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It is not all that gas
‘Come to the street, come’ |
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Charity begins at home
Right step towards title guarantee
RIP English
Going in circles
Too violent for comfort
This Heat leaves you cold!
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It is not all that gas
THE government has decided to double the natural gas price from April, 2014, bringing it almost on a par with global prices. The price hike will remain valid for five years. This may attract foreign investment in the oil and gas sector, leading to a greater exploitation of India's energy resources and reducing the dependence on costly imports apart from benefiting the state and private petroleum companies.
The government decision indicates that reforms are on track, even if in bits and pieces. It has wider implications for people in general and farmers and power consumers in particular. Since power, fertilizer and steel units are largely run on natural gas, their products will cost more. Urea and CNG transportation will become more expensive. The producers will either pass the burden on to people or force the government to step in with greater subsidy to minimise the shock. Finance Minister P. Chidambaram has hinted at a reduction in gas prices for the power and fertilizer units. The decision was taken by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs despite opposition from the fertilizer and power ministries, but the stock markets welcomed it with a thumping 520-point Sensex upsurge on Friday, although the easing of concerns over the US stimulus withdrawal also contributed to the sudden change in investor mood. The timing of the decision suggests the general election may be held before April next year and the new government may find it hard to reverse the step since it is based on hard economic logic. India has faced energy shortages because of low production, which is due to inadequate public and private investment. The government has been making efforts to cut its fuel subsidy, which has become unmanageable. Petrol has been deregulated and diesel prices are being raised incrementally. The below-market pricing of energy has dried up fresh investment and led to under-production and waste. For a long-term solution to the energy problem, the government is following the Rangarajan committee's recommendation to scrap the administered price mechanism and link domestic gas prices to global rates. |
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‘Come to the street,
come’
WHEN Brazil’s President Dilma Rousseff took office she sought to project Brazil as a global power. She initiated a series of high-profile moves to make Brazil the venue of global events like the ongoing Confederations Cup matches, the FIFA World Cup in 2014; the Olympic Games in 2016. Little did she know that her plans would face a serious challenge from a seemingly unending series of public protests. June has been a month of angst as many different groups of people became united in expressing their condemnation of the government. Anger spilled out on the streets of more than 100 cities. There seems to be no end in sight as tens of thousands of protesters chanting “Come to the street, come,” keep taking to the streets in Brazil as an embattled government struggles to come to terms with such vocal demonstration of public anger. Indeed, high fares for public transportation, increasing taxes and corruption are issues that people had lived with for long, but now much of the anger is focused on the Brazilian Congress and the politicians that form it. Legislators have been accused of a vast variety of crimes, including bribery, drug trafficking, money laundering, kidnapping, and even murder, but till now it has been almost impossible to charge anyone while he is still serving. Even otherwise, politicians seem to enjoy immunity whether they hold an office or not. Goaded into action, the legislature has shown alacrity in bringing in some reforms, but it has not yet been able to do enough to satisfy the increasingly swelling crowds of disenchanted voters who are especially angry about non-inclusive, lopsided development and other inadequacies in the world’s seventh largest economy. Even as the political class responds to the demands of the people, there is no doubt that it has to realise that development can only come when investments are made in education, when people are given decent medical care and are able to move around on inexpensive transportation. Brazilian people are showing their disapproval with the way things are functioning. Time is short for President Rousseff, who faces re-election next year. This should give her all the more a reason to carry out effective reforms.
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Charity begins at home
Finally, some degree of pragmatism is shown by the School Education Department, Haryana. The directive given to private schools under the RTE to keep 25 per cent seats reserved for the economically weaker sections (EWS) had triggered strong protests from private school bodies. Their argument that reserving such large percentage of seats for the EWS category would have serious implications on sustaining the quality of their institutions has finally been heeded to by the government.
The department has agreed to cut down the percentage of reserved seats for the EWS category from 25 to 10. Also, the authorisation given to the private schools to subject such students to a qualifying test has made things doable for the private education bodies. All this is fine but the government should put its own schools in order. Compared to other developing countries of the world, elementary education in India has been consistent in throwing up challenges. On its turn the government has consistently failed in meeting these challenges. In the last 60 years, the insistence by the government on numbers; in terms of schools, students, teachers, etc, has robbed the education system of any discourse on quality. Year after year the state governments announce more number of students enrolled, more teachers appointed on better salaries, higher budgetary allocation, including the 2 per cent education cess tax payers were subjected to — the ground reality remains as abysmal as ever. Till date, the government schools have not been able to plug the 42 per cent dropout rate at the primary level, teachers’ absenteeism still remains at a high 25 per cent, research shows that absenteeism refuses to show signs of abatement with higher salaries. The basic infrastructure like electricity, covered roof, cemented floor, black board, etc, remain elusive. With so much noise about the success of the Mid-Day Meal scheme, the truth that the majority of retained students are found deficient in basic language and computation skills should push the government to take concrete steps in improving their skills rather than burden the private institutions with its failures. |
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We choose our joys and sorrows long before we experience them. —Khalil Gibran
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Right step towards title guarantee Recently two important bills relating to real estate were cleared by the Union Cabinet. While the Real Estate Regulatory Bill, 2012, garnered much attention, the amendments to the Registration Act, 1908, (RA) have been barely mentioned.
In fact, RA has important implications for the monetary policy, through improved price discovery for asset prices, and through higher collection of stamp duty and capital gains. The objective of this amendment is to have better, more transparent, and highly digitised land market records which, according to earlier estimates by McKinsey (2001), could lead to an increase in India’s GDP by about 1.3 per cent. First, the present status, under which all transactions in immovable property in India have to be registered with the Department of Stamps and Registrations, and the registration deed is the only document indicating ownership rights. The Registrar, on the sale of property, collects requisite stamp duty, but does not assess or certify whether the sellers were genuinely the owners. The current registration system is, therefore, not a registration of title, but a registration of deed, primarily for the purpose of revenue collection. In the present arrangements, even the state cannot be held liable for incorrect registration records. The onus of due diligence to ascertain title rests on the buyer. Therefore, title is inferred from lack of contention rather than through a positive, documented identification of ownership. The current system of record-keeping on immovable property is out-of-date and unreliable, resulting in an opaque system prone to easy manipulation and festering corruption. In some cases, sale happens through the execution of power of attorney (POA) documents. Frauds abound, and a single property could be sold to multiple buyers in the absence of proper records. To avoid high stamp duty, often as high as 5 to 9 per cent of property value, mortgages/leases are not always registered; sometimes documents are registered to reflect lower transaction values. Also, when property changes hands multiple times before final purchase, counter-parties enter into unregistered sale agreements rather than registering sale deeds, to save on stamp duty. As is well-known, land records are incomplete, and land surveys are outdated: in some states last land surveys were undertaken in the pre-Independence period. The National Land Record Modernisation programme, 2008, has been rolled out to digitise all paper-based land records, but without any attempt to verify or update them. Land being a state subject, existing paper-based records follow a different pattern of maintenance and are in different languages which need to be standardised across the country. All these issues in registration make it impossible to ascertain the ownership of a property. The lack of ownership data is acute in the urban areas and, therefore, urban planning and governance are directly impacted. A number of infrastructure projects are delayed because of disputes in land titling. Inadequate management of land records results in protracted litigation putting pressure on the judiciary, and over 70 per cent of the land-related litigation relates to ownership titles, according to some estimates. In the private sector, many industrial projects are held up due to litigation over titles and inability to ascertain the correct market value of land. This implies both a loss of jobs and tax revenues. The government is mulling over the Land Titling Bill, 2011 (LTB), where titles to property will be guaranteed conclusively by the state, based on the Torren’s system. In the LTB land title guarantee would rest on the land register reflecting the complete rights and interest in a parcel of land, with an assured compensation by the government if errors are made by the Registrar of Titles. A robust registration process is, therefore, a prerequisite for a complete, up-to-date ownership records which can then be used to guarantee title. To enable this, record-keeping on immovable properties needs to be technology-enabled, updated real-time, with online search retrieval facilities, and digitally stored with backups. The recent amendments to the Registration Act (RA), 1908, propose to do just that. The current amendment to the RA allows for electronic registration of land sale deeds, making record-maintenance easier and increasing the transparency of land markets in the long term. The amendment has also expanded the categories of instruments for which registration is mandatory. States are also expected to frame rules for electronic presentation and registration of deeds. However, in some states, like Maharashtra, reforms on similar lines had been initiated earlier. These changes to the RA are expected to provide a single-window view to all types of encumbrances pertaining to land records, be it sale, lease or mortgages. This takes us a step forward towards the objectives of the Act, where “all manner of agreements relating to land or property need to be registered if they are to be considered as evidence in a court of law”. But there are challenges to implementing the amendment and achieving the desired results. Maintaining comprehensive land information is key and integrating land survey records with registration data using cadastral level mapping with unique property ID numbers would need to be considered. Reducing stamp duty at the same time as guaranteeing title will go a long way in encouraging the registration of land transactions. To stem the misuse of power of attorney (PoA) in transactions related to immovable property, a time limit on the currency of PoA agreements may have to be explored. Further, there may be a need to amend laws related to transfer of property and implementation of contract. As land prices are generally a significant component of house prices, reforms in this sector help in safety and stability of the financial system. After all, housing accounted for nearly 8 per cent of total banking credit or about 4 per cent of the GDP as of March 2012. And real estate prices are crucial for the economy as illustrated by the experience of the US.n The writers teach at IIM,
Bangalore.
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RIP English Calgary, Canada, is a beautiful city and home to diverse population from all across the globe. In fact, it is the third-most ethnically diverse city in Canada. Though newcomers are spread all over the city, for various reasons, the north-east (NE) quadrant attracts most number of new immigrants. There are Chinese, Filipinos, Arabs, Latinos, Sudanese, Lebanese, Pakistanis, besides our very own desis — name them and you have them in the NE neighbourhood. This also means that they converse in ‘broken’ English, in their very own accent and style, to drive home a point. This gets hilarious at times and embarrassing at the other. Also, exasperating for the person trying to comprehend the ‘rosy’ avataar of the language. “You come every day. No pay, kaadey ghaat pay. This no your dad’s shop,” is how a Lahori store owner once rebuked a bunch of school kids while almost snatching away a packet of chips from them. Those freeloaders left the shop giggling while other shoppers went about doing their stuff, albeit with a weird smirk on their faces. English, as a language, is “guillotined” on a regular basis in the neighbourhood. To the extent that law enforcement agencies jokingly state that NE stands for “No English” in their lexicon. A year ago at Globalfest, a local fireworks spectacle showcasing themes from across the globe, one of our very own desis while equating it to Divali, declared how “people break bombs with joy” in India. Later, I had a hard time explaining that what the guy meant was bursting firecrackers and how our home country remains untouched by the Arab Spring. Then there was our Bhaaji from Moga, who went overboard while complementing a green-fingered Caucasian lady, a couple of houses away from him. On how, after all her efforts, her “backside looked so grassy”. “It was brown earlier. Its green now,” he zapped her with a full-throated complement. The lady’s expression varied between a stifled smile and frown. Perhaps, the “For Sale” board on her property later that month was a result of that complement. The best came from a Punjabi cab driver whose car skidded off in snow and came to rest in the deep undulation along the road. “Dispatch, gaddi in the ditch, customer vich. Send help.” is how he radioed his company for incidence feedback while seeking a tow service. The dispatcher, on the other end, did say 10-4 (a radio acknowledgement) but just kept scratching his head. A word from one language, a phrase from the other, sprinkled liberally into a sentence, structured in mother tongue. Make no mistakes. The “cocktail” is as potent as the sentence from Queen’s own English. “Kamaan te taaan have-to jana hi paindaa hai veerji. Ithey laifaa hard ney” (One has to do a job to survive here, respected brother. Life’s hard here) is how one lady from Punjab put it while emphasizing on the value and dignity of work in Canada. Though such English does keep the ESL (English as Second Language) instructors busy at various immigrant settlement agencies in Calgary, mainstream Canadians are very understanding and helpful. “I’ll be equally at sea if I am asked to converse, read, write and comprehend a foreign language. In fact, I’ll be worse off. You’ll catch up. Don’t worry!” is how one instructor reassured a new immigrant. Herein lies the beauty of this country. And the city. For citizens here, content matters more than the “container”. So long as a person is able to convey what he or she wants to say, a few guffaws, misplaced pronunciation and bloomers notwithstanding, he or she is able to lead a comfortable life. This is what lends Canada what it has. Beauty in diversity. And what better day than Canada Day to salute
it.
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CINEMA: NEW Releases
Quirky
— this one word not only describes Vidya Balan's dressing sense in the film but much else. Right from the concept of the film to Emraan Hashmi's amnesia to Namit Das's sexual cravings, a whole lot in the film flirts with the bizarre and absurd. And to begin with gets away with it. As three men Pandit (Rajesh Sharma), Idris (Namit Das) and Sanjay (Emraan Hashmi) come together to pull off a major heist and the caretaker of the money forgets where he has placed it, one is all ears and eyes for what the film seems to hint at. In our everyday lives we all misplace our keys and papers but when the booty in question is an astronomical Rs 35 crores, dare anyone forget it? Mayhem is likely to follow. Clearly we assume an engaging thriller is in store as fingers point at the bawdy Punjabi wife Neetu (Vidya Balan) as well as towards the husband (sinful amounts of money are supposed to perk you up not push your towards forgetfulness). So you sit tight and brace yourself for a racy ride. Alas, after a few roller coaster ups and downs not only does the trip turn languid but after a while not funny enough either. Only plus you still want to know where the money has gone? The actors, however, get their punch-lines right. Balan stands out with her (un)fashionable attire and extra kilos and slips into the feisty persona. Whether Punjabis punctuate their sentences with a hain (a versatile word that doubles up for exasperation as well as surprise) or not, hers is quite endearing. What's remarkable about her character is despite the frills and fancies it stops just a trifle short of being over the top. With ease she humanises her part that otherwise borders on a caricature. Hashmi looks every bit the man losing not just his memory but also control over his life. Rajesh Sharma though apt is not even a fraction of what he is capable of. In some scenes Namit Das seems to be trying too hard to add spice to his character but suffices nevertheless. Sure the film could have done with a tangier tadka. Just like the khaana that Neetu continues to toss something is missing somewhere. Close to the end the drama gains momentum, but as it climaxes on an unpredictable and unconvincing note you feel cheated. The film could have been much more and doesn't live up to the premise's potential or the promise of exciting promos that have been doing the rounds for a while. Come to think of it the best has already been revealed in the promos. Still if 'out of the box' films are your cup of tea go for it. This one may not warm the cockles of your heart but certainly provides lip service to hatke films. If your senses have been waylaid by inane masala, here is a detour albeit not an outright refreshing relief.
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Too violent for comfort
THE ills of war and its impact on lives affected has been a good subject for Hollywood but the more recent wars have been the Korean and Vietnam wars. Then came Afghanistan and Iraq. Hummingbird is about Joey Jones (Jason Statham) who becomes a survivor in London where he is initially beaten up by hooligans in the by-lanes of this cruel city. But he's a tough guy and decides to retaliate. Not only that but later becomes a kind of Robinhood who robs the rich to feed the poor. May be like a hummingbird or do-gooder and who should be the biggest beneficiary but Sister Cristina (Agata Buzek) of the Sisters of Redemption (and hence its other titles are Redemption and Crazy Joe) who feeds the poor and homeless. It is around the relationship between these two that the film is built.One can call it a modern "The Nun's Story" (remember Audrey Hepburn as the heroine?) though keeps the future in a haze. Then the romance between Sr Cristina and Crazy Joey is rather contrived. From feeding the poor she moves to attending the opera, her first love, using casuistry only nuns and Jesuits are known to possess. It is amusing to a certain degree but not very plausible. Still the crux of the film hangs on this peg and when he becomes aware of her past it evokes even more sympathy. There are some corny scenes in which Cristina wears one of the dresses given to her by Joey and goes to a nightclub only to elicit clues on the murder of a prostitute. But the solutions are far too simplistic with the hero meting out justice at will. That he works for a Chinese restaurateur gives the story more mileage but not much credibility. son Statham is his usual self though he is overworked but it is Agata Buzek who is able to show her emotive range besides being cute in her frameless glasses. The others are merely moths who flit in and out of the frame. Hummingbird does have its moments but it is too contrived. See it only if you have nothing better to do. |
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This Heat leaves you cold!
sandra Bullock, Hollywood's patented girl-next-door, is back after a long hiatus and this time she's shed that old image for that of a girl in pants. As FBI special agent Sarah Ashburn (Bullock) she is thrown into a situation that is far from funny and she and her partner, buxom foul-mouthed detective Shannon Mullins (Melina McCarthy), is not the best duo one can come up with. But Bullock does a good job in a different role. The blame for the failure of the film of course must go to director Paul Feig who should not have touched this subject with the proverbial barge-pole and to a great extent to scriptwriter Katie Dippold whose cheap gags and even coarser situations are sure to numb the viewer. Not that there's much of a story either and there is not even one good cameo for dramatic relief. May be the drunken dance by the duo is the highlight but that's not saying much in a film which leaves one annoyed and cold, very cold.. |
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Saturday June 29
India talkies 4:30pM Heyy Babyy is a comedy film starring Akshay Kumar, Vidya Balan, Fardeen Khan, Riteish Deshmukh and Boman Irani. It is the first full-length feature film directed by Sajid Khan. It is a remake of the 1990 Malayalam film Thoovalsparsham which itself is inspired from 1987 Hollywood hit film Three Men and a Baby, which is a remake of the 1985 French film Trois hommes et un couffin. ZEE CINEMA 7:20AM The Don 11:00AM Bhai 9:00PM Vishwatma INDIA TALKIES 6:00AM King Uncle 9:30AM Mrityudand 1:00PM Om Shanti Om 4:30PM Heyy Babyy 8:00PM Mr. Natwarlal ZEE ACTION 7:00AM Jaagruti 10:30AM Betaaj Badshah 1:30PM Dalaal 5:30PM Dhartiputra 8:30PM Ravan Raaj: A True Story ZEE STUDIO 8:00AM The Waterboy 9:55AM Girl, Interrupted 1:00PM Signs 3:00PM The Country Bears 5:00PM Pearl Harbor 9:00PM The River Wild 11:25PM Smokin' Aces STAR MOVIES 10:14AM Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs 12:14PM The Karate Kid 2:32PM Mr. Popper's Penguins 4:31PM Dragonheart 6:39PM Hellboy II: The Golden Army 9:00PM Snow White and the Huntsman 11:11PM X-Men: The Last Stand MGM 8:00AM Stella 9:45AM Lord of Illusions 11:30AM A Home of Our Own 1:30PM Dr. Heckyl and Mr. Hype 3:15PM Stella 5:15PM Scenes from the Goldmine 7:00PM Dr. Heckyl and Mr. Hype 9:00PM Betrayed 11:15PM Lord of Illusions B4U MOVIES 12:00PM Pyar Ki Kahani 4:00PM Kala Sona 8:00PM Kismat Konnection SONY PIX 10:40AM Kung Fu Panda 12:25PM Slumdog Millionaire 2:35PM Robocop 2 4:55PM Lemony Snicket's a Series of Unfortunate Events 7:05PM Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa 9:00PM The Expendables 11:05PM The Amazing Spider-Man SET MAX 7:55AM Jeet 11:35AM Don No. 1 2:35PM Tere Naal Love Ho Gaya 5:40PM Student of the Year 9:00PM Murder 3 11:45PM Humse Badhkar Kaun Sunday june 30
STAR MOVIES 11:10PM The Karate Kid is a martial arts drama film and remake of the 1984 film of the same name. It is the fifth installment of the Karate Kid series, serving a reboot. The film was directed by Harald Zwart and produced by Will and Jada Pinkett Smith. The film stars Jackie Chan and Jaden Smith. Principal photography for the film took place in Beijing, China; filming began around July 2009 and ended on October 16, 2009. ZEE CINEMA 7:15AM Apna Sapna Money Money 2:25PM Laadla 5:50PM Ishq INDIA TALKIES 6:00AM Heyy Babyy 9:30AM Mr. Natwarlal 1:00PM Veer 4:30PM Phir Bhi Dil Hai Hindustani 8:00PM Paatshala ZEE ACTION 7:00AM Fateh 10:30AM Shera 1:30PM Yeh Hai Jalsa 5:00PM Music Blast 5:30PM Yamraaj 8:30PM Muqaddar Ka Badshaah ZEE STUDIO 8:00AM Smokin' Aces 10:40AM The River Wild 1:00PM Kiss of the Dragon 2:45PM Crazy on the Outside 4:55PM The Net 2.0 6:55PM The Crew 9:00PM The Mummy Returns 11:50PM Arachnophobia STAR MOVIES 8:51AM Eragon 11:01AM X-Men: The Last Stand 12:42PM Snow White and the Huntsman 3:18PM Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End 6:26PM X-Men: First Class 9:00PM The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor 11:10PM The Karate Kid MGM 8:45AM Spellbinder 10:30AM Gate 2: The Trespassers 12:15PM Sticky Fingers 1:45PM Soda Cracker 3:30PM Steele Justice 5:15PM Spellbinder 7:00PM Soda Cracker 9:00PM Love at Large 10:45PM Crime and Punishment B4U MOVIES 8:00AM Deewange 12:00PM Prey 4:00PM Jadugar Ki Kahar 9:00PM What's Your Raashee? SET MAX 7:00AM Krrish 10:00AM Godzilla 1:00PM Murder 2 5:00PM Murder 3 9:00PM Murder 3
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Undeniably, the film has moments especially the verbal banter between the couple, their bedroom rendezvous in particular. Few of the antics and amusing one-liners strike home but more just miss the target and land at an irretrievable space. Not that at any point you feel the narrative can't be retrieved (actually you keep hoping it would be) but somehow Gupta is not able to deliver a punch full of either mirth or thrills. 
In the first place director Steven Knight conceals the identity of Joey and resorts to suspense but in the process ruins the establishing shots. It is also far too violent where the hero is like a one-man army (Bruce Willis, Sly Stallone and Co, we've had too many of them for comfort) and is not needed in a human narrative. 
Actually agent Asburn is working hard on a promotion, so her boss (Michael Rapaport) sends her to Boston in order to bust a drug racket. Here she runs into aggressive detective Mullins who is crude, vulgar and reluctant to let this New Yorker meddle in what she considers her turf. F's and b's and their compounds flow out like a river in spate. The most popular four-letter word is used as a punctuation mark. Can this be considered as the Censors being liberal? But if they had to delete the abuse there'd be no dialogue left.
Hey Babby 
Karate Kids