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Lost: A job and a child Democratic alliance |
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Making direct payments to farmers
How new words find acceptance
Quirky and funny
Only director happy hai!
An engrossing affair
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Lost: A job and a child THE
death of a child under any circumstances is distressing. If the cause is unnatural, it becomes unacceptable. Whatever killed the 14-month-old daughter of a protesting jobless teacher in Bathinda on Thursday - whether a single cause or chain of events - it is being seen by the distraught teachers as a result of the government's apathy. They are right too. That the protesters were denied quilts in the winter nights is the least of the mistakes. The odds against which the teachers continue to protest are an indication of their desperate situation. Their misery has continued for just too long, and they don't even see any reasonable plan to put an end to it in near future. The multitude of teacher categories created by the Punjab Government under various schemes has created a paradox. There are thousands of posts lying vacant, yet trained teachers are protesting regularly for employment. Moreover, the varying terms of employment have created discontent even among those who have jobs. The already poor quality of education in government schools can only suffer under such conditions. The government has been unwilling to give regular jobs, which leads to insecurity of income for teachers' families. The Bathinda teacher's story - jobless since 2009 - is typical. The government has to keep the basic principle of same pay for same work in mind while formulating all policies. A lot of teachers are unable to pass the Teacher Eligibility Test. This is also a reflection of the quality of education in the state's schools, the product of which most of the teachers seeking jobs are. As things are, it seems to be a perpetual cycle. The state has to break it. Punjab's human resource has proved its quality when the demand was for soldiering or farming. In today's world a human's worth begins with education. The state has to realise this and invest far more in education than it is doing. Wasteful and populist expenses have to be cut. People are as much an engine of growth as they are votes. |
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Democratic alliance India and the US have a long-standing relationship, and it stands to reason that there would be ups and downs in the way the two great democracies interact with each other. While on the one hand, the US was supportive of India's Independence movement; on the other it also took action against Ghadarites who violated its neutrality. The documents, released in the UK because they are no longer covered by government secrecy laws, are, therefore, revealing. The deployment of USS Enterprise, an aircraft carrier, and the US Seventh Fleet into the Bay of Bengal in 1971 by President Richard Nixon was an aggressive act, borne out of US foreign policy compulsions as well as a strong dislike that the US President had for Indira Gandhi. Tape recordings, now public, show that the President and his Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger, used unparliamentarily expressions while referring to India and its Prime Minister. India felt betrayed that President Eisenhower's assurance of arms being supplied to Pakistan only for use against the communists was flouted, and they were used against India. While the US is appreciated for its help in the Green Revolution, it is not widely known that when India asked for wheat during a drought, its request was denied and eventually the erstwhile USSR supplied foodgrains. Ties between sovereign nations can never be divorced from
realpolitik. Ever since President Bill Clinton's visit to India, there has been an upswing in the relationship, with defence and trade ties increasing exponentially in the last decade. The recent incident in which Devyani
Khobragade, India's acting Counsel General in New York, was handcuffed and strip-searched by US marshals brought US-India relations to a new low. However, both countries are working to put it behind, and sort out the issues raised by it. While the hitherto secret papers are an interesting footnote in the history of the two countries, they are not likely to have much impact on their relations.
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Thought for the Day
If you do not think about your future, you cannot have one.
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School discipline in England and in India NOT long ago the Director of Public Instruction in the Punjab decided to punish the entire town of Bhiwani by disaffiliating the only High School of the place for the mischief of some one who set fire to the furniture in one of the rooms of the school. The Director would listen to no argument, no prayer and no entreaty that it was unjust to punish the entire town in this manner for the sin of one or two mischief makers. He was inexorable in his decision and said that punish be must, in the manner he thought right. We cannot imagine what would be departmental mode of punishment in India for a strike of teachers on the scale that has commended itself to the British disciplinarians at Herefordshire in which, Reuter says, pupils are resenting the presence of strike-breaking teachers and are overturning desks and throwing ink-pots and books about. Recently we also had experience of a quite and orderly strike of the students of the Lucknow Medical College. We shudder to think what would have happened to those poor students had there been collisions in the streets as in Herefordshire between strikers and non-strikers serious enough to induce parents to intervene. Reclamation of Criminal Tribes in the Punjab The following press communique has been issued by the Punjab Government: “The recently appointed Criminal Tribes Committee (P. Harikishen Kaul, C.I.E., and Mr. L. Tomkins, Superintendent of Police) has approached a number of the principal Hindu, Mahomedan and Sikh religious and social organisations in the Province with a view to ascertaining whether they are prepared to co-operate actively with Government, in the reclamation of criminals tribes. The form in which assistance might most usefully be given would be the management of settlements. This obviously demands considerable outlay of money, as well as personal devotion and power of organisation in a high degree.”
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Making direct payments to farmers ON the directions of Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi the Congress-ruled states, including Haryana, have decided to eliminate the role of middlemen in the marketing of fruits and vegetables in order to bring down food prices. The rising food inflation has raised questions about the existing agricultural marketing policies and regulations at the Central and state levels, especially those governing and monitoring the middlemen. In Punjab farmers sell their produce to the procurement agencies but payments are received by commission agents, who deduct their dues before handing over the remaining amount to farmers. It is this indirect payment system that exposes farmers to exploitation by commission agents. Popularly known as "arhtiyas" or "katcha arhtiyas", middlemen/commission agents used to be petty shopkeepers who provided domestic consumable articles on credit to people and were also involved in money-lending. An expert committee constituted by the government of Punjab in 1998 recommended a reduction in the number of intermediaries in agricultural marketing. It suggested separate licences for "katcha" and "pucca arhtiyas" and direct purchases by the procurement agencies without the help of commission agents. On October 31, 2006, Rule 11 of the Punjab Agricultural Produce Market (General) Act, 1961 was amended and it was proposed that the arhtiyas or the buyers would make payments to the sellers through account-payee cheques immediately after the weighing of the produce. If a payment is not made, the amount would be recovered by the market committee concerned from the arhtiya concerned. However, on November 16, 2006, under the influence of the commission agents' association the Punjab government stayed the operation of the legislative amendment of the rules. The Cotton Corporation of India has repeatedly written to the Punjab government and the Mandi Board that it does not want to purchase cotton through commission agents. Last year the state government initiated the direct payment system in the marketing of agriculture produce but with some formalities. The Punjab Registration of Moneylenders Act 1938 states that a person must be registered as a moneylender if he is involved in money-lending business. Only a registered moneylender with a valid licence can file suits for the recovery of his loan. A commission agent registered as a moneylender has to maintain the accounts and furnish a statement of account to each debtor after every six months. In Punjab not a single commission agent is registered as a moneylender. The registration of the commission agents is necessary to bring about transparency, generate revenue and regulate the vast rural credit market of Rs 35,000 crore, of which 36 per cent is sourced through commission agents. An arhtiya charges commission from the buyer. The commission was fixed at the rate of Rs 1.50 per cent of the value of farm produce on May 26, 1961, on an ad-valorem basis. Due to the increase in the rate of commission from 1.5 per cent to 2 per cent in 1990, the amount of commission increased from Rs. 96 crore in 1989-90 to Rs. 110 crore in 1990-91. This amount kept increasing steadily till 1997-98. Thereafter, an abrupt increase in the commission was noticed. The amount increased to Rs. 272 crore from Rs. 203 crore in just one year. The commission agents earned about Rs. 1,034 crore during 2012-13. The rate of growth of the commission from 1989-90 to 2012-13 was 9.73 per cent. Despite the fact that the commission agents do not have any significant role in the procurement of the crops (wheat and paddy) for which assured marketing prevails, they have been able to increase their commission from time to time. This happened on account of the continuous political pressure; otherwise there is no rationale for such an increase in the commission. As the market arrivals and prices go up every year, the arhtiyas' commission automatically increases. Through common exploitative practices like the non-issuance of the J-form, the charging of high rates of interest on loans and the rising rate of commission, the arhtiyas in the state earned about Rs. 2,407 crore during 2012-13. Other malpractices such as dual commission and multiple licences significantly enhance their earnings. It is presumed that the commission agents perform a challenging job as they advance loans to farmers without any security. In reality, the indirect payment system acts as a security for the loans. Actually in Punjab the whole produce of farmers is sold through commission agents. Often the argument of ignorance and inability to use the banking system is furnished to justify the role of commission agents. In reality, 89 per cent of the farmers deal with banks in the state. Therefore, the direct payment system can be easily and efficiently implemented. Under the proposed direct payment scheme, about 500 farmers have applied and obtained cards from the Mandi Board in order to receive payments directly from the procuring agencies. Basically, it should be the other way round that the farmers who are not interested in direct payment through cheques should have to apply for getting cash payments. The market principle states that the buyer always makes payment directly to the seller. It is a fundamental right of every person to get the payment himself for the sale of his commodity. A large number of farmers do not have any information regarding the issuance of direct payment cards. In regulated markets commission agents can put pressure on farmers for receiving payments through them. Therefore, some farmers are of the opinion that initially there should be separate market yards for direct payments. It should be mandatory for the procurement agency to make payments online or through cheques to the farmers. All the persons/agencies that are engaged in the business of money-lending should be registered. Finally, all loopholes in the agricultural marketing system need to be plugged.
The writer is a Senior Economist, Punjab
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How new words find acceptance Language is considered to be organic, as it behaves like living organisms in many ways. On a day-to-day basis, users of the English language give birth to hundreds of words of which only a few hundred find followers, fewer still find entry to standard dictionaries. What sustains them is their frequent use by different people in equally different contexts. In order to thrive, they must increase their word family and fit into the structural framework of the language, as seen below: 1. The Manager reported Debi’s “desk rage” to their boss. She had shouted at her junior assistant and flung files at him. A descendant from Old French, “rage” amounts to breaking into angry words or getting into physical violence and may be more, at one's office. It combines with other words to generate usages like "trolley rage", “road rage” and the more recent "desk rage". More than half of the new inventions have resulted from old and new words coming together to form compounds. 2. The “digerati” eagerly waited for the launch of their latest software at the Conference. The word "digit" has its roots in the Latin "digitus", meaning finger or toe and counting. The use of "finger" in this context could have a link with counting on one’s fingers. With “digit” occupying a nuclear position in the computer/ Internet technology, words like “digital, digitize, digitizer” and “digerati” have sprung up, so has the usage “digital citizens”. “Digerati” is coined by blending “dige-” with “-rati” as in “literati” to refer to a community of scholars and as in “glitterati” to refer to a community of celebrities. A very small number of words adopt the technique of blending in word formation. 3. Raunak is smart at “moonlighting”. He works as an editor during the weekdays and adds to his income by working as a director over the weekends. With a truly ancient past, “moonlighting” in its new avatar is a product of the mid-20th century and indicates holding two jobs simultaneously. Earlier, it indicated activities like burglary, herding and hunting carried out in moonlight. 4. I think she needs a better smart phone because her recent “selfie” doesn’t show well on the website. “Selfie” is a photograph taken of oneself with a handheld smartphone or a webcam and uploaded to a social media website. A word of the 21st century coined by an Australian, it earned noteworthy recognition from the Oxford Dictionaries for its frequent occurrence. A popular magazine mentioned it as one of their “top 10 buzz words” of year 2012. “Selfie” with “selfies” asserts technology-supported self reliance, as in the case of “space selfie”, when in space. "Selfie's" interplanetary status could have added to its claim to fame. It has also initiated “Selfie Olympics” and inspired research into “selfieism”. Many words though very popular during certain periods of time may fade out if the concepts they stand for disappear. At times, words lying in disuse get reinvented. It takes two generations of users to validate a new word’s claim to posterity. Director, Regional Institute of English, Chandigarh
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Quirky and funny Beauty
vs brains… as a theme, mainstream Bollywood doesn't often delve into this realm. And if it does it's mandatory for the intelligent woman to both conform to conventions and transform into a glamour puss. Mercifully no such thing happens here. Yet for a film that walks a new path at least in the way it has etched out its female protagonist's character, remains a marriage of unlikely minds. And we are not just talking of the chalk-and-cheese hero and the heroine apparently "unmade for each other" but more precisely the team of producers backing the film. Well, well when Anurag Kashyap and Karan Johar and a host of others like Vikramditya Motwane come together on the same platform, the clash of sensibilities is only expected. And let's admit it, this one is neither a signature Kashyap film nor trademark Dharma production. So, it's not cutting-edge realistic. Nor an over the top showcase lifestyle of the rich and famous. Rather, for once, there is little candy floss romance. You have the good looking hero Nikhil (Siddharth Malhotra) falling for the pretty winsome Karishma (Adah Sharma) till the quirky genius type Meeta arrives on the scene. Hereafter some moments are truly comic, especially those involving Nikhil's family, the IPS father played by Sharat Saxena in particular. In a Karan Johar film, expectedly all is well with the respective families on the economic affluence front that is. Even the heroine's family graduates out of a chawl to a posh residence. Yes crore is the new lakh here. The hero needs five crores to set up his enterprise, the heroine wants ten crores to back her revolutionary research. But money is only a sideshow. The conflict here is in the twist in the love tale of course. While the film not only presents new shade of Bollywood heroine, it also gives a new dimension to 'made for each other.' Still the net result is now refreshing, now confusing concoction. Besides the love between our lead pair doesn't reach out to hug you or tug at your heartstrings. And the gaps in storyline are gaping. Why our intelligent heroine behaves and acts in a bizarre fashion and elopes, is never fully explained. Strangely enough despite many dialogue writers on board there are glitches and attention to detail is a casualty. Still the film has its fun and emotive quotient and for that alone it makes for a watchable fare. The icing on the cake of course is the acting. Even though the characters are not fully baked each one of them does full justice to it. Parineeti Chopra as the pill-popping scientific brain is just perfect for her part. Siddarth once again makes your heart melt and Adah Sharma looks glamorous in her role. The supporting cast is in sync. Manoj Joshi, playing the part of the father empathetic to his daughters' complexities and exceptional talent, stands out. The romcom may not, as an exceptional one, yet is certainly worth a dekho and one that will leave you with a smile.
Only director happy hai!
Johnson Thomas
THE title implies a contentedness that is not so much in the movie as it is in the mind of the director. This new film by the I am Kalam director tries to take the romantic triangle through a 'friends only' road-trip while clamping the brakes down on a message-friendly ending. The film begins in New Delhi, where 24-year-old soon-to-be-married Jatin (Sahil Anand) is planning a road trip to Ladakh with his buddies—virgin Harvinder/Harry (Sumit Puri) and gay Rohan (Amol Parashar). But his fiancée Tamanna (Preet Kamal) has other plans for him. She wants him in Manali instead, for a wedding and some NGO work. And she hits him with this news just after he has had the best night of his life with Natasha (Erica Fernandes), one of the hotties at the bachelor's party thrown for him by his best buddies. Needless to say Jatin is remorseful and feels guilty enough to accede. So off they go and after a series of hurdles, misunderstandings and shrilly recrimination, all three young men find new meaning in their lives!
Coming from Nila Madhab Panda, this message film (HIV/AIDS sensitisation) is very much on the disappointing side. Other than Subhransu Das' stunningly lush cinematography, there's nothing new being told here. Sanjay Chouhan's script is a little too similar to Hasee Toh Phasee. The first hour in the film is playful and irreverent, typically replete with crass Delhi humour and not much else. Mid-way through it we are transported to a stunning visual paradise called Palang, somewhere close to Manali, a small town in the snow-capped hills which appears to have become a hot-bed for HIV/AIDs and is being rescued by a positive couple Deepa and Harsh (Parvin Dabas). The performances are all very much likeable. Erica Fernandes looks beautiful and can act, so can Sahil Anand, Sumit Suri, Amol Parasher and Preet Kamal. The problem lies in the depiction really. Also, the ending is not altogether convincing.
An engrossing affair THIS film is based on a true experience; it unexpectedly pits an elite bunch of US Navy Seals (on a sensitive mission in the Afghan mountains) against a fierce army of Taliban fighters. The year is 2005, the war in Afghanistan is well underway and efforts to flush out Taliban leaders are at their peak. One such intelligence lead sends the Seals to a remote hideout in the Hindu Kush Mountains of Kunar province. It's code-named Operation Red-Wings and eventually pans out to be brutally bloody with the US side losing almost all of its team, save for one lone survivor. Lone Survivor is closely based on a memoir by Marcus Luttrell (played by Mark Wahlberg). Adapted from the eyewitness narrative of the now retired Navy Seal, this is the most gruelling American combat movie since Black Hawk Down. Excellent sound work by mixer David Brownlow, fearsome stunt coordination by Kevin Scott, special-effects make-up work by Gregory Nicotero and Howard Berger combine well to make the experience worthwhile. The movie is an immensely involving experience!
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Saturday February 8 9:23am hbo ZEE CINEMA 8:49AM Military Raaj 11:24AM Main Khiladi Tu Anari 5:54PM Saugandh 9:00PM Besharam MOVIES OK 11:10AM Coolie No. 1 4:25PM Agneepath 8:00PM Chup Chup Ke 11:25PM The Real Man Hero ZEE ACTION 10:30AM Mera Lahoo 1:30PM Ek Aur Zalim 5:30PM Tahkhana 8:30PM Platform STAR GOLD 10:45AM Housefull 2 5:15PM Mai Insaaf Karoonga 12:15PM Singham 8:00PM Dangerous Khiladi 10:40PM Shootout at Lokhandwala FILMY 9:00AM Shor In The City 11:30AM Infomercial 12:00PM Heer Ranjha 6:00PM Chachi 420 9:00PM Sandwich SET MAX 10:30AM Bhoothnath 1:00PM Krrish 5:30PM Bats 9:00PM 59th Idea Filmfare Awards HBO 9:23AM The Social Network 11:46AM Get Smart 7:15PM Shaolin Soccer 9:00PM The Dark Knight Rises SET MAX 10:30AM 59th Idea Filmfare Awards 1:00PM Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani 5:30PM Ek Tha Tiger 9:00PM Pratighat: A Revenge Sunday February 9 Singham is an action film directed by Rohit Shetty, starring Ajay Devgan, Kajal Aggarwal and Prakash Raj in lead roles. It is a remake of the 2010 Tamil blockbuster Singam featuring Suriya and Anushka Shetty. ZEE CINEMA 8:28AM Fool N Final 11:27AM Aitraaz 2:41PM Bhai 6:00PM Journey Bombay to Goa 9:00PM Besharam MOVIES OK 5:50AM Batwara 9:40AM Jajantaram Mamantaram 12:05PM Yeh Hai Jalwa 2:25PM Hitech Khiladi 5:05PM Nagin 8:00PM Ready 11:00PM Return of Ghajini ZEE CLASSIC 8:38AM Brahmachari 12:14PM Mehboob Ki Mehndi 6:30PM Flashback 7:00PM Mere Humsafar 10:14PM Sadhu Aur Shaitaan STAR GOLD 10:15AM Toonpur Ka Super Hero 12:15PM Singham 5:05PM Ghayal 8:00PM Son of Sardaar 10:55PM Dhamkee SONY PIX 9:31AM Mission: Impossible 11:53AM Men in Black 3 6:23PM Angels & Demons 9:00PM Spider-Man 3 SET MAX 10:30AM 59th Idea Filmfare Awards 1:00PM Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani 5:30PM Ek Tha Tiger 9:00PM Pratighat: A Revenge HBO 9:42AM The Dark Knight Rises 5:15PM Furry Vengeance 7:00PM Kill Bill: Vol. 1 9:00PM Jack Reacher 11:37PM Shooter |
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“Only through new words
might new worlds be called into order...” —Saul Williams
After a long controversy about the mode of payment of farm produce, the Punjab government has taken a decision to negate the role of commission agents and promote direct payments to farmers for the sale of their produce. The Punjab Mandi Board issued advertisements in newspapers in August, 2013, advising farmers to apply for direct payment cards but the response has been bleak. 
Bollywood heroines come in many shapes and sizes but rarely in a de-glamourised avatar. And as and when she does appear as a simpleton she is a paragon of virtues much like a goddess worthy of worship. Thank God for small mercies, our Meeta (Parineeti Chopra), a research scientist, is not your usual self-sacrificing sugar syrupy girl or glam doll. She cocks a snook at the norms that expect girls to act and behave in a particular fashion. This gal otherwise maladjusted to the world around her possesses both guts and brains. Indeed, the film breaks a very refreshing ground.
So you have a film about relationships that takes you through the typical Dil Chahta Hai- Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara (and many more after it) set-up where you have three guys entertaining themselves with some dangerous moves, then setting out on a road-trip to freezing Manali before they come-of-age to a realisation that love, responsibility and relationships mean much more than what they experienced previously.
Fundamental deficiencies in script and characterisation notwithstanding, Berg's style of telling the story is blunt. So what we see and experience is visceral and heroic.
The Social Network is an American drama film directed by David Fincher and written by Aaron Sorkin. Adapted from Ben Mezrich's 2009 book The Accidental Billionaires, the film portrays the founding of social networking website Facebook and the resulting lawsuits. 
12:15pm STAR gold