Innholdsfortegnelse for March 6, 2017 i India Today

48 OF 60 The number of Assembly seats held by the Nagaland People’s Front Neiphiu Rio, former Nagaland chief minister and sole Lok Sabha member from the Naga People’s Front (NPF), had a dream. He wanted to be CM again. He had already served three consecutive terms, quitting in 2014 because he thought he had a shot at becoming a cabinet minister. At the time, NPF leader T.R. Zeliang had eagerly stepped in to fill the vacated post. But though Rio was elected to Parliament, he was overlooked for a cabinet post With Zeliang forced to resign in February this year—after Nagaland was riven by protests against his decision to implement 33 per cent reservations for women in civic elections—Rio became the obvious favourite. But in a byzantine turn of…

In a perceptibly ‘political’ move, the Devendra Fadnavis government is mulling the withdrawal of a 2002 policy aimed at encouraging grape cultivators and the state’s fledgling wine-making industry. Granted initially for a period of 10 years, the excise tax exemption granted to wine-makers was extended for another decade in 2012. This, and a 16 per cent (of 20 per cent) sales tax refund, has helped the industry grow, making Maharashtra the largest producer of wine in India today. But the Fad navis government is now looking to ramp up revenues by taxing grape wine. “It will be a reality soon,” promises excise minister Chandra shekhar Bawankule, clearly ent h used by excise department estimates that it would increase the state’s earnings by Rs 200 crore. The minister says the wine…

In the land of Mannargudi, Samy and friends have hit the ground running. Tamil Nadu’s new chief minister, Edappadi K. Palanisamy, who realises that he gets no honeymoon period, has decided to do an Amma. The Jayalalithaa brand of populism is what marked Palanisamy’s day one in office. Contrary to his predecessor O. Panneerselvam, who did not use Jayalalithaa’s office, Palanisamy took over Amma’s chambers. And following in the footsteps of the late CM, Palanisamy too decided to begin on a sober note. Five hundred more liquor vends will be shut down, in addition to the 500 closed by Jaya as part of her phased prohibition promise. This means the 6,300-odd TASMAC liquor shops which generate a revenue of Rs 26,000 crore annually, are now down by 1,000. PATNA In…

THE crowd is enthusiastic and hangs on to every word he says. “When you press the button on election day, it will not be to defeat someone or make someone win. You will press the button to change the destiny of Uttar Pradesh after 15 years of corruption and bhai-bhatijavaad (nepotism),” Bharatiya Janata Party national president Amit Shah says to a packed election gathering at Rudauli near Faizabad town on February 18. Repeated endlessly through this campaign, it’s a familiar spiel centred around Prime Minister Narendra Modi—“a leader committed to governance” pitted against “a coalition of two corrupt clans”. The crowd cheers Shah. It’s clearly a friendly cohort. Through his 20-minute address, the BJP president doesn’t ask for votes. He demands “a two-third majority in Uttar Pradesh”. And, out in…

A will brings order to the distribution of your wealth after your time. It also helps family members get a list of your assets so that none of it goes waste. According to questions answered in the Lok Sabha and data released by regulatory bodies, about Rs 64,000 crore is lying unclaimed with banks, the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation, insurance firms, corporate houses and post offices. As per a survey by online will-maker Willjini, less than 1 per cent individuals with means may have made a will. What a will can include A will includes details of all assets, movable and immovable. It also includes artefacts, intellectual properties, including patents and copyrights. A will is the legal expression of a desire to distribute one’s personal assets. Even a decision like…

South Indian Platter February 24 Dig into Malayali delicacies like loon olathiathu, kadala olarthiyathu and fish coated in spice paste and shallow fried, at Poppaddum, a pop up kitchen at Lost the Plot, Pune’s first open air cinema studio. Sneha Nair, an economic researcher-turned-home chef brings traditional delicacies from Kerala to this pop-up. At 128/8, Laxmi Road, Aundh Time 7.30 p.m. onwards Tel 830817441 Want to tell us about an event? A new store? A restaurant? People doing interesting things? Anything newsworthy? Please email us at: simplypune@intoday.com…

WATER GAMES Finkick AKE TO THE WATERS TO PLAY A GAME and tone up your muscles. Octopush is a noncontact sport played in the swimming pool by six members on each side in which each player dons a fin, mask and snorkel to help them move in the water and push a ‘puck’ at the bottom of the pool. Besides being fun, the game is a good water exercise that tones up the muscles and increases stamina. Finkick Adventures also has professional scuba diving classes right in the middle of the city.. PRICE Rs 2,500 for an eight session package of Octopush DETAILS finkick.com UPSIDE DOWN Anti Gravity Yoga A new take on traditional yoga, anti-gravity yoga is all about working out while suspended from the ceiling in a hammocklike apparatus.…

G iving homegrown cafes tough competition, one of Mumbai’s favourite cafes, Indigo Deli, has arrived in Pune, bringing its smart decor and delectable food to the city. Spread across 3200 sq feet, the cafe has a show kitchen which is understandably the focus of the space, along with the bar section and the dining area that blend in seamlessly. There are different seating sections—open seating for larger groups and horse-shoe shaped booths for cosy dinners. On the Menu Think global, eat local continues to be the food philosophy here, with creative twists to comfort food and nouvelle cuisine that stresses on light cooking that preserves the identity of local ingredients. Go for the specials—the rueben sandwich in which the pastrami is made in-house and the meat is cured over 21…

Gyrocopters—a combination of a helicopter and a plane— will soon make their debut in Indian skies. The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) is in the final stages of putting together the necessary regulation, but the aircraft, also known as gyroplanes or autogyros, are already in use in other parts of the world, including the US, China, Germany and Australia. Celier Aviation, a Polish company, currently leads the race to market these vehicles in India. Celier’s gyrocopters—marketed in India by subsidiary Gyrox Aviation—run on petrol rather than aviation fuel, with running costs comparable to high-end SUVs. They are expected to serve many purposes, including that of a two-seater air taxi. Purchase prices will only be confirmed after the DGCA has framed the new rules, but are expected to be in…

The current Odisha panchayat election offers an opportunity to revisit an ongoing people’s struggle that is entirely reliant on local courage and resourcefulness rather than the help of politicians. For years now, villagers in Nayagarh district have protected their forests from timber smugglers. The entire community, mostly aged, and armed only with sticks, takes turns to patrol the forest and persuade criminals to abandon their activities. They have been shot at, even murdered, by smugglers. Police have been occasionally unhelpful, arresting villagers for their protests. And still, as this photograph taken on February 18 shows, they carry on, risking their lives to protect their state’s resources and environment.…

At Momentum Jharkhand, a marquee event to attract fresh investment, the state also seemed to be staring at a contradiction: while Jharkhand’s real income has crossed 8 per cent (in terms of GSDP) for the fourth consecutive year, last year it slipped from third to seventh position in ‘ease of doing business’. Inaugurating the mega show—avidly promoted by cricket icon M.S. Dhoni on TV—on February 16, Arun Jaitley spoke of Jharkhand’s abundant mineral wealth as a resource that gives the state the potential to grow 4 to 5 per cent higher than the national average. The Union finance minister was, embarrassingly, referring to the fact that Jharkhand’s growth rate is barely one percentage point higher than India’s. Chief Minister Raghubar Das, keen to use Momentum Jharkhand as a catalyst for…

If there’s one thing Defence Minister MANOHAR PARRIKAR is chary about speaking of, it is his past as a small entrepreneur and potential supplier to the DRDO in the mid-’90s. South Block lore has it that the metallurgical engineer from the IIT Bombay class of 1978 designed and developed a hydraulic component for use in the DRDO-designed Sarvatra Bridge Laying Tank. The product passed the test, but for some reason his firm never got the order. Parrikar refuses to discuss the past and insists times have changed—“indigenous partners are now always part of DRDO projects”. In this interview at his South Block office, he tells Executive Editor SANDEEP UNNITHAN how he is pushing hard on indigenisation by institutionalising change in the ministry and admits to there being mindset issues. Excerpts:…

Budget 2017 was a mixed bag for real estate investors. It reduced the holding period for capital gains in sale of real estate to qualify as long-term capital gain to two years (from three earlier). It also changed the base year for calculation of said gains with indexation benefit from 1981 to 2001. While these two changes have brought cheer, the simultaneous move to cap how much loss from house property can be set off against any other income head will be a big damper. Property on rent For property that has been let out, a home buyer can now set off losses only up to Rs 2 lakh a year. Earlier, in case of let-out property bought on a home loan, the owner was allowed to deduct the entire…

YOUNG WOMAN GETS LOCKED in a bathroom. She is not alone. You, the viewer, are with her. Suddenly, water starts f lowing from the tap. Blood spills into the bathtub. The shower curtains snap shut. The lights flicker and the screams begin. The scene’s spooky eno ugh. But the fear is magnified when viewed through the burgeoning new technology of virtual reality (VR). The only way out is to remove the headmounted device. Made by Meraki VR Studio, one of the few that specialise in VR content, the three-minute horror short demonstrates the appeal of VR. With a smartphone, a VR headset and earphones, not only does the viewer get a 360-degree perspective of an imagined space (a movie) or reality (live sport coverage) but also control on what he…

Thanks to wealthy Indians’ obsession with the exotic, and the Green Revolution’s emphasis on wheat and rice, today’s farmers prefer to grow quinoa rather than indigenous crops. But now a handful of chefs, caterers and entrepreneurs are attempting to popularise India’s little known and sometimes severely threatened grains and vegetables—taking inspiration from the knowledge that Latin America’s quinoa, too, was on the brink of extinction before its high protein content made it a global fad. Chefs such as Thomas Zakaria of Bombay Canteen and Prateek Sadhu of Masque are using these traditional alternatives to recreate old favourites. Chef Zakaria uses bamboo rice to make khichdi, while chef Sadhu makes wide use of fiddlehead fern. There are others as well. For example, in a pre-emptive strike against the GMO eggplant, Aditya…

REKHTA FOUNDATION HAS TAKEN ON THE TASK OF DIGITISING URDU MANUSCRIPTS AND MAKING THEM AVAILABLE While the third edition of the annual Urdu festival—Jashn-e- Rekhta—was met with considerable excitement and large crowds in Delhi last week, the legacy of this language is under threat. Government support is waning. Last year, the National Council for Promotion of Urdu Literature changed its rules, saying those seeking funds for research would have to sign a declaration that no ‘anti-national’ writing would be promoted. Even the NEET—a national entrance test for undergraduate studies in Medicine—recently dropped a provision allowing for the exam to be taken in Urdu. Fortunately for Urdu lovers, the Rekhta Foundation, which organised the Delhi festival, has also taken on the task of digitising Urdu manuscripts and making them available online—for…

Madhya Pradesh has moved to capitalise on its rich cultural heritage. The state has lifted the restrictions on several iconic 17th, 18th and 19th century forts and palaces that were formerly classified as protected monuments, allowing them to be developed as commercial properties. After a winning bid of Rs 5.11 crore for a 99-year lease, Indore-based Goldman Resources has five years to develop the Raj Mahal in Bhopal into a heritage hotel. Completed in 1884, the former royal residence boasts 120 rooms and a sheesh mahal (glass house), but is in serious disrepair. Elsewhere in the state, the celebrated Jehangir Mahal in Orchha is being developed as a wedding destination by the MP tourism department and the state archaeology department. Bir Singh Ju Deo, the slayer of Abul Fazl, built…

The seventh edition of the Mahindra Blues Festival, considered to be Asia’s largest Blues festival, is playing host to some of the biggest names in the industry including Irish singer-songwriter Graine Duffy, Janiva Magness, Warren Mendonsa’s Blues band Blackstratblues, Quinn Sullivan, Janiva Magness, Shemekia Copeland and SuperSonic Blues Machine. The fourmember Delhi-based BLU, who have been playing together for about two years, are getting the chance to share the stage with these stalwarts. “Mahindra Blues Festival is one of the best known blues festival in the world, so it’s a great opportunity for us to put our music to the people,” says the band, who won the Blues Band Hunt 2017 title after beating Bangalore band Polly Wants a Cracker with their originals “Fifteen Years” and “Delta Dreaming” and their…

With an eye on the fourth phase of the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections on February 23, Nasimuddin Siddiqui, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) general secretary and a cam paigner second only to party chief Mayawati, set up camp in Bundelkhand. He was indefatigable, speaking at rallies in every assembly constituency. On February 20, three days before the voting in 12 districts, Siddiqui was in the Fatehpur Sadar constituency, one of the six in Fatehpur district. At noon, he arrived at a bus station where a rally would soon get under way. He gave a speech, wielding the Justice R.D. Nimesh Commission report that showed discrepancies in the arrests and evidence against suspected Muslim ‘terrorists’. Siddiqui said the Samajwadi Party government accepted the report’s recommendations in 2013, but failed to act on…

FROM RUSSIA WITH LOV India has been able to achieve only 33 per cent indigenization in over 222 Su-30 MKI fighters it has license-produced from Russia O COVER STORY | DEFENCE N FEBRUARY 15, the Indian Space Research Organisation’s (ISRO) workhorse PSLV rocket thundered off a launch pad at Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh, for a record-making mission. The rocket disgorged 104 satellites into space, 101 of them for foreign customers. Just the day before, on February 14, global arms firms had converged on Bengaluru for the biennial four-day Aero India 2017 air show to display their fighter jets, helicopters and drones to the Indian armed forces, who are looking to buy military hardware worth over $100 billion over the next decade These two recent events, just a day apart and entirely…

SINGLE-ENGINED FIGHTER How many: 100 Budget: approx. Rs 6,700 crore Players: Saab, Lockheed Martin with Indian partners Delay: Awaiting clearance of strategic partnership AVRO REPLACEMENT AIRCRAFT How many: 56 Budget: Rs 23,430 crore Players: Tata-Airbus consortium Delay: Cleared by DAC in 2015. Held up after only a single vendor applied. Investors want a minimum order of 100 aircraft LIGHT UTILITY HELICOPTERS How many: 400 Budget: Rs 600 crore Players: Kamov, Russia with Reliance Defence Delay: Held up because Russia wants to make it under a government to government deal. No AoN issued yet TRACKED SELF PROPELLED GUN How many: 100 Budget: Rs 4,800 crore Players: Tata Motors, Ashok Leyland Delay: Contract negotiations completed in March 2016. Awaiting CCS clearance F-INSAS FUTURE INFANTRY SOLDIER How many: 200,000 soldiers to be equipped…

A MANIPUR IN NUMBERS îTHE BIG PLAYERS The Congress and BJP will clash for the 40 seats in Imphal valley; the NPF’s performance in 20 hill seats will decide their role in government formation Party 2012 2017 VOTE SHARE SEATS SEATS CONTESTING T FIRST GLANCE, S. Milan, a soft-spoken, bespectacled Naga man in his late 40s does not fit the profile. He is, after all, the leader of an organisation that has enforced a fourmonth blockade of two nat ional high ways, the economic lifeline of Manipur. But the general secretary of the United Naga Council (UNC), the apex civil organisation of the Nagas in Manipur, flares up animatedly when asked about the harassment of ordinary citizens because of the blockade. Thanks to it, there are serpentine lines outside petrol…

For insurers looking to strike a chord with consumers and establish a relationship that goes beyond annual premiums, digital has become the way forward. As people stay hooked on to their smartphones, mobile apps have become a bankable way to attract consumers. Welcome to the world of new-age insurance policies. Health insurance Health insurers are increasingly using mobile apps to engage with policyholders. Various mobile-based wellness apps have been launched of late. These offer discounts on premium to people who will stay healthy. For instance, Aditya Birla Health Insurance has launched ‘Activ Health’, a health insurance plan in which staying active and fit can earn policyholders up to 30 per cent discount on premiums. One gets reward points that can be exchanged for cash benefits while paying renewal premiums, inpatient…

A ‘DREAM POP’ DUO FROM KOLKATA IS MAKING INTERNATIONAL WAVES Nischay Parekh and Jivraj Singh, indie rockers from Kolkata, have long been part of the city’s music scene. Having inked a five-album deal with London’s Peacefrog records last year, the duo is now working on their second album, and is set to embark on a tour of the UK in May. Better known as Parekh and Singh, their sound has been described as Death Cab for Cutie meets The Smiths, but Parekh says it could just as easily be Louis Armstrong meets Nina Simone. “We’ve grown up listening to nearly every kind of music. We don’t mind wearing our influences on our sleeves,” says Singh. They performed together in 2010—and opened for Norah Jones at an NH7 Weekender in 2013.…

JUNGLE BOYS A still from a Fiverr Funny Guys video shows them prepping HOW DUNNIT? They also post ‘behind the scenes’ videos to YouTube TUBE TOPS (Top to bottom) YouTube has birthed several new stars, like Crazy Sumit, Bhuvan Bam and Kanan Gill Until a week or so ago, Felix Kjellberg, aka PewDiePie, was the most fam ous person you’d never heard of, a pop cultural superstar with over 50 million fans, earning millions of dollars in endorsements, but still somehow under the radar. If, that is, the radar is mainstream culture as defined by mainstream media. Not that mainstream media has been entirely oblivious. According to Forbes, Kjellberg earned $15 million in 2016. The next highest paid YouTube star made $8 million. Time magazine even named him in its…

Our age sits atop a graveyard of languages. The state of Urdu isn’t anything like Bo, a Great Andamanese language (its last speaker died in 2010), but its decline is bemoaned, in the active voice. Not just in the radio programmes that play old Urdu- Hindustani film songs, but in literary circles too. The Jashn-e-Rekhta—its third annual edition was held with great success in Delhi last week—is a lot more than a literary event. It is truly a festival. Varied cuisines, items of clothing, books, knick-knacks, qawwali and ghazal, sto rytelling... and a jam-packed fairground. “Who’d have thought an entrepreneur like Sanjiv Saraf will achieve in three years what several state bodies couldn’t in decades?” says a scholar come from Lucknow. Should we ready ourselves for an Urdu revival, then?…

THE YEAR 2017’s first month has already gone by. How good have you been about keeping your fitness resolution? If you’ve found yourself struggling, maybe it’s time for some inspiration. BREATHE EASY WHAT Altitude Training GOOD FOR Increase in energy, less wear and tear on system WHERE The Pilates and Altitude Training Studio, Santacruz or Alchemy, Marine Drive It isn’t a coincidence that people who live at high altitudes live longer and healthier lives, Neville Wadia tells me when I meet him at his Marine Drive fitness studio Alchemy. Wadia is explaining the use of altitude therapy, which at Alchemy involves being strapped onto a machine that creates the low oxygen levels you would find at high altitudes. In such conditions, the body adapts by increasing the number of red…

1 In Tune February 25 and 26 Whistling Melodies, a six-member whistling band, will perform at Powai Pulse at the Renaissance Hotel in Powai. The group, which performs a varied mix of Bhakti, Bhajans and Bollywood songs, has a line-up of a combination of the old and the new. Their interactive performance will include contests as well as tips on whistling. AT The Terrace at the Renaissance Mumbai Convention Centre Hotel & Lakeside Chalet TIME 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. TEL 22041727 2 Art with a Cause February 27 to March 5 The fifth Art From Behind Bars exhibition will showcase 63 canvases painted by undertrials and convicts from Byculla Jail, Arthur Road Jail, Yerwada Central Prison and Nashik Jail. Kavita Shivdasani began working with inmates 10 years ago, when…