Singers Rihanna and Chris Brown have reunited almost three weeks after Brown allegedly battered the “Umbrella” singer Feb 8.
The couple is currently spending time together on Miami Beach’s Star Island, people.com reports.
“They are together again and care for each other,” a source said.
“While Chris is reflective and saddened about what happened, he is really happy to be with the woman he loves,” the source added.
New Delhi, Feb 28: Revival in steel and cement sectors and ample funds available with states for spending today gave the centre the confidence that the country will grow by around 7 per cent in the current fiscal.
For the first nine months of this fiscal, the economy grew by 6.9 per cent and the government’s advance estimates pegged the growth at 7.1 per cent for the entire 2008-09.
Replying to a question on economic growth, Mukherjee told Karan Thapar in an interview for Devil’s Advocate on CNN-IBN, “All these are estimates and of course between 6.9 and 7.1 (there is) not much difference, but I do hope when the final figures come out it would be around seven per cent.” The economy grew by 5.3 per cent in the the third quarter of current fiscal.
To a query whether market is losing confidence due to slackening growth, he said, “I don’t agree with your (interviewer’s) contention.” He said exact numbers could be known only after it becomes clear how will economy respond to stimulus packages.
“All these things…Have to be seen for example slow revival of steel and cement industry has started, housing industry have been made adequate allocations, states have been provided funds, they themselves have good cash reserves of about Rs 91,000 crore, quite a few of them would like to spend a substantial quantum of money this year… All this would be available after March 31,” he added.
Model-turned-actress Lisa Ray today said she does not consider ‘Slumdog Millionaire’, which received eight Oscar awards, as one of the best films in the world.
“Slumdog is not a bad film. Technically, it is a good film. But I do not consider it the best in the world”, the actress told reporters on the sidelines of a function here.
Ray, the brand ambassador of Rado, was here in connection with the opening of an exclusive showroom of the Swiss watch-maker. The actress, who has acted in seven Bollywood films, including that of Deepa Mehta’s Oscar-nominated film ‘Water’, said if good offers came her way from Bollywood and regional films, she would grab them.
Ray, who is settled in Canada, said she was interested in theatre and had gone to Drama school of London.
Asked if she had heard about any Malayalam actors, ‘Mammootty’ came the prompt reply.
Lisa, who wanted to be a journalist, said she began her modelling career ‘very early’ and came into Hindi films with ‘Kasoor’ in 2001. She has also acted in a Tamil film, ‘Nethaji’ opposite Sarat Kumar.
The actress said she had recently completed the shoot of ‘Black Box’, a French film.
The film has been made clearly with one callow intention — to draw up a caricature of every possible negative side to India
Arindam Chaudhuri
The Oscars have been won — as expected! And it sure was a pleasure to hear Resul Pookutty speak about the power of silence and Om, and give Hollywood a chalk-talk lesson or two about Indian philosophy. It was also a great feeling to see the Indian living legend — AR Rahman — get something he more than deserved (though he has done far better work as well). The Indian film fraternity has some amazing green thumb talents; and some of them surely are at par with the world’s best. Thus, although only these two (Rahman and Resul) got the Oscar, I am sure there are many more deserving Indians out there who are no inferior. The only unfortunate thing is that the Oscars for them were awarded for a film that has been made clearly with one callow intention in mind — to draw up a caricature of every possible negative side that is there to India, for the sole viewing pleasure of western audiences — as I wrote in my editorial on the same issue a few weeks back (to read the same, log on to http://arindamchaudhuri.blogspot.com/2009/01/dont-see-slumdog-millionaire-it-sucks.html). Having said most of all I wanted to say about the film the last time, this time there are two more aspects to the slumdog phenomenon I wish to highlight!
I really don’t want to take away from the happiness of the Indians who won the big awards; and surely they deserve all the accolades. And as I wrote earlier, it sure is a well made film with an interesting narrative style. However, I am quite shocked at the shameful euphoria created by the half educated Indian media that has unanimously termed the movie as an “Indian pride” and “the world taking note of India”. Neither could anything be further from the truth than this nor could anything stink more of a pathetic lack of intellect and understanding of reality. While a considerable number of people are saying that it (Slumdog Millionaire) is just a film and should be simply enjoyed as a creative process and left alone, the fact — as I wrote before — is that it also happens to be a film very evidently made to show ‘only’ everything that is possibly wrong with India (often, in a completely concocted manner) for the pure viewing pleasure of western audiences, because poverty-porn sells in the west.
Yes, the movie has been marketed well… as the feel-good film of the year (for the western audiences most certainly)! To me, it surely is the most negative feel-good film I have seen! As a film, it works; but it really is then just a film… It has no commitment, for it delves on no issue and shows poverty in the most depoliticized manner. From the name of the film (Jhoparpatti Ke Kutte Bane Crorepati — if one were to translate the movie’s name into Hindi), to every scene in the film, including Anil Kapoor’s completely unreal character, the movie is a clear dilettante attempt to show India in a deliberately abrogating manner. Leading NGOs working in Mumbai slums have vouched that they have never seen maiming of children for begging — in fact ask yourself, how many times have you ever seen a blind child beggar? All those who have read our cover story on the film (http://www.thesundayindian.com/08022009/default.asp) would know how at every stage, the flick has just played with reality to show India in a jaundiced light without any obvious commitment to showing the pains of poverty — apart from Danny Boyle’s surrogate post-film speeches of course! Far from it bringing any glory to India or Indians, Boyle’s caustic photoplay has only satisfied the western urge to look further down upon the ‘repugnant’ India, especially at a time when while they are reeling under depression, India is purposefully growing healthily. The evident western desperation to speciously paint India so vacuously couldn’t have been shallower.
Globalization backfired on them and took away their jobs… So it obviously feels great to see this side to India and heartily award it as well!!
(Arindam Chaudhuri is Editor-in-Chief of Planman Media)
To be continued
Some companies have it in them, some don’t. We are talking about the ability to rewrite history. That’s what Citigroup did some ten years ago when it decided to provide investment advice along with traditional banking. Unfortunately however, Citigroup is now going through the painful process of giving up that strategy in a not-so-historic way.
As cost cutting measures and pink slips are failing to provide the bank with much needed succour, CEO Vikram Pandit seems to be at his wits’ end looking for a saving grace. And interestingly, but not surprisingly, he has realigned Citigroup’s current dealings into two separate businesses — Citicorp and Citi Holdings. Raison d’être: to free up capital and save the group from the collapse — may be his last attempt to make Citigroup stand on its feet!
With Citicorp, Pandit now plans to focus on leveraging the competitive advantages of the group’s global banking business and through Citi Holdings – which will be made up of brokerage and retail asset management (including Smith Barney, Nikko Cordial Securities, Nikko Asset Management and Primerica Financial Services), local consumer finance (including CitiFinancial and CitiMortgage in the US, and consumer finance operations across the globe) and a special asset pool — he wants to keep an eye on group’s riskier assets and hard-to-manage ventures. “With lower risk and a streamlined set of businesses, we expect Citicorp to be a high-return and high-growth business. And with Citi Holdings, we will tighten our focus on risk management and credit quality for businesses with strong market positions but that are not central to our core franchise,” avers Pandit. In fact, Pandit has also agreed to give up control of the Smith Barney brokerage to Morgan Stanley and even plans to sell the CitiFinancial consumer-lending unit and Tokyo-based Nikko Asset Management, once the hive off process is complete.
Certainly by doing so he can now strive to further reduce operating costs and allow Citigroup to sell or spin off any of Citi Holdings assets to raise cash but then is it actually going to be profitable is the question that is doing the rounds in many minds. “There are certainly ‘good bank’ and ‘bad bank’ components in Citigroup’s balance sheet, and our assumption is that with a role for the government, Citi can find a profitable path. But without treasury involvement, the path will be more dicey,” Mike Englund, Chief Economist, US-based Action Economies tells 4Ps B&M. No doubt the new move is a sort of back to basics — to focus on the pure banking by shedding off the idea of creating a financial supermarket — but then it doesn’t change Citi’s business model at all. The move only separates the business on paper with Citi’s current problems lying intact.
If the whopping $10.42 billion losses for the nine months ending September 30, 2008 were not enough, Citigroup has once again reported a net loss of $8.29 billion for the fourth quarter of 2008 — its fifth-straight quarterly deficit in a row. Revenues at $5.6 billion are heavily affected by write-downs and losses in securities and banking. This also includes $6.1 billion in net credit losses, which surely means that Citigroup is actually moving on similar lines to meet the fates of many (like Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch) who have already fallen flat in their bouts against subprime devil. In fact, today Citigroup is one of the biggest unsecured creditors with a sickeningly shocking $138 billion (an unbelievable 23% of Lehman’s gross outstanding debt of $613 billion) unsecured exposure to the Lehman collapse! Even for the full year 2008, Citigroup has reported a net loss of $18.72 billion against a net profit of $3.62 billion in 2007. Moreover, Citigroup’s share that has plunged over 77% last year on the US bourses (more than 43% in the year through the day of announcement of split), which points out to a further deteriorating situation.
Karachi, Feb 28: Adding to flip-flops over the Mumbai attacks, Pakistan’s Navy Chief today retracted his statement that Ajmal Amir Kasab did not take the sea route and said he backed Interior Ministry’s report that nine terrorists had sailed from Karachi to launch the strikes.
Admiral Noman Bashir, who had yesterday contended that the navy had no evidence to prove that Kasab took the sea route, said he was not contradicting Interior Ministry’s report on the Mumbai attacks.
“We have not been directly involved in the investigation, which is under the domain of the Interior Ministry. Therefore they are better equipped, they have better knowledge and information,” he said.
Interior Ministry chief Rehman Malik had admitted on Feb 12, when Pakistan gave its response to Indian dossier, that the Mumbai attacks were “partly” plotted on Pakistan soil and launched from its shores for which it has arrested six persons. Malik had said nine terrorists had travelled in three boats from Karachi to Mumbai.
“We have no contradictory opinion on the report prepared by them. Whatever evidence they have is correct. I won’t contradict it,” Admiral Bashir said.
India’s pace sensation Ishant Sharma is likely to miss Tuesday’s first cricket one-dayer against New Zealand due to injury.
The sinewy fast bowler had hurt his shoulder while fielding in the second Twenty20 international against New Zealand at the Westpac Stadium last night.
An MRI scan carried out on his shoulder today revealed a bruise.
The impact of falling on the ball is said to have aggravated an old injury.
“The MRI scan has disclosed that there is a bruise. We will watch him over the next two days. But it is likely that Ishant may miss the first ODI against New Zealand,” said administrative manager Niranjan Shah, who is accompanying the Indian side.
The five-match one-day series will begin from March 3 with a floodlit contest at Napier. Wellington (Mar 6), Christchurch (Mar 8), Hamilton (Mar 11) and Auckland (Mar 14) will host the other matches.
Kochi, Feb 28: India today joined an elite club of nations capable of building large warships, with the keeling of the indigenous aircraft carrier (IAC) at the Cochin Shipyard here.
Defence Minister A K Antony pressed a remote following which the keel was placed in the building dock of the shipyard.
“This indigenous warship of the Navy will showcase India’s technical prowess and warship building capabilities to the world,” he said, adding “IAC will be the largest-ever warship to be built in India”.
Apart from India, only the US, France and Russia have the capability to build warships of 40,000 tonnage capacity.
Started in 2002 with the designing of the IAC, the project gained steam in 2006 when the construction of the warship building blocks began.
Mere voting will not save India’s heritage…
proactivity might
Prasoon s Majumdar
Circa 2007, when the Taj Mahal was at the threat of being de-listed from the new Seven Wonders of the World list, millions of Indians showed their inclination towards the Indian culture by voting for the Taj and thus made sure that the Taj stays in that list. However, the hullabaloo faded away in few months and the same Indians got back to their usual practice of defacing and damaging national heritages across the nation. Recently, the whole issue seems to have resurfaced after the damages caused to Amber Fort during a movie shooting came to limelight. But then is this really a rare phenomenon? Don’t we damage these majestic creations regularly and make it impossible for them to enter any such esteem list in future? Talking about the nitty-gritty of the matter, when it comes to palpable appreciation of our so-called national historical monuments, we seem to portray a very laid-back attitude. It is not that for the first time that media has reported such incidences. The evidence of this is the forts around Humayun’s Tomb, the walled city of Ahmedabad and the innumerable fortresses in ruins in the state of Rajasthan.
To counter such damages, the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) along with state governments and Ministry of Tourism has tried to implement the much-practiced Public-Private-Partnership (PPP) model. Around 69 historical buildings, spread across the state of Rajasthan have been adopted under the PPP scheme. Jaisalmer Fort recently got its new paving lanes, toilets and sewerage systems, thanks to the agencies from UK. Similarly, the Getty Foundation manages Nagore fort. Walking on the same lines, Karnataka protected around 25 monuments through PPP with the Dharmothana Trust. Some PPP models have not only restored the monuments but also made them some of the best in the country. Take for instance, Apeejay Surendra Park Hotels that is maintaining Jantar Mantar or Neemrana hotels that gave a new face to many forts in Rajasthan or the IOC which has decided to take care of numerous forts of the country. But even then there are thousands of monuments listed by ASI that are still lamenting for takers.
The problem does not end here; ASI also suffers from dearth of funds. ASI is allotted just Rs 300 crore to manage 3,600 monuments which calculates down to just Rs 8.5 lakh per monuments. To worsen the situation, a large chunk of this money is engulfed by sites like the Taj and thus nothing much is left for other monuments. In countries like Scotland, more than half of the national heritages are maintained by private companies. National heritages like Eiffel tower, The Yellowstone Ecosystem, Victoria Falls, The Tower of London, Blenheim Palace, to name a few, are all maintained by private companies. These companies have improved the economics and beauty through thematic restaurants and adornment thereby increasing the tourists’ footfall without compromising with the original creation. Contrast this with India, where half of the monuments have been converted into restaurants, hotels and shopping complex. It sometimes gets impossible to even relate them to original construction.
A successful PPP model should not be just revenue centric but should have more creative approach. What we need to understand is that these standing monuments just not echoes the tales of country’s rich heritage but are also few of those tangible elements when it comes to experiencing a culture at large… Otherwise even SMSing ‘TAJ’ to 4567 will be of no use… the decay would continue.
(Prasoon S Majumdar is Editor Economic Affairs of Planman Media)
There may have been numerous ups and downs in Indian agriculture since 1929, but there is one consistency — it has been a non-paying vocation all along. The American Civil War sucked Indian cotton into the world market. The Second World War ensured food scarcity. Independence came with Partition. Some of the agriculture surplus states went to Pakistan and the flood of refugees worsened the problem of scarcities. Emergence of a licence Raj had built-in bias against the farmer. The socialistic pattern of society only made it worse because the emphasis on industrialisation required a regime of cheap raw materials.
The Green Revolution in the 1960s marked the end of food scarcity but also introduced an era of expensive inputs like fertilisers, pesticides and electricity. The establishment of the Agriculture Prices Commission and the system of Minimum Support Prices (MSP) did bring in a brief respite of just about five years, from 1965 to 1970. A regime of restrictions on export, processing, storage, transport and trade has turned agriculture into a sink of poverty that it continues to be even today.
The economic reforms of 1990s were limited to industry and finance and left agriculture totally untouched. There is also talk of a Second Green revolution. There is a general awareness of the need to reform the present-day system of agricultural marketing. A spate of suicides by over 150,000 farmers in a decade has brought in a sense of urgency to the reforms.
The rate of the growth of GDP is entering an era of double digits while that of agriculture is yet to cross 3%. The policymakers are putting in great emphasis on ensuring a rate of growth of 4% in agriculture. But it should not be forgotten that the target of 4% was fixed without any study of the correlation between the rates of growth of GDP and that of agricultural product.
The food scarcity was the burden of the song even in the pre-Green Revolution days and it continues to be so even today despite the fact that India has become a major producer of a number of commodities on the world scenario. But of late, the definition of “food security” is being enlarged. It no more means mere physical availability of food and it is supposed to include the purchasing power to acquire it, availability of water, fuel, adequate levels of literacy and even women’s empowerment. The National Food Security Mission has the same strategy – grow more food – that failed in the pre-1960s, reinforcing infrastructure and technology with little or no attention to economic incentive for the farmer. There is a similar hidebound mindset in the prejudice against the moneylenders in the rural scenario. Rather than aping the Bangladesh model it would be better to recognise the moneylenders as a formal credit institution and revive the “Usurious Loans Act” in order to eliminate the unsavoury practices in rural credit. It may be useful to shortlist some of the major issues that will confront Indian agriculture in the decades to come. Most Indian farmers are trapped in agriculture because their parents left them the land. Several surveys have pointed out that given a choice, a majority of the farmers would leave agriculture to pick up some more lucrative vocation.
Agricultural land is becoming increasingly scarce and there is a ready market at alluring prices for it. It would be extremely inappropriate, under these conditions, to enforce on the farmer compulsory acquisition for schemes like the Special Economic Zones (SEZ).
The system of agricultural subsidies has collapsed. The mockery of subsidies on food and fertilisers being labelled as ’subsidy to farmers’ must stop. It is not difficult to ensure that the advantage of subsidies reaches the farmers directly. But it requires political will to do so.
