Archives for 2018

 The Mumbai Academy of Moving Image (MAMI) has dropped two films — AIB’s “Chintu Ka Birthday” and Rajat Kapoor’s “Kadakh” — from the line-up of the upcoming 20th edition of the Jio MAMI Mumbai Film Festival in the wake of the #MeToo tide.

“We as an Academy (MAMI) strongly support the #MeToo movement. In light of recent developments, we have decided to drop the following films from our line-up — AIB’s ‘Chintu Ka Birthday’ and Rajat Kapoor’s ‘Kadakh’,” read a statement from MAMI.

It was sent to IANS via Whatsapp by MAMI’s Creative Director Smriti Kiran.

“We want to use this opportunity to open up the conversation, and find solutions to harassment and sexual misconduct in the workplace. Starting with this edition of the festival, we would like to unite the community to find positive and constructive ways to deal with it,” the statement read further.

Actor-director Rajat Kapoor has been called out by two women for inappropriate behaviour. He has apologised.

Comedy collective, All India Bakchod (AIB), on the other hand, landed in a full-fledged controversy after a woman named Utsav Chakraborty — once associated with the group — was named by a barrage of ladies on social media of sexual harassment.

Chakraborty accepted and apologised his misdeeds, but the #MeToo fire soon spread out to reveal how AIB’s CEO and co-founder knew about it all along but did nothing against it. It even opened up a box of complaints against some of the group’s other comedians, notably Gursimran Khamba.

On its part, AIB announced on Monday that Bhat and Khamba are “stepping away” from the group.

IANS

Internet giant Google has said it is shutting down the consumer version of its own social networking site Google+ due to low usage and a bug discovered in March last year that could leak the data of about half a million of its users.

“The consumer version of Google+ currently has low usage and engagement: 90 percent of Google+ user sessions are less than five seconds,” said Google, which is headquartered in Mountain View in northern California, Xinhua reported.

Google on Monday said it is going to close Google+ in the coming months seven years after it was launched as a social networking site of its own name brand.

The demise of Google+ also came as a result of a bug discovered last year but acknowledged for the first time by Google on Monday, and the flaw in one of its Google+ “People APIs” exposed some private user data to third-party developers, including such information as the occupations, genders, ages, and email addresses of many users.

“We discovered and immediately patched this bug in March 2018,” Google said, but the flaw, which has existed since 2015, could potentially affected up to 500,000 Google+ accounts.

“Our analysis showed that up to 438 applications may have used this API,” Google said. However, “We found no evidence that any developer was aware of this bug, or abusing the API, and we found no evidence that any Profile data was misused.”

The Google+ vulnerability was discovered at a time that almost coincided with the notorious privacy leakage scandal of the world’s largest social media network Facebook, which has been widely criticized for its failure to protect its users’ private data.

Facebook has been under heavy scrutiny about its privacy policy after a British data mining firm Cambridge Analytica was accused of illegally accessing the data of 87 million Facebook users without their knowledge.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg was summoned to a hearing in US Congress in April this year to explain the firm’s security measures and how it handled users’ privacy.

IANS

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Tuesday acknowledged the economic reforms carried out under Prime Minister Narendra Modi and projected India to be the world’s fastest growing major economy this year and next.

The World Economic Outlook (WEO) released ahead of the IMF annual meeting in Bali said, “In India, important reforms have been implemented in recent years, including the Goods and Services Tax, the inflation-targeting framework, the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, and steps to liberalize foreign investment and make it easier to do business.”

But citing external factors — “the recent increase in oil prices and the tightening of global financial conditions” — it cut India’s growth projection made in July for next year by 0.1 per cent to 7.4 per cent, which would still be the world’s fastest growth rate for major economies.

It kept the 7.3 per cent growth projection for this year made in July.

Compared to the projections made in April, the current one for 2018 is lower by 0.1 per cent and for 2019 by 0.4 per cent.

Up from India’s growth rate of 6.7 per cent in 2016, the growth projections for this year and the next reflect “a rebound from transitory shocks” of demonetisation and the implementation of the national Goods and Services Tax” and “strengthening investment and robust private consumption,” WEO said.

Beyond 2019, the IMF sees India’s growth rate improving “owing to structural reforms and a still-favourable demographic dividend.”

“India’s medium-term growth prospects remain strong at 7.75 per cent, benefiting from ongoing structural reform,” it added.

For China, the next fastest growing major economy, the IMF said it was lowering the growth projections for next year made in April by 0.2 per cent to 6.2 per cent “given the latest round of US tariffs on Chinese imports.”

This year’s growth for China stays at 6.6 per cent.

Overall for the global economy, the IMF cut the growth projections made in July for this year and the next by 0.2 per cent to 3.7 per cent, as IMF Chief Economist Maurice Obstfeld warned that “there are clouds on the horizon” and “the likelihood of further negative shocks to our growth forecast has risen.”

“In several key economies, moreover, growth is being supported by policies that seem unsustainable over the long term,” he said.

He cited the uncertainties in trade as a result of US President Donald Trump’s policies and the tightening of financial markets in developing countries among factors increasing the risks to global growth,

This was the final WEO released under Obstfelt’s watch as he is leaving the IMF at the end of this year and will be succeeded by Gita Gopinath, the Kerala government’s economic adviser.

For India the IMF recommended “reform priorities include reviving bank credit and enhancing the efficiency of credit provision by accelerating the cleanup of bank and corporate balance sheets and improving the governance of public sector banks”.

It added, “A high interest burden and risks from rising yields also require continued focus on debt reduction to establish policy credibility and build buffers. These efforts should be supported by further reductions in subsidies and enhanced compliance with the Goods and Services Tax.”