Indholdsfortegnelse for July 23, 2018 i India Today

If data is the new oil, then India in recent weeks has seen it being used to make Molotov cocktails. Heeding rumours of child-lifters spread by the popular messaging application WhatsApp, mobs have brutally lynched 30 persons across the country, bludgeoning their victims to death with sticks, stones and iron rods. The dead were among the weakest, most vulnerable members of society, migrant workers and beggars, in some cases, simply travellers stopping to ask for directions. These tragic incidents, separated by thousands of kilometres, have followed an uncanny, near-identical pattern of mayhem. Outsiders are regarded with deep suspicion and, for each fatality, dozens of others have escaped lynch mobs by the skin of their teeth. The perpetrators who subjected their unsuspecting victims to medieval barbarity carried the best of modern…

A highlight of South Korean president Moon Jae-in’s India visit was the opening of a Samsung factory in Greater Noida, UP, the largest phone-manufacturing unit in the world. Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said the factory had created tens of thousands of jobs (directly or indirectly). Last week, Samsung shares fell by 2 per cent after Q2 earnings showed the slowest pace in over a year due to disappointing smartphone sales. India, with its growing middle class, is clearly vital to the company’s future. 120 million Phones a year will be manufactured at Samsung’s new 35-acre Greater Noida facility by 2020, up from the current capacity of 68 million, making it the world’s largest phone factory 400,000 Jobs created by mobile manufacturing companies in 4 years, says PM Modi; 120 mobile…

BJP president Amit Shah has evidently had it with mindless trolling; the new buzzword is ‘creative’ posts, or posts that have visuals. At a meeting of the party’s social media team in Pune, Shah urged workers to retaliate to criticism against the government with facts and figures. He also asked them to form three groups—to counter criticism by the print and electronic media and a third to write ‘creative’ posts. An ideal example of how the social media can be utilised, he said, was a party worker’s 2014 post that claimed Akhilesh Yadav had slapped his father Mulayam. The post helped the party enormously, Shah said.…

Communist leader Jyoti Basu was trending on social media on his 105th birth anniversary on July 8, invoked by Communists and by, surprisingly, his one-time arch-rival, the Trinamool Congress. The TMC made elaborate arrangements to observe the anniversary by garlanding the former chief minister’s portrait in the Legislative Assembly on Sunday amidst a poor turnout. Even Left MLAs gave the event a miss. Quizzed about their absence, the comrades had an answer—they were busy awakening and mobilising cadres with Basu’s example.…

“[An] open display of sympathy for those whom the administration has found guilty is not proper... There are many attempts today to disturb social harmony. Our government is committed to maintaining communal harmony and attempts to disturb the same will not be encouraged or tolerated” Bihar chief minister NITISH KUMAR, speaking to reporters alongside his deputy, Sushil Kumar Modi of the BJP, condemned the visit of Union minister Giriraj Singh to Bajrang Dal and VHP functionaries jailed in Bihar, accused of fomenting communal riots last year. Singh charged the Bihar government with the “suppression and humiliation” of Hindus. Nitish did not name Singh, but the CM’s remarks were interpreted as a rebuke.…

When the BJP pulled the plug on the three-and-a-half-year-old coalition government in Jammu & Kashmir, it was clearly just a matter of time before the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) would begin to unravel. And it’s already happening with as many as six party legislators openly revolting against Mehbooba Mufti. But contrary to most expectations, the disaffection doesn’t appear to have been engineered by the BJP. Instead, it is driven by Mehbooba’s successive attempts to promote family loyalists, both in the government as well as the party. Insiders say serious differences first cropped up when Mehbooba inducted her younger brother Tassaduq Mufti, a professional cameraman, as tourism minister in her cabinet. The move triggered resentment amid several elected MLAs who had aspired for ministerial berths. Former minister and influential Shia politician…

A student’s suicide and a flood of complaints from admission-seekers alleging extortion by Trinamool Congress-affiliated student unions has forced the Mamata Banerjee government to revamp the process of admissions to colleges in West Bengal. On June 6, Amlan Sarkar, a young student who scored 79 per cent marks in his school board exams, committed suicide after failing to secure admission to either of the two Kolkata colleges he applied to. Days before that, Arnab Ray, an 18-year-old from Rampurhat, alleged that “union boys demanded Rs 30,000” from him for admission to the journalism course at central Kolkata’s Surendranath College. This, despite the fact that his name was third on the merit list posted on the college website. Reports say a significant section of some 1.5 million students seeking college admissions…

“We need new India-specific laws that will tackle challenges thrown up by social media and over-the-top (OTT) applications like WhatsApp. Existing cyber laws predate social media and cannot deal with these new challenges”— PAVAN DUGGAL, Supreme Court lawyer, president, Cyberlaw Asia At the heart of the current debate over false news on Whats­App lie multiple issues of privacy, culpability and liability, all of which will be closely scrutinised in the months ahead. Will the government’s outrage over WhatsApp, for instance, extend into its new data protection bill which is in the works? On May 25 this year, the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation, among the world’s toughest data protection laws, came into effect. The GDPR’s next big privacy push will be aimed at over-the-top messaging (OTT) apps like WhatsApp…

24 Oct. 2016 Tata Sons ousts Cyrus Mistry from chairman’s post, names Ratan Tata interim chairman 25 Oct. 2016 Mistry writes to Tata Sons board, alleging ‘shadow control’ by Tata trustees 20 Dec. 2016 Mistry goes to the National Company Law Tribunal, alleges ‘oppression’ of minority shareholders and mismanagement 12 Jan. 2017 Tata Sons names N. Chandrasekaran as chairman 6 Feb. 2017 Mistry removed from the post of director on Tata Sons board 21 Sept. 2017 Tata Sons board approves plan to become a private company 12 June 2018 NCLT sets July 4 as date of order 4 July 2018 NCLT defers judgment till July 9 9 July 2018 NCLT dismisses Mistry’s pleas challenging his removal as Tata Sons chairman…

The 10 categories of award-winners were identified after a three-month-long intensive survey by research agency Samagra Development Associates. The categories are biotechnology and pharmaceuticals, food processing, automobiles, textiles and garments, defence and aviation, electronics, telecom and communications, leather, renewable energy and innovation. The selection was done based on parameters such as growth potential, employment generation, contribution to industry, genesis and background, and brand image. Later, secondary research was conducted across the categories on over 250 companies, followed by a primary research on 50 companies to come up with a list of nominees in each category. The jury then selected the winner in each category.…

LEATHER | ROGER INDUSTRIES KULBIR SINGH, 71 Kulbir Singh and his wife Dalbir Kaur worked in a shoe factory in Germany when in 1979 they decided to manufacturr leather shoe uppers. Germany was one of their first markets. Four decades on, their Agra-based company has a turnover of Rs 111 crore. Making nearly 100,000 pairs a month, it exports to markets across Europe, the US, Canada, South Africa and Australia. The company has inhouse testing for products at each stage of production. It has been awarded a certificate of merit by the Council of Leather Exports, among other awards. Having diversified into safety workwear, the company makes accessories and apparel such as goggles and gloves besides shoes. As Varun Bhudiraja, president (operations), says, “We see a lot of potential in…

FOOTWEAR DUCERE TECHNOLOGIES KRISPIAN LAWRENCE, 34 For Krispian Lawrence, 34, and Anirudh Sharma, 31, both engineers educated abroad, a start-up for unobtrusive and user-friendly wearable technology innovations offered an immense challenge. Ducere Technologies, which they founded in 2011, offers the world’s first interactive haptic footwear, branded LeChal or take me along in Hindi. The footwear has insoles with pods that can connect to phones via Bluetooth and the Lechal app that uses Google Maps for directions. Removable sensors embedded with two rechargeable lithium batteries help users navigate crowded, noisy streets through vibrations and sensations. A one-time charge gives a month-long battery life. Ducere has sold 12,000 pairs till now in 75 countries. Selling at Rs 6,999, it has teamed up with Amazon in India. Starting off as an academic project…

When David James and Sunil Chhetri sit side by side, they make an interesting picture: One a striker, around five-and-a-half feet tall. The other a goalkeeper, well over six feet. James’s home side England is head and shoulders above India in football, too. But when the Briton talks about the World Cup, or his own bit role in the big show as a commentator, all you hear is respect for the smaller teams in the fray—and of how they represent the possibilities of the sport itself. Teams like Germany, Spain and England are expected to reach the semis and finals, he says. But when a team like Panama scores, even in a 6-1 defeat, the ecstasy of their celebrations might have you thinking they’d won. “That’s the best part,” says…

LIKE A GIRL by Aparna Jain Context 799 As its title suggests, this would-be inspiration seeks to redefine what it means to act like a girl, with the stories of 56 women who fought for India’s independence, scaled mountains and stuck it to The Man as it were DON’T PULL MY CHEEKS by Meghna Chaudhury The Irrelevant Project 223 Pulling a kid’s cheeks is harmless enough, we suppose. But nobody really likes it and nobody ever asks permission to do it—so it’s a clever way to open a discussion on boundaries and consent LACHMI’S WAR by Geeta Dharmarajan Katha Books 120 Theevil asura Tobakachi,whowantsto rule the world by preventing girls from going to school, has plenty of real-life antecedents—and not just in our neighbour to the West. Luckily, there are…

THE VIETNAM WAR A new documentary series from the masterful Ken Burns is a global phenomenon, but it’s relatively rare for one to make its way to the small screen in India. Rarer still, it includes perspectives of Vietnamese soldiers and civilians from both sides of the conflict. Netflix THE MAGICIANS (SEASON 2) Despite initial lukewarm reviews, this fantasy series based on the novels of Lev Grossman has gathered steam (and fans), prompting comparisons with the escapist charm of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Amazon Prime Video MAIGRET Best known as Mr Bean and Blackadder, Rowan Atkinson portrays French novelist George Simenon’s iconic detective Jules Maigret in this atmospheric period piece—without even a moment of slapstick hilarity. Zee5…

Numerous trophies and certificates adorn the office of Somaya and Kalappa Consultants in Mumbai’s Ballard Estate. The accolades by varied bodies, a doctoral degree by Smith College, US and the Baburao Mhatre Gold Medal for Lifetime Achievement by Indian Institute of Architects bear testimony to the vast work that architect and professor Dr Brinda Somaya, 68 has done ever since she first began her practice in 1975 from her studio in a garden shed. In four decades, she has built sprawling corporate and educational campuses, homes, restored and conserved heritage structures and spearheaded movements for a better planned Mumbai. Her recently published book Brinda Somaya Works and Continuities documents the 200 plus projects she has worked on, most of which, she proudly says “are still in use and have not…

Director General of Telangana State Special Protection Force (TSSPF), Tejdeep Kaur Menon, shares her experiences of the city’s Ameenpur lake and lists five birding hotspots around Hyderabad. Hyderabad was once a vibrant lake city with over 2,700 lakes in and around its vicinity but now, there are barely a handful left. On a visit to Ameenpur Lake a few years ago, it was heartbreaking to see the dirt and plastic, so I decided that we needed to do something about it. Over several weekends and joined by other like-minded groups and locals, we gradually started to clean out the lake. Ameenpur is now the first ever water body in the country to be declared a Biodiversity Heritage Site. During one of our initial cleanup visits, we managed to rescue cormorants…

The brightly-coloured seating, the greenery and the stylish ceiling lights come together to create a rather smart no-fuss ambience at Zephyr, a new gastrolounge in the city. Zephyr means a soft gentle breeze and everything follows that mood, including their specialty cocktails, sans artificial colours and flavours. Fresh is the word here and the bar displays an array of fruits and flavours that feature in the drinks, apart from a hot plate on which syrups are freshly made. The result is a bunch of artisan cocktails, each one with a surprise twist. The ruby red bay merchant, for instance, is a drink made with Bombay Sapphire gin, a hint of ginger and the tangy flavour of kokum extract. Smooth talker is as healthy as it is heady, containing cold-pressed beetroot…

The specialty Asian restaurant of the recently launched ITC Kohenur in Hyderabad is every bit a blend of the classic and contemporary, as the name suggests. Step in and there is nothing predictably Chinese about this luxury diner and yet the tasteful ambience reflects the orient. You cannot help but be taken in by the striking red theme that runs across the restaurant, while unconventional touches like the cloud artwork featured on one of the walls as a traditional omen for growth, invite interest. Settle in to taste the exquisite delicacies listed on the menu. The dimsums are appetising, while the entrees like chili lamb with bell peppers and micro greens, and crispy eggplant with garlic are subtle and flavourful. Beijing duck is the whole duck served with duck skin…

Q n A 1 TAKING STAGE The Qadir Ali Baig Theatre Foundation’s production Under An Oak Tree will be staged as part of their Theatre Weekend series for July. Theatre revivalist wand artist, Mohammad Ali Baig, who has directed the play and features as the unnamed protagonist in it, shares his experiences. Tell us about Under An Oak Tree Under An Oak Tree revolves around the ideas of childhood innocence, adolescence and growing up. It has a set comprising a chic bachelor pad on one side and a room in a haveli filled with antiques, silverware and sepia-toned photographs on the other. The two are divided by an oak tree, which serves as a metaphor for two different lives of the same individual. It was staged at London in April…

You can read this book with pleasure and amusement, but there is much that is dark here—portraits of deep loneliness It is common when speaking of the State to talk about institutions and systems. But in Pakistan—indeed, across South Asia—personalities often matter more. Tilak Devasher’s second book, Pakistan: At the Helm, is a byproduct of his first, Pakistan: Courting the Abyss, an ‘analytical collection of anecdotes and vignettes’ that he came across while writing the latter. Reading about the foibles and failings of Pakistan’s leaders may provoke some mirth, but Devasher writes with rare empathy. This is not a book that subjects the Pakistani leadership to undeserved contempt; rather, it reveals complex human emotions, peculiar weaknesses that bring men ‘to the helm’; and destructive strengths, the obduracy of will that…

Tamil Nadu chief minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami has assigned seven senior IAS officers to oversee the implementation of a plan to restore the state’s water bodies. A pilot project had received a positive response two years ago. The Water Resource Department has listed 1,511 projects in its 15 circles for this year and the state government has asked district collectors to ensure optimum people’s participation. If this succeeds, the project could also revive the AIADMK’s fortunes.…

The Bigot Sweepstakes As if miffed that Jayant Sinha had established an unassailable lead in the race to the bottom with his loathsome garlanding of convicted murderers, Subramanian Swamy sought desperately to claw back lost ground with a desperate attack on homosexuality as “unnatural”, “against Hindutva”, and a “threat to national security”. To be fair to Swamy, he did add that people should not be discriminated against because of their sexual orientation. Just demeaned and verbally abused then? Let’s treat homosexuals as equal, Swamy seems to be arguing, while also investing taxpayer money in “medical research” to find a cure for their “disease”. Swamy and Sinha are not alone. Many of their BJP colleagues have been tripping over themselves to advertise just how hate-filled they can be. It’s almost as…

We want a government of laws, not men’, said John Adams in 1780. Cicero similarly told us that ‘we are all servants of the law in order that we may be free’. The rule of law over the rule of men is indeed an unqualified good. Having a constitution is not, in itself, a great achievement; Hitler too had the Weimar constitution, and so have there been constitutions in the erstwhile Soviet Union and Saddam Hussein’s Iraq, but they were devoid of any ‘constitutionalism’—the idea that limits the powers of government. Once again, democratically elected leaders across the world are turning authoritarian, and the real threat to democratic governance today is from the ballot, not the bullet; the era of military coups is over. This global trend is clearly visible…

A CONGRESS ALLIANCE IS PERHAPS THE ONLY WAY FOR PAWAR TO BAIL OUT THE NCP Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar has met Rahul Gandhi three times since March, his first one-to-one dialogue with a Congress president in 15 years. More recently, he ‘gifted’ the Congress an extra seat during the biennial state legislative council elections on July 9. The overtures, some say, reflect Pawar’s desperation to remain relevant in Maharashtra politics, possibly by stitching an alliance with the Congress before the Lok Sabha and state assembly polls next year. Having lost all recent major elections bar one, the NCP’s political fortunes have been on a downslide for some time now. In the Legislative Council polls too, NCP-backed independent candidate Sandeep Bedse lost to the Shiv Sena’s Ashok Darade…

THE IMC’S DEBT BONDS, WITH AN AGGREGATE VALUE OF Rs 100cr, GOT BIDS WORTH Rs 215cr. A TOTAL OF Rs 140cr WAS ACCEPTED The Indore Municipal Corporation (IMC) has become the first civic body in the country to be listed on the National Stock Exchange’s electronic debt bidding platform. Opening on July 5, IMC debt bonds with an aggregate value of Rs 100 crore were oversubscribed 1.26 times. While bids worth Rs 215 crore were received, a total of Rs 140 crore was accepted. Indore opted to raise finances from the market rather than the conventional banks to benefit from a central scheme wherein the first 10 civic bodies to do so would get a subsidy amounting to 13 per cent of the money raised (subject to a maximum of…

WhatsApp uses an open system to communicate between users. These messages could be intercepted by unauthorised persons who could track and read messages in transit WhatsApp could access the content if served with a legal notice. It could track who composed and forwarded a particular message since messages remained on its servers AFTER APRIL 2016 WhatsApp introduces a new default end-to-end encryption system called Signal. The most powerful system of its kind used by a messaging app, it has perfect forward secrecy (PFS), which means keys used to scramble communication cannot be captured from the server This means messages, videos, audios and SMSes cannot be tracked by unauthorised persons. Metadata, too, is encrypted when messages are in motion Not possible to track originators of messages: for instance, who uploaded or…

MISTRY’S CHARGE • Amendments to the articles of association of Tata Trusts, a majority shareholder in Tata Sons, acted as a constraint on Cyrus Mistry and limited his ability to turn around the company. The board’s agenda for Tata Sons and group companies needed prior approval of the nominee directors of Tata Trusts • The Shapoorji Pallonji Group needs representation proportionate to its 18.4 per cent shareholding in Tata Sons • Making Tata Sons a private firm detrimental to the interests of the Mistry family since it prevented them from selling their shareholding without approval of the company board • Tata Group may face $18 billion (Rs 1.23 lakh crore) in write-downs because of five unprofitable businesses that Mistry inherited, including Tata Steel and its European arm, Indian Hotels, Tata…

RENEWABLE ENERGY NAVITAS GREEN SOLUTIONS PVT LTD VINEET MITTAL, 31 Coming from business families, Vineet Mittal and Sunay Shah, 33, were pretty certain about entrepreneurship while studying family business management at the SV Jain Institute of Management in Mumbai. The duo saw immense potential in the solar industry and decided to concentrate their energies there. “What the mobile phone did to the telecom industry, the solar industry did to the power sector,” says Shah. “If mobile and wireless phones removed the need for laying telecom lines, solar power excluded the need for power transmission lines since it could be generated at the source of consumption.” In 2015, they set up a plant to make crystalline solar panels at an industrial estate near Surat. They took a Rs 30 crore…

TEXTILES ANGEL FIBERS ASHOK DUDHAGRA, 43 His is a rags to riches story like no other. Son of a poor farmer from Nandpur village in Kalawad tehsil of Jamnagar district in Gujarat, Ashok Dudhagra would often go to bed hungry as a student of BSc in chemistry in Kotak College, Rohtak, in the ’90s. Cut to now and Asok Dudhagra’s ultra-modern spinning mill near Kalawad, employing 250 people and set up at a cost of Rs 75 crore in 2014, hopes to post a turnover of Rs 200 crore next year with an additional investment of Rs 60 crore. His fine cotton yarn is exported to over half-a-dozen countries today, including the US, China and Vietnam, while his Indian clientele includes Siyaram Suitings, Donear Suitings, Vicky Fashion and Lalita Export.…

BIOTECHNOLOGY JAGADEESH BABU RANGISETTY, 52 BIOPHORE INDIA PHARMACEUTICALS First associates at BITS, Pilani, and then colleagues at pharma major Navinta in the US, Jagadeesh Babu Rangisetty, 52, and Manik Reddy, 39, returned to India and founded Biophore India Pharmaceuticals in Hyderabad in 2007. “We had identified a largely unmet need for a reliable partner who could timely deliver complex and rare products to the market,” says Rangisetty. And Biophore was set up in 2008 to bridge this gap. Starting with a seven-member team, the company today has close to a thousand employees, of whom two in every five are scientists. It also has an 80,000 sq ft research and development centre, a formulation facility in Hyderabad and two world-class Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients manufacturing units, with a third under construction in…

In Tianjin, Duan Weihong was closely connected to the local government through a real estate firm launched at the time the economy opened up. Moved business to Beijing in 2002 SUN ZHENGCAI Met Duan as CPC chief of Shunyi district of Beijing in 2002, awarded major contracts near airport in exchange for bribes THE WEN JIABAO FAMILY Money and connections from real estate gave Duan access to lucrative shares of the insurance giant before IPO. Among those offered Taihong’s shares through carefully concealed shell companies were relatives of former premier Wen Jiabao, with stakes worth $2.2 billion in 2007…

Upamanyu Chatterjee remains most famous for English, August, an affectionate satire of Indian bureaucracy and the elite young civil servants packed off to sobering stints in the hinterlands, part of an anglicised, angsty generation out of step with vast swathes of their own country. It is a funny, charming novel, despite the eponymous August’s sadness, his crisis as much existential as it is a product of his posting in a grindingly poor small town. And it is profoundly Indian. It is perhaps the Indianness of Chatterjee’s novels, their unsentimental, unsparing explorations of Indian life, that has prevented him, despite the success of English, August, from being more widely celebrated. His new novel, The Revenge of the Non-Vegetarian, can only be properly appreciated, as the use of that very Indian word…

The Rainforest Challenge (RFC) of Malaysia is regarded as one of the toughest motoring events in the world. The extreme off-roading event tests the mettle of its participants and not just the outright power and performance of the 4x4 vehicles. The Indian edition of the Rainforest Challenge is held in Goa annually and, in its fifth year running, the event ranks as one of the top three out of the 51 global editions held across 21 countries each year. If you think these numbers are huge, then the massive list of 41 participating teams will startle you further. Participants from as far as Arunachal Pradesh and as many as 10 teams from Kerala will be entering the competition, setting up base in the touristy state from the July 21 to…

Fenesta is India’s leader in luxury doors and windows and the brand has an eye on the future as it looks to help homemakers create green homes using these products. India Today Home spoke to Saket Jain about how doors and windows fall in the realm of green design. HOW CAN DOORS AND WINDOWS MAKE A HOME SUSTAINABLE? According to Energy Star (US), 25 per cent to 50 per cent energy loss occurs through fenestration. Our products have airtight sealing, which stops cool air from escaping outside and hot air from entering. This leads to faster cooling of rooms, cutting down of thermostats quicker and saving of energy by up to 30 per cent. FENESTA’S ECO-FREINDLY PROCESS Fenesta understands the consequences of fast-depleting natural resources. uPVC (unplasticised polyvinyl chloride) is…

China Platters Zega, the Asian restaurant at Sheraton Hyderabad has acquired the reputation of being one of the most peaceful diners to eat at and with some of the most stunning views of the city from the eighth floor. Their pan-Asian business lunch spread is perfect for a quick gathering and the restaurant is ideally located too, right in the midst of the numerous corporate offices in the Financial District and Gachibowli. On offer is a set menu that changes every day and includes a variety of choices for vegetarians as well, with staples like wok tossed tofu chili and vegetable yellow curry. Their home-made ice creams are the perfect conclusion to a sumptuous meal that will not leave you feeling too heavy. Price Rs 699 including taxes At Sheraton…

Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath is yet to unveil a blueprint for his promise last year to provide jobs to 7 million youth in the next five years. He has, though, extended his faith in youth power to his security detail. The state police department has issued instructions to weed out all policemen over 40, irrespective of their experience, from the CM’s outer protective cordons as older policemen are deemed ineffective. The CM’s Z category close protection cordon will continue to be manned by CISF commandos. The dozen-odd UP policemen who man the outer cordon will, however, be screened through a fitness test and interview before being appointed.…

Three-term Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and nine-term MP Kamal Nath are now subjects of PhD theses. Ujjain-based Gunja Akhand received her doctorate from Vikram University on ‘Shivraj Singh Chouhan’s personality and analysis of schemes initiated by him’ and Chhindwara-based Deepak Verma on ‘Role of Kamal Nath in politics of MP, with special reference to Chhindwara’. Both researchers claim to be fans of their subjects, though Akhand says Chouhan’s schemes haven’t reached the people to the extent they should have. Nath’s development model was comprehensive, claims Verma’s thesis. Who’s right, we’ll know by the year-end.…

Since its introduction in India in August 2016, the adoption of the Unified Payments Interface (UPI), which allows mobile apps to take payments directly from bank accounts, has reportedly snowballed. This month, data from the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) showed record UPI usage numbers in June. The government and the Reserve Bank of India are currently in talks about ways to keep tabs on all non-cash transactions in the country, regardless of size, as part of a crackdown on black money 246.4 million UPI transactions worth Rs 40,834 crore recorded in June, says NPCI 10 million UPI transactions in a single day on June 20—a record. Last year, in June, this was the approximate number of transactions for the entire month 110 No. of banks that offer UPI…

BAVALIA WAS SULKING AFTER HE WAS PASSED OVER FOR THE OPPOSITION LEADER’S POST The Congress party’s rising fortunes in the state suffered a big setback on July 3. Sixty-three-year-old Kunwarji Bavalia, an influential Koli leader who helped consolidate the party’s position among the Kolis and other OBC voters in Saurashtra, switched sides and joined the BJP. And within hours of resigning as a Congress MLA, he was sworn in as an MoS in Chief Minister Vijay Rupani’s government. BJP leaders are hailing it as a big coup, pulled off by Rupani with BJP chief Amit Shah’s full backing. Insiders say Rupani had been trying to woo the Koli leader for quite some time now. Now that he is in, Bavalia’s been allocated water resources, animal husbandry and rural development, portfolios…

For several days, messages warning about child-lifters on the prowl had pinged on smartphones in Rainpada, a tribal hamlet in Dhule district, 400 km northwest of Mumbai. Then, on July 1, the villagers saw a group of seven tribal nomads from the Davri Gosavi community speaking to a child. A group of around 20 locals, certain these were the child-lifters the WhatsApp video had warned of, pounced on them and began beating them before locking them up in the local gram panchayat office. Two men managed to flee. Soon after, a mob numbering in the hundreds—most had converged on Rainpada from adjacent villages for the weekly market—broke into the office and beat up Bharat Bhosale, Dadarao Bhosale, Bharat Malve, Appa Ingole and Raju Bhosale using whatever they could find—rods, sticks,…

At a time when America is taking a protectionist turn, Europe is staring at stagnation and China is following its own model of development, India has more than a fair chance to become the hub of international trade. It was on that promising note that Dharmendra Pradhan, the Union minister for petroleum and natural gas and skill development and entrepreneurship, delivered his keynote address at the INDIA TODAY Make in India Emerging Entrepreneurs Awards 2018 event held in New Delhi on July 6. We must seize the opportunity to emerge as a leading global investment destination in the next 50 years, the minister went on to exhort. “India has an edge in tapping global opportunities because we have the markets, the raw material and the capacity. We now need to…

AKSHAY KASHYAP, 41 AUTOMOBILES GREENFUEL ENERGY SOLUTIONS A leading player in manufacturing, assembling and supplying automotive components for vehicles running on natural gas, the company, set up in 2006, has been a frontrunner in driving the CNG revolution in India. The company’s MD, Akshay Kashyap, 41, who had worked in the United States, saw the gap between quality and costs in India and started out with the aim of building high-quality components for CNG vehicles at competitive pricing. “Green mobility,” he says, “is an imperative and won’t be niche in the coming future. We will provide the most innovative, reliable and cost-optimised solutions for sustainable and green mobility.” The company’s clients include Maruti Suzuki, Eicher, Swaraj Mazda, Ashok Leyland, HPCL and Tata Motors. It was voted the No. 1 in…

“It’s almost like there is a grand design at work in the world today,” says Saeed Mirza, “and it goes: ‘Thou Shalt Not Think’. We are so obsessed with our short-term interests that larger contexts get lost. And this is true for both individuals and nations.” Low attention spans, the loss of empathy, the danger of forgetting history’s lessons. These are running themes in the veteran filmmaker and author’s new book Memory in the Age of Amnesia: A Personal History of Our Times. Like Mirza’s earlier Ammi, this is a compilation of reflections and vignettes—some disjointed, some linked. In discussing various manifestations of hegemony and injustice, Mirza moves restlessly across time and space, and everything is grist to his mill: from the 1993 Bombay riots to the rise of the…

Illustrated by the talented Rohan Chakravarty, The Great Indian Nature Trail! With Uncle Bikky is a charming journey through 16 of India’s rich ecological landscapes—from the home of the snow leopard in Ladakh to the hornbill habitat of Arunachal’s Pakke Tiger Reserve. The first comic book from WWF-India, it joins a growing number of Indian wildlife books for children (as well as other kids’ books with social messages), a welcome trend. The quirky bird expert, Uncle Bikky, his intrepid niece Chunmun and their loveable bear-like dog Duggu ensure that the lessons provided in Bijal Vachharajani’s text go down easily. But Chakravarty is undisputedly the star of the show. Creator of the hugely popular Green Humour (www.greenhumour.com) column and website, the young dentist-turned-cartoonist’s work is as witty as it is incisive…

Lush green and dense after a monsoon shower, draped in tree canopies with birdsong in the air, it is hard to imagine that you are just a few feet away from the city’s central business district, Bangalore’s bustling MG Road. A narrow staircase leads you to the first floor apartment of Mia Lundström, Creative Director, Ikea, who calls Bangalore her home after a stint in Gurgaon. At the foyer itself that you know this isn’t a typical Scandinavian home. A large console table is stacked with memorabilia from her travels. From Tibetan handicrafts to Oriental souvenirs and local finds like metal trunks, it is a traveller’s nook of sorts. Step inside and the space opens out to a dining area bathed in sunlight with long glass windows on two sides.…

BREAD ON A DIET THE GLUTEN-FREE BREAD BOUTIQUE Whether you are gluten-intolerant or are keeping off it to stay fit, you no longer need to give up bread. Shwetha Muthanna, 36, owner, The Gluten-Free Bread Boutique, will ensure you are spoilt for choice with as many as 35 types of bread on her menu. It all began in 2006 when a friend approached Muthanna to bake a loaf for her autistic son who was recommended a gluten-free diet. “I was already running a catering business and baking. I thought, how different could it be?” she says. Muthanna took her time to try out different flours that mimic wheat and finally baked her first loaf almost a year later. Now, her entire setup at is gluten-free and she bakes sweet and…

The charm of Hyderabad's old city lies in the colourful chaos and vibrancy surrounding its majestic Charminar. Photographer Saurabh Chatterjee, who is passionate about capturing street life and monuments, holds weekend heritage walks in the old city, tracing a path from Salar Jung Museum to Khursheed Jah Baradari. Haathi Darwaza On the way to Charminar from Salar Jung Museum is Haathi Darwaza, a yellow archway that was the original entrance to the Purani Haveli. This is where you can find a couple of shops that sell the traditional Hyderabadi munshi naans. “These square-shaped naans were once patronised by the royal kitchens of the Nizams and are still made following the original recipe,” says Chatterjee. Badshahi Ashurkhana Not too far away, opposite Madina Building, is the Badshahi Ashurkhana, one of the…