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Archives for July 2018

Maharashtra businessman secured Rs 5400 crore loans in name of farmers

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The leader of Opposition in Maharashtra Legislative Council Dhananjay Munde on Wednesday said a businessman had allegedly secured loans worth over Rs 5400 crore on the basis of fake documents made in the name of farmers.

Raising the issue under Rule 289, Munde (NCP) said Ratnakar Gutte, promoter of the Gangakhed Sugar and Energy Limited in the state’s Parbhani district, had also transferred bank loans obtained by various groups firms into different accounts.

He claimed Gutte had formed 22 shell companies to route the money.

“In 2015, Gangakhed Sugar Factory procured bank loans in the names of more than 600 farmers under the ‘Harvest and Transport scheme’. These farmers are now getting bank notices for loans amounts some of which are as high as Rs 25 lakh,” Munde claimed.

He further alleged that several companies which were part of the group were shell companies which had little or no assets of value.

Munde informed the House that an FIR had been registered against Gutte on July 5 this year under various sections of the IPC but no arrest had been made so far.

Calling the issue a very serious one, Munde said that any laxity on the part of the government could allow the businessman to flee the country like PNB scam-accused diamantaire Nirav Modi.

Council Chairman Ramraje Nimbalkar took cognizance of the issue raised by Munde and sought information from the government.

Nimbalkar asked the government whether the Special Investigation Team formed to probe the matter was appointed by the court or not.

Strategy for Lok Sabha polls – Amit Shah sets guidelines for Karnataka

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BJP national president, Amit Shah, who has set the victory target of 20 to 25 seats in Lok Sabha election for the state BJP leaders, has given a list of 23 guidelines to be followed to maximize the party’s tally in the next year’s election.

Amit Shah had set 19-point guideline in the state for the assembly election. Now he has added four more points to the list. He has issued directions to appoint MLAs, state office bearers and core committee members as in-charge for every Lok Sabha constituency in the state. The guidelines include listing out failures of Congress and JD(S) leaders in the constituencies currently represented by them, presenting before the people the chargesheet of failures of the coalition government backed by figures and statistics, holding workshops for those who manage social websites of the party to make it more effective, spreading information about manifesto of the party, programmes and projects implemented by the central government etc are some of the points contained therein.
Formation of WhatsApp groups, exchanging of information with electoral Vistaraks (extension officers), entrusting additional responsibilities to Page Pramukhs, formation of core committee with important leaders for each assembly constituency, giving more responsibility to booth level committees, compulsory organizing of Navashakti meets, arranging of stay in constituencies on two days every week and two-day tours of the constituencies for those appointed as in-charge, appointment of Shakthi Kendra Pramukhs for every booth, holding of meetings on a regular basis, preparing of list of directors of cooperative societies and self-help societies falling under each of the booths, are among the list of guidelines.

Although Shah was expected to tour the state on July 28, the same has been cancelled in view of Lok Sabha session. A meeting of all the MPs has also been organized on that date at New Delhi. Therefore, Shah’s proposed tour is expected to be deferred, sources said.

All india democratic students organisation have Called for schools- college bundh on July 21

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All India Democratic Students Organisation and All India Democratic Youth Organisation have called for schools and college bundh across the state on July 21 demanding free bus passes for all students.

Speaking to reporters at the Press Club here on Tuesday, Students Organisation national vice president VN Rajashekar said that the previous Congress government had announced the free bus passes to all students in its Budget because of the pressure from the student’s community. But it was not implemented due to election code of conduct. Now, Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy, in his Budget, had announced that the programmes of the previous Congress government would continue in the coalition government. But he has not cleared about the free bus pass issue. This has caused injustice to the students who have been waiting for the facility for the last two months, he said.

Keeping this in mind, the organizations have called for the bundh and all students would participate in it voluntarily, he said.

All India Democratic Students Organisation state secretary KS Ashwini said that the state government and the Transport department have been telling that it would become a burden on the government, which is a big lie. The government could give free bus passes with Rs 860 crore given by the previous government. But the government was saying that it would require Rs 600 crore more. Already, Social Welfare and SC/ST departments have been reimbursing the amount of the students passes. Now, the government should extend this facility to the remaining students only, she said.

‘Crop insurance scheme benefits companies more than farmers’

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It is yet to be seen how much the Modi government’s ambitious crop insurance scheme has benefitted farmers, but one section that has definitely hit the jackpot is the insurance industry, which collectively earned around 85 per cent profit, excluding expenditure on administrative purposes and reinsurance, during the 2017-18 kharif season, government data shows.

According to the Agriculture Ministry’s data, all 17 insurance companies — five public and 12 private — empanelled under the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY) registered a margin of Rs 15,029 crore as they paid out claims of a mere Rs 2,767 crore against the Rs 17,796 crore collected as premium.

PMFBY is exempted from Service Tax (now a part of GST), as per its operational guidelines.

Similarly, these companies have earned over 96 per cent profit under another crop insurance scheme — Restructured Weather-Based Insurance Scheme (RWBCIS) — during kharif 2017-18 as they received Rs 1,694 crore as premium and paid out just Rs 69.93 crore as claim compensation, figures accessed by the IANS show.

During the last kharif (2016-17) season, the insurance companies had earned 44 per cent profit as they received Rs 15,735 crore while they incurred expenditure of Rs 8,862 crore in claims made by the farmers.

According to the Agriculture Insurance Company of India (AICI), the nodal agency for these schemes, the business has been “profitable” since they were launched in February 2016.

“A good monsoon has certainly helped increase food production, which we think has led to such profits,” said a senior AICI official, who wished not to be named.

Earlier, under previous insurance schemes, the AICI had paid as much as Rs 2.80 as compensation claim against the premium of Rs 1, causing it to incur significant losses, said the official.

The government and insurance companies cite a “good monsoon” and “higher production” for the low claims. But there were cases of extreme climatic conditions, drought like situations, and floods at many places, said Chandra Bhushan, deputy director of the non-profit Centre for Science and Environment (CSE).

“You cannot call it a good year to back low pay-outs since issues such as extreme climate and floods have been reported at many places. There are issues with assessment, payment dispersal along with technology issues. If claims are so low like 15 per cent (of premium collected), the country’s agriculture has no problem. There is no need to have any such crop insurance scheme then,” he added.

Interestingly, these insurance companies are bound to safeguard their interests by taking reinsurance cover and the government is to provide protection to them in case premium to claims ratio exceeds 1:3.5 or the percentage of claims to “Sum Insured” exceeds 35 per cent, whichever is higher.

Farm activists find a “big lacuna” in the design of the PMFBY, saying it has been more beneficial to the insurer than farmers.

Kavitha Kuruganti of non-profit Alliance for Sustainable & Holistic Agriculture (ASHA) said Crop Cutting Experiment (CCE), which is done to obtain accurate estimates of crop output, is conducted in a unscientific manner.

“The samples collected for CCE are not scientific. The consequences are that the farmers are not benefitted but the companies,” she said.

In addition, claims made by farmers for crop loss have found not to be settled by the insurance companies on time.

“Claims are not provided in time. Also, banks do not send data (to companies) in time. There are several lacunae with the implementation. But the big laucuna is with the design of the product,” Kuruganti said.

As many as 3,31,96,239 farmers bought crop insurance under PMFBY to insure 3,34,73,346 hectares of land during kharif 2017-18.

However, claims of only Rs 2,767 crore were paid against the reported claims of Rs 5,052 crore.

Interestingly, the government could not yet complete claims settlement for winter crops cultivated during rabi 2017-18 when the process “ideally” should get over in “a month” after the harvesting.

According to the ministry data, claims worth Rs 14 crore were made under PMFBY for rabi 2017-18 and the payout was Rs 12.1 crore till early June against the premium of Rs 5,128 crore collected by the insurers.

A top official told IANS that the ministry was “aware” of the “big profits” and delays in settling claims.

“Although companies are earning more profit now, there are chances that they may incur losses in future if significant crop losses are reported. Also, we have asked the companies and states to speed up the settlement process by adopting new technology,” said the official, who requested anonymity.

Under the scheme, farmers have to pay just 2 per cent of total premium in case of kharif, 1.5 per cent for rabi and 5 per cent for horticulture and remaining premium is shared equally by the Centre and the states.

However, there is no cap on the actuarial premium rates charged by the insurance companies, which Kuruganti said was “very high” for some crops.

RS adjourned briefly after protests by opposition

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Proceedings in the Rajya Sabha were adjourned briefly on Wednesday after protests by opposition members on various issues, including the demand for a special status for Andhra Pradesh.

Soon after laying down the papers on the table of the House, Rajya Sabha Chairman M. Venkaiah Naidu rejected the notices for suspension of rules and asked the members to raise their issues during Zero Hour.

“I have decided not to suspend the rules, but the matters mentioned are important and relevant. I have decided to take them up in Zero Hour, except the notice given by TDP member C.M. Ramesh,” Naidu said.

“Ramesh’s notice pertains to an important issue which is agitating the state. This was raised earlier also. I have decided allow a detailed short duration discussion on this. After consulting with the Minister, we will decide the date,” he added.

But Ramesh persisted and demanded that the discussion begin “right now”. “This is not a new issue. We have been raising this since Budget session,” he said.

BSP member Satish Chandra Mishra and Samajwadi Party’s Ram Gopal Yadav asked the Chair to begin a discussion on a University Grants Commission (UGC) notification issued in March having a bearing on the reservation for weaker sections in teaching jobs.

Amid the din, Naidu adjourned the House for a brief period till noon.

Congress members Ghulam Nabi Azad and Anand Sharma, SP’s Ram Gopal Yadav and CPI’s D. Raja were among others who have given notices for suspension of the rules on various issues.

The session, which began on Wednesday, will have 18 sittings. It will conclude on August 10.

DKS said that I’ve gifted iPhones to MPs

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In another wind to the line over iPhones being gifted to Parliamentarians, Minister for Medium and Major Irrigation and Medical Education D K Shivakumar, on July 17, asserted that the iPhones were his personal gift and the government had nothing to do with it.

DK Shivkumar clarified that “Gifting an iPhone was my personal decision. I have gifted these with pure intentions and there is no politics included. If this was a crime then punish me,”

BJP MP Rajeev Chandrashekhar’s tweet about the expensive gifts being offered out to the parliamentarians had stoked a controversy that Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy was trying to sway the opposition by doling out costly gifts. “Dear @CMofKarnataka @hd_kumaraswamy – Thank u 4 coming to all MPs tmrw to discuss Cauvery issue. But why is your govt sending expensive phones to MPs? You claim Austerity; pourkarmikas are being denied salaries, but pub money used 4 this kind of expensive gifts? (sic),” he had tweeted.

Case against TV channels telecasting false news

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The TV channels and web portals have made the news that “I have the relationship with Cycle Ravi and spoke to him over the phone several times. The CCB officials are likely to interrogate me shortly”.

“I don’t know who cycle Ravi is. But some electronic media and web portals have been tarnishing my image by telecasting false news that I have a relationship with him. I have decided to file a case against such media houses”, said former minister MB Patil.

When he was in a programme at Vijayapura, one of his friends called him and informed that some TV channels have been telecasting news that the former minister has a relationship with the rowdy sheeter. He was surprised to hear such news, he said.

“I am hearing the name of Cycle Ravi for the first time. I don’t know anything about his background and whereabouts. But the media have been saying that I have spoken to him over the phone and sent messages. I could not understand this. When I spoke to CCB Joint Commissioner Sathish Kumar and asked him about the news, he told me that ‘the phone number is mentioned in the channels is not the phone number of Cycle Ravi. The phone number belongs to Mandya Congress leader Sachchidananda. But he does not know why the TV channels are making such news’. Some media have made me as a culprit and telecast the news repeatedly. Being accountable to the people, the media should know the reality before telecasting or publishing any news. But these media have crossed their limitations which is regrettable”, the Congress leader said.

“Mandya Congress worker Sachchidananda is a supporter of my close friend and former minister Ambareesh. I know him for several years. This time, he wanted to contest from Srirangapatna constituency from the Congress. I have spoken to him several times. But his phone number was mistaken as the number of Cycle Ravi and telecast false news only to tarnish my image in public life. I would file a case against such TV channels and web portals in the court”, he said in a statement.

Captain service launched in Karnataka Express train

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The South Western Railway on Tuesday launched a Captain service in the Bengaluru-New Delhi Karnataka Express train to ensure comfortable journey to long-distance passengers, said an official.

“The senior-most train ticket examiner (TTE) will officiate as Captain of the train to look after passenger amenities and redress their grievances,” said Bengaluru Divisional Railway Manager (DRM) R.S. Saxena while launching the service.

As a single point-man for about 2,000 passengers, the Captain will attend to complaints on the cleanliness of coaches and toilets, water supply, functioning of fans, lights, charging points, air-conditioning and housekeeping.

“The Captain wears a red badge on his left hand to enable passengers to identify and approach him for help during their 42-hour-long journey. He will contact the staff concerned to address complaints onboard or at the next station,” said Saxena.

The zonal railway will have a Captain in 76 express trains originating daily from Bengaluru to various destinations across the country.

“TTEs will look after the reserved coaches, while the Captain will supervise their working and attend to passengers in person or on mobile whose number will be messaged to them,” said a statement from the divisional office.

Trains like Rajdhani Express, Duranto Express and Shatabdi Express, where train superintendents travel from end-to-end, will also have the senior-most nominated as Captain.

“We had introduced captains on a trial basis recently on Bengaluru-Kannur-Karwar express train and got favorable feedback on the service,” added Saxena.

As one of the busiest railway stations, the Bengaluru city station daily handles about 210 trains, including about 109 to long-distances.

Living a good, full and long life – the Japanese way

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The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life; Author: Hector Garcia & Francesc Miralles; Publisher: Hutchinson/Penguin Random House; Pages: 208; Price: Rs 499

A British businessman once recounted that while holidaying in Asia, he met a Japanese man in the swimming pool, and as soon they found they had common commercial interests, the latter took out a waterproof visiting card to give him. This may speak volumes about their business practices, but there are other lessons we can learn from the Japanese too.

Try to imagine the Japanese and what may come to mind is a polite but focussed and hard-working people that made their country a global economic power, but they also have an old and sophisticated culture and a way of life that sees the country having an exceptionally large number of centenarians — and fairly active ones at that.

Technological expertise and a strong work ethic may not be a sole Japanese trait, but their culture, some of whose enduring expressions are their magnificent gardens, their exquisite cuisine, the arts of bonsai, ikebana and origami, their tea rituals, Zen and concepts like “wabi-sabi”, make them worthy of study — and emulation.

But the most important would be their concept of ikigai, whose essence is expressed in the old Japanese proverb: “Only staying active will make you want to live a hundred years.” And, as this book brings out, it is based on no esoteric secrets or any special regimen of diet or exercise, but living fully and contentedly.

The co-authors — Spanish-born Japanese citizen and author Garcia and bestselling author of lifestyle books and novels Miralles, who met up in a tiny bar during a rainy Tokyo night — say they were discussing the questions that start to worry people (meaning of life, whether the point is just to live longer or have a higher purpose and so on) when “the mysterious word ikigai came up”.

Ikigai, which “translates roughly as ‘the happiness of always being busy’, is like logotherapy (developed by psychologist and Nazi concentration camp survivor Viktor Frankl) but goes a step beyond”, they say.

Take the residents of the country’s southern-most island of Okinawa, where there are 24.55 people over the age of 100 for every 100,000 inhabitants — far more than the global average. Along with climate, diet and activity, ikigai is cited as a reason why people of Okinawa live longer than people anywhere else in the world.

However, Garcia and Miralles, who researched ikigai with some heartening interactions with the island’s inhabitants, especially of a town there with the highest life expectancy in the world, also found that there is no single book dedicated to bringing this philosophy to the West, and resolved to remedy the deficiency.

And in this insightful book, they reveal how simple ikigai is to understand and follow.

Beginning with a Venn diagram that shows what it is: At the intersection of personal capability, predilection, profession and the world’s requirements, and how it benefits the residents of Okinawa as well as other Japanese, they explore the importance of both a sound body and mind — and how some stress helps.

They then trace how ikigai developed from Frankl’s logotherapy, predated by Japanese psychotherapist-cum-Zen Buddhist Shoma Morita’s purpose-centred therapy, but transcended both, and its correspondence with psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s “flow” theory.

But Garcia and Miralles’ work is not only about comparing theories — which they do most accessibly with the help of some tables, charts and diagrams. They enliven the account with concrete, real-world examples, like of some Japanese craftsmen who exemplify the flow technique, including one who was Steve Jobs’ favourite.

They continue in this vein with some advice from the centenarians — from the world over, not only Japan — feature traditions and proverbs from Japan, the diet that fuels Okinawa’s ikigai, top it up with simple but highly beneficial eastern exercises spanning tai chi to yoga to qigong before coming back to how to achieve ikigai through its 10 rules — the longest of which is seven words.

All this may seem basic common sense, but in our present, complex world, this is not very common. Try it and see — it doesn’t require much and there is not much to lose for you.

Rajya Sabha nominees take oath

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Classical dancer Sonal Mansingh, sculptor Raghunath Mohapatra and author Rakesh Sinha on Wednesday took oath as the nominated members of Rajya Sabha.

Three-time MP Ram Shakal also took oath as a nominated member soon after the proceedings of the upper house begin.

They were nominated by President Ram Nath Kovind.

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