Archives for February 2017

Chennai: An umbrella body of nine bank unions has called a day-long strike on Tuesday to protest the government’s “anti-people banking reforms” and to press for compensation to employees for extra work done on account of demonetisation and booking loan defaulters.

The United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU), comprising nine unions — AIBEA, AIBOC, NCBE, AIBOA, BEFI, INBEF, INBOC, NOBW and NOBO — will observe the strike, All India Bank Employees Association (AIBEA) General Secretary C.H. Venkatachalam said in a statement here.

The strike will cover employees and officers in all public sector banks, including SBI, all old-generation private banks, foreign banks, regional rural banks and cooperative banks.

Venkatachalam told IANS: “The real menace affecting the Indian banking industry is the rise in bad loans and the number of wilful loan defaulters.

“Fixing accountability for bad loans and taking action against the bank officials and wilful defaulters are the need of the hour and not formation of a ‘bad bank’.”

The Economic Survey 2016-17 suggested establishment of a “Bad Bank” to deal with the non-performing assets (NPA) or the bad loan issue.

According to Venkatachalam, the idea was nothing but transferring the bad loans from one government entity to another.

“The unions have been fighting for more than two decades against the reform measures of the government as these are against the interests of the general public and labour force in the country,” the AIBEA said.

“Further, every effort is being made to outsource permanent jobs in the banking industry, which is fraught with risks,” it added.

He said around 10 lakh bankers — ranging from officers to clerks — belonging to the nine unions will join the strike.

Venkatachalam said the strike call comes after all attempts to find a solution to the demands raised by the unions yielded no results.

The conciliation meeting before the Chief Labour Commissioner on February 21 failed to break the deadlock as the bank management body — Indian Banks Association (IBA) — did not agree to the union demands.

Most state-run banks have informed customers that functioning of branches and offices will be hit if the strike is observed on Tuesday.

Top private lenders — ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank and Axis Bank — are not part of the union and will continue to function normally but cheque clearances would not take place.

Besides, cash transactions will also be hit and the ATMs are likely to be emptied early during the day.

(IANS)

Mumbai: “We hear of so many heinous crimes everyday and it happens because some people think they can get away with it,” said Arnab Goswami, during the release of the book ‘Alyosha, A Blaze…like a shooting star’ on 25th Feb 2017 at Entertainment Store, ‘Title Waves’,St Pauls Media Complex, Bandra (West), Mumbai.Written by Cmde Arun Kumar, AVSM, NM (Retd), the biography is a fathers tribute to his brave son Alyosha Kumar and functioning of “The Brave New World Foundation’ for education of underprivileged and willing children. “I know the spirit in which you are naming it ‘The Brave New World Foundation’. You are showing fortitude and saying there is a never give up spirit in you. But that must not stop us from questioning that must not stop us from campaigning, and acting and confronting. Because we can’t take it lying down anymore”, said Arnab Goswami. Speaking about his new venture, Arnab Goswami informed the audience that Republic TV should start airing in two months.

“I will in my way, I am promising you today, I am starting a new media and we will actively work with you. I don’t make false promises. When I go back, I will institutionalize this. So while we fight for what is wrong, we also work to repair the injustice that has been done to this wonderful family. I will remain connected to ‘The Brave New World Foundation’, through my journalism or whichever way we do, so that we can campaign on behalf of the people. If we institutionalize the spirit of Alyosha, we will create many more like him,” he said.

Alyosha lived a short life, which he lived to the fullest following his convictions, with utter honesty and showing compassion to his fellow beings. His simplicity and positivity of outlook endeared him to those who came in touch with him whilst his brutal forthrightness quite often brought him into conflict with those in authority. Ever since his birth, it was apparent that Alyosha was a special and exceptionally gifted child. He excelled in sports and academics with equal ease. He was also very perceptive of the human nature. His friends knew him to be a daring and brave boy, who stood up against odds and injustices in life with dignity. In the wee hours of 30 Sep 2007, he was fatally stabbed at Bangalore whilst defending his friend from molestation. His parents, Cmde Arun Kumar, Ms Deepa and his paternal aunt Ms Prabha Rao have set up a public charitable trust “The brave New World Foundation’ as per Alyosha’s desire, to help the disadvantaged sections of the society.

Cmde Arun Kumar, AVSM, NM (Retd) said, “A Blaze…like a shooting star is the story of Alyosha Kumar, whose life was short lived like that of shooting star. In that short span, Alyosha blazed his unique trail of brilliance. As a classmate he said Alyosha Kumar was amongst a rare concoction of talent that combined a brilliant mind with fine sportsmanship. Even as a school kid most wondered how he managed to excel in so many fields. Yet his most fine qualities were his uncompromising honesty and his faith in people. His Headmaster from Lawrence School thought Alyosha was too wise a head for so young a body and epitomised all that is brave about ‘The Brave New World”.

The name Alyosha signifies ‘Defender of Man’ and true to it, Alyosha Kumar died defending the honour of his friend. In the country that he was born in ‘Russia’, a monument to ‘Alyosha’ stands in the city of Murmansk as the defending spirit of the Russian people in ‘ The Great Patriotic War (1940-45)’. In most ways, the story of Alyosha Kumar depicts that very spirit.

Alyosha’s compassion for fellow beings was manifest in a will he wrote at the tender age of nine years wherein he foresaw with great equanimity and clarity his own end and expressed his desire wanting his monies to be used to start a charity forum to help the poor and the needy. Even though short, Alyosha lived his life to the full doing in his way, uncompromising in his convictions and yet experiencing the full spectrum of human endeavour. He leaves behind a rich legacy which most falls short of even in a full lifetime.”

The book is published under the imprint Frontier India and the foreword has been written by Dev Lahiri, ex headmaster at the Lawrence School, Lovedale.

Over 250 Trade partners across circles rewarded for their contribution to the business

Bengaluru: Aircel, one of the leading innovative mobile service providers in India, successfully executed ‘Lakshya 2.0’ program for the year 2016 to reward its top performing trade partners in India. Under this trade partner engagement program, 256 channel partners across circles were flown/taken for a 3 days fully-paid trip to ‘land of beaches’ Goa. ‘Lakshya 2.0 was aimed to acknowledge partners such as Sales Employees, Distributors and FOS, who achieved over 100% target in a period of 3 months.

The program offers its winners comprehensive line up of benefits including International Travel, Domestic trip, Gold/Silver Coins & Laptops among other things, while maintaining strong relationships with retailers and distributors.

Commenting on the program, Anupam Vasudev, Chief Marketing Officer, Aircel said, “We ensure that we maintain strong bonds with our trade partners by spending considerable time with our retailers and distributors in motivating, educating, training and addressing their queries as they are a vital link between us and the consumers. In order to establish and build relationships with the channel and partner community, we organize a variety of programs and offers, one such initiative is Lakshya2.0”.

He further added that, “We are pleased with the results of Lakshya 2.0 and would like to thank our trade partners for their endless support. We value the relationship we share with them and appreciate their commitment towards the Aircel family. We are happy that the program was welcomed with a lot of enthusiasm by our trade partners”.

Aircel has always strived to engage and bond with its trade partners through different measures. The program was aimed to connect with the trade partners and inspire them to work hard and achieve their targets. It was one of the most appealing initiatives of Aircel which motivated the trade partners to outperform themselves and raise the bar for quality performance. Aircel is committed to the growth of its partners by empowering the trade community to provide customer rich experience.

New Delhi: Historian Audrey Truschke refuses to buy the argument that Aurangzeb razed temples because he hated Hindus saying it has roots in colonial-era scholarship, where positing timeless Hindu-Muslim animosity embodied the British strategy of divide and conquer.

In her new book, she also says that had Aurangzeb’s reign been 20 years shorter, he would have been judged differently by modern historians.

Truschke, an assistant professor of South Asian history at Rutgers University in Newark and an avid follower of Mughal history, New Jersey, has now come up with a new biography on Aurangzeb.

“Aurangzeb: The Man and The Myth”, published by Penguin Random House, takes a fresh look at the controversial Mughal emperor.

According to Truschke, Hindu and Jain temples dotting the landscape of Aurangzeb’s kingdom were entitled to Mughal state protection, and he generally endeavoured to ensure their well-being.

“By the same token, from a Mughal perspective, that goodwill could be revoked when specific temples or their associates acted against imperial interests. Accordingly, Emperor Aurangzeb authorised targeted temple destructions and desecrations throughout his rule,” she claims.

“Many modern people view Aurangzeb’s orders to harm specific temples as symptomatic of a larger vendetta against Hindus. Such views have roots in colonial-era scholarship, where positing timeless Hindu-Muslim animosity embodied the British strategy of divide and conquer,” she writes.

She says there are, however, numerous gaping holes in the proposition that Aurangzeb razed temples because he hated Hindus.

“Most glaringly, Aurangzeb counted thousands of Hindu temples within his domains and yet destroyed, at most, a few dozen. This incongruity makes little sense if we cling to a vision of Aurangzeb as a cartoon bigot driven by a single-minded agenda of ridding India of Hindu places of worship.

“A historically legitimate view of Aurangzeb must explain why he protected Hindu temples more often than he demolished them.”

Truschke argues that Aurangzeb followed Islamic law in granting protection to non-Muslim religious leaders and institutions.

“Indo-Muslim rulers had counted Hindus as dhimmis, a protected class under Islamic law, since the eighth century, and Hindus were thus entitled to certain rights and state defences.

“Yet, Aurangzeb went beyond the requirements of Islamic law in his conduct towards Hindu and Jain religious communities. Instead, for Aurangzeb, protecting and, at times, razing temples served the cause of ensuring justice for all throughout the Mughal Empire.”

Truschke claims state interests constrained religious freedom in Mughal India, and Aurangzeb did not hesitate to strike hard against religious institutions and leaders that he deemed seditious or immoral.

“But in the absence of such concerns, Aurangzeb’s vision of himself as an even-handed ruler of all Indians prompted him to extend state security to temples.”

She says Aurangzeb had 49 years to make good on his princely promise of cultivating religious tolerance in the Mughal Empire, and he got off to a strong start.

“In one of his early acts as emperor, Aurangzeb issued an imperial order (farman) to local Mughal officials at Benares that directed them to halt any interference in the affairs of local temples.”

Truschke claims that political events incited Aurangzeb to initiate assaults on certain Hindu temples.

She also argues that if Aurangzeb’s reign had been 20 years shorter, closer to that of Jahangir (who ruled for 22 years) or Shah Jahan (who ruled for 30 years), modern historians would judge him rather differently.

“But Aurangzeb’s later decades of fettering his sons, depending on an increasingly bloated administration, and undertaking ill-advised warring are a hefty part of his tangled legacy. Thus, we are left with a mixed assessment of a complex man and monarch who was plagued by an unbridgeable gap between his lofty ambitions and the realities of Mughal India,” she writes.

(Agencies)

New Delhi: The campaign of a Kargil martyr’s daughter against the ABVP today drew controversial reaction from BJP leaders with Union minister Kiren Rijiju wondering who was “polluting” her mind and another comparing her with wanted gangster Dawood Ibrahim.

Pratap Simha, BJP MP from Mysuru, tweeted, “At least Dawood did not use the crutches of his father’s name to justify his anti-national stand.”

His tweet came as the campaign of Gurmehar Kaur went viral online with her photograph in which she said, “Pakistan did not kill my father. War killed him.”

To mock her, Simha also posted a photograph showing Dawood with the message, “I didn’t kill people in 1993. Bombs killed them.”

Rijiju also took to Twitter to take a dig at her. “Who’s polluting this young girl’s mind? Strong armed forces prevent a war. India never attacked anyone but a weak India was always invaded,” the minister of state for Home Affairs said.

Talking to reporters, he later said, “One should not say things which could demoralise the countrymen and the forces. Everybody has freedom but that does not mean that you raise slogans to weaken the country.”

24-year-old Kaur, daughter of Kargil martyr Captain Mandeep Singh and a Delhi University student, had started a social media campaign “I am not afraid of ABVP” following the violence at Ramjas college. Her campaign has gone viral and received support from students across various universities.

(Agencies)