke on a range of issues— from the fight within his family to the alliance he has forged with the Congress. Excerpts from the interview... Q. After the first few rounds of polling, what kind of outcome are you expecting? A. It’s much better than before. I’m sure the SP-Congress alliance will emerge number one with the maximum seats. Initially, there was confusion among voters. But the coalition has allayed their fears and we will get a consolidated vote. Our rivals earlier were talking about victory margins, now they…

Never before in his 45-year-old career has R. Seshasayee, 68, the soft-spoken and reclusive chairman of Infosys, hogged so much media limelight. All through his professional life, mostly with automotive major Ashok Leyland and as chairman of IndusInd Bank since 2007 and as a board member of ICICI Bank for five years till 2003, he has steered clear of controversies. But the past few days, perhaps, have been his most challenging as he battled accusations of laxity in corporate governance at India’s second-largest IT services company, with its co-founders wanting to settle for nothing less than his resignation from the board. But ‘Sesh’, as close friends and colleagues call him, is nonplussed. On February 13, as the Infosys board presented itself before the media for the first time since controversies…

When Neeta Helms came back to India seven years ago, she was delighted to find a growing demand for western classical music. “Because of the wealth of Indian classical music and dance, I guess there’s never really been a vacuum,” she says. Helms is the founder and owner of Classic Movements, a concert touring company for orchestras and choirs that performs all over the world. After speaking with choral communities in India, Helms realised the country needed choral directors experienced both in classical music and in training choirs. And so, the India Choral Fellowship (ICF) was born. The fellowship seeks to expose people to choral music and bolster existing programmes with teachers and resources. The fellowship’s first guest conductor is Grammy awardwinning choral director Kevin Fox, who has spent the…

India’s sporting revolution has hit the publishing industry. But as a flurry of new sports biographies reveals, most Indian athletes are still just trying to break out of poverty. Most will find themselves stymied by the same nepotism and parochialism that holds back the country’s progress in other areas SARITA DEVI Shadow Fighter by journalist Suprita Das delivers the stiffest jab of this crop—providing not only a biography of a champion but also an intriguing primer on sport and the simmering insurgency in Manipur MAHAVIR SINGH PHOGAT Fake gets real in Akhada, Saurabh Duggal’s authorised biography of the wrestling coach who inspired Dangal. Less polished than Shadow Fighter, it offers similar insight into the problems plaguing Indian sport THE GREAT KHALI A (relatively) small star on a big stage, the…

The ‘Bombay-style’ restaurant is dying a slow death in the city of its birth, with stalwarts like Dhobi Talao’s Bastani & Co. and Brabourne already gone and others like Kyani and Sassanian barely limping along. But elsewhere around the country, slick faux-Bombay- style diners are booming—giving a new twist to Irani favourites like brun maska and keema pao, along with Mumbai street food classics like dabeli and bhelpuri. Even in London and New York, joints like Dishoom, Talli Joe and Paowalla are taking a bite of the ‘schmaltz-y’ pie. Café Irani Chai, Mumbai The first new The first new Irani restaurant to open in Mumbai in 50 years, this modest café sits along a tiny lane in Mahim. It’s a shiny, new portal into a moth-eaten era, with its glass…

animal attraction Walking on the wild side has become easy. Wisma Atria Interiors by Nomita Kohli has introduced an Animal Inspired Furniture Collection. On display are tables, decorative pedestals and cocktail cabinets made using wood with gold, silver, deco walnut and bronze finish. Featured here is a table whose legs have been replaced with an elephant head. PRICE on request; AT www.wismaatria.in dinner service With plates as pretty as these, it feels like a crime to eat off them. The plates in question are part of Address Home's new Mehr Collection. Inspired by the richness of Persian art from Isfahan in the Safavid era, the turquoise and gold dinnerware is crafted from the finest porcelain with a 24 carat real gold decal on it. On offer are dinner plates, quarter…

The ceiling might be the fifth wall in a room, but it is the oft-ignored floor directly below it that truly steals the show. It adds much needed character and depth to an area. From bold, bright colours, funky shapes and mesmerising stripes, to mimicking the look of wood, marble and granite, with tiles there are options galore. A look at the latest in the market from this category. GO DIGITAL Gres Tough designer tiles from Kajaria have been crafted by the most imaginative design minds of Spain. With this range your floors can mimic the look of everything from real marble to granite. The digital floor tiles are available in futuristic finishes, which complement every modern decor. The brand’s polished tiles come with advance nano technology. The durability of…

Architect Raya Shankhwalker Architects, Goa www.rsagoa.in Close to Panjim, in the heritage district of Ribander on the banks of the Mandovi River in Goa, stood an old dilapidated Indo- Portuguese house originally built in the early 19th century. The approximately 8,300 sq ft plot was purchased by our client with a desire to convert the heritage structure into a luxury six bedroom riverside residence. Thus the design brief entailed retaining and restoring as much of the original structure as possible and adding an extension constituting of indoor and outdoor spaces that took advantage of the proximity to the Mandovi River. THE DESIGN CHALLENGE Maintaining a balance in the aesthetics between the traditional and the contemporary posed to be an interesting design challenge. Villa Ribander is a home designed to meet…

UNDER THE STAR RANNOFKUTCH While the Rannutsav is drawing to a close, the Rann of Kutch continues to be a top pick as a getaway destination especially before the summers set in. Aptly described by the state tourism department as a “symphony of salt and stones cuddled on one side by the sea and the other by desert”, the Rann of Kutch is much more than admiring the white salt flatlands in the moonlight. The few thousand kilometers offer a variety of geographical landscapes and sights—large flocks of flamingoes and migratory birds that visit during winters, the wild ass sanctuary and pristine white stretch of salt. Go up the watch tower to see the expanse of the Rann or trek up Kalo Dungar to watch the magical sunset. Getting there…

In October, a couple of months after she ended her 16-yearlong fast, Irom Sharmila, the iron lady of Manipur, formed a political party—the People’s Resurgence and Justice Alliance (PRJA). Manipur goes to the polls in two phases, on March 4 and 8; Sharmila is contesting from Thoubal, seat of the chief minister, Okram Ibobi Singh. And though she stands little chance of winning, sparks have already begun to fly. According to the PRJA’s expenses report, the party spent about Rs 1.63 lakh from January 1 to 10, more than three times the Rs 43,218 it spent through December. Though rising, the expenses are petty for a political party—especially in the light of Sharmila’s recent claims that the BJP offered her Rs 36 crore to contest the elections. That is the…

On February 12, Kiren Rijiju, MoS for home affairs, tweeted: “Hindu population is reducing in India because Hindus never convert people. Minorities in India are flourishing.” He claimed he was res ponding to allegations that Arunachal Pradesh was being converted into a Hindu state by the BJP. The tweet caused considerable outrage. MP Asaduddin Owaisi rem inded Rijiju that he was a “minister of India for all Indians”, while Congress spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala, said, “Rijiju is a habitual liar known for spreading canards to polarise people”. However, in Rijiju’s home state of Arunachal at least, the Hindu population has been in rela tively steady decline since 1991, despite a strong RSS presence. Muslims form a negligible 2 per cent of the population. Christians, on the other hand, have grown…

A recent decision by the Narendra Modi government to set up five universities for students from minority communities has set tongues wagging in the Sangh Parivar. No one is willing to go on record, but questions are being asked. There was a similar reaction when the Reserve Bank of India appeared to be ready to allow Islamic banking in the country. Many in Sangh Parivar circles were asking how Modi could permit such a thing after making ‘sabka saath, sabka vikas’ and equal treatment for all the cornerstone of his election campaign. The plan was scrapped, however; the government said Islamic banking would require too many laws to be changed, and would be superfluous anyway, given the number of inclusive-banking programmes already in place. One of the questions now being…

The death of a priest in Rajasthan’s Ajmer district may have exposed largescale misappropriation of devotee donations in private temples across Rajasthan. When mahant Sompuri, head priest of Pushkar’s highly revered Brahma temple, was killed in a road accident on January 21, the Devasthan Vibhag (government department for regulation of temples, charitable institutions and religious trusts) stepped in temporarily to manage the shrine, pending the appointment of a successor. But what the Devasthan-appointed panel found was an eye-opener. Compared to the Rs 10 lakh rep orted as donations over three months preceding Sompuri’s demise, the collections topped Rs 11 lakh in just three weeks after it took control. The ad hoc managing committee headed by the Ajmer collector also recovered Rs 26 lakh in cash from two rooms in the…

Fed up with the artificial formality of auditorium theatre, some of Bengal’s leading dramatists are taking their productions to the masses. “I’m very tired of the cli ched structure of theatre. There is no soul, no body. I am trying to come out and take theatre to where it belonged: our roots of tradition and culture,” says Manish Mitra of theatre group Kasba Arghya. Urubhangam, the group’s seven-and-a-half hour play based on the Mahabharata, moves through five different locales over the course of the production—with the audience travelling alongside. It begins on the edges of a crematorium, with the background of actual funeral pyres and crowds of bereaved helping create the fraught atmosphere of the Kurukshetra battlefield. As the action moves from the crematorium to the river banks, the forest…

I often wonder why people do not have vociferous opinions about the architecture of Delhi. Clothes, fashion, film, food and music draw a lot of engagement from all kinds of people, but architecture does not, despite impacting their everyday lives. The city is like an unfinished jigsaw puzzle, where through the centuries, outsiders and conquerors have arrived to mould it in their own image. Even the British tore down stretches of the city after the Revolt of 1857. More recently, the BRT’s construction (and demolition) has added to the urban nightmare. Who does not feel a visceral punch in experiencing a fractured city like Delhi? But there is hope. The design and art fairs being held these days are increasingly popular. I would like to believe that the fairs these…

The Cholamandal Artists’ Village, on the outskirts of Chennai, is celebrating its 50th year anniversary with an exhibition of paintings and sculptures from the largely forgotten Madras Movement, begun in the late 1950s. Spearheaded by the late K.C.S. Paniker, who also founded the artists’ village, the regional art movement consisted of students from the Madras School of Arts & Crafts, where Paniker was principal, and led to the discovery of “new premises for contemporary Indian art”, according to art historian Josef James. Opened February 6 and running through March 20, the exhibition chronicles the 50-year desi Bohemia created in 1966 by artists including K.M. Adimoolam, V. Viswanadhan, C. Dakishnamoorthy and K. Jayapala Paniker. “The idea was to create awareness about the movement and about the village,” explains M. Senathipathi, president…

HOCKEY’S HIGHEST PRIZE In the final match of this month’s championships, the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) edged out the local Ladakh Scouts Regimental Centre (LSRC)-Red with a penalty shot, following a scoreless 70-minute game and no result in extra time. There are other signs of life in the sport as well. With an American coach who was once affiliated with the US National Hockey League’s New York Islanders, the underfunded Indian national team—which has an advantage over the Jamaican bobsled squad of Cool Runnings (and Winter Olympic) fame, in that India does actually have some ice—has been competing with Asian rivals like Abu Dhabi and the United Arab Emirates since 2009. Some may recall Speedy Singhs—a forgettable Hindi film about an ice hockey team with Akshay Kumar. A documentary is…

SWITCH TO THIS With GM Modular's i-Fi switches you can control the PRICE `3,000 to `5,000 AT www.gmmodular.com lights, fans and blinds, turn appliances on or off and monitor their behaviour with a Wi-Fi or 3G/4G connection through the GM i-Fi App, from any part of the world. Other features include setting a timed lighting schedule for different rooms, subtle backlight (making it easy to locate it in the dark) and a function to create ambient scenes as per the mood. A NEW WAY TO BREW The Siphon Coffee Brewer from KitchenAid has a PRICE `12,990 AT www.kitchenaid.in brewer constructed from premium glass with stainless steel accents. Its reusable stainless steel filter is easy to clean and eliminates waste, disposable filters create. The strong magnetic interlock system secures the top…

On a cloudy January afternoon, the shifting sands of Rajasthan, which till now resonated with the folk tunes of the Manganiar and Langa tribes, married contemporary world music and gave us, the enraptured audience, a slice of other-worldly music ACCEPTING DUALITIES For us, the suave city-dwellers, the culture vulture hipsters, the music buffs who know the music scene inside-out, an indie music festival means a chance to backpack to an exotic location and spend another weekend in the blissful company of lyrics and rhythms. But Taalbelia, the four-day festival which saw 30 artistes from across genres was anything but another indie fest. A rare glimpse into Rajasthan—a strong connection to its folk traditions, a royal heritage and an unparalleled hospitality, Taalbelia was a sapid mix of art and culture, tradition…

1 FIT AND FAB Turn your fitness session into a date as you head to the gym together to stay in ship shape. Genesis Fitness Centre has a Valentine’s Day offer in which you get free deals for your partner when you enroll for a year-long gym membership. PRICE Rs 12,990 onwards AT 202, Shilp Aaron, Sindhu Bhavan Road, Off S.G. Highway, Bodakdev 6FORWARD TO 2 SKY HIGH They say the happy feeling of love makes you fly high. You can experience that, literally in a hot air balloon. Take that someone special in a balloon safari soaring high up to 350 ft above ground in Ahmedabad that offers spectacular views of the heritage city. If you want to add a touch of romance, carry along flowers or a box…