Just when we thought it couldn’t get any better for Asians in Hollywood after the fluke, tempestuous (and not-entirely-deserved, I might add) success of the seasons’s big blockbuster, “Crazy Rich Asians” — a film that features only actors of Asian origin — yet another Asian filmmaker has taken the global boxoffice by storm.

And this time, we Indians have a lot to be proud of. While “Crazy Rich Asians” doesn’t even have a token Indian representation in its cast or crew (though I did catch a Sardarji valet in a hotel driveway shot), the new thriller, released just a week after “Crazy…”, is directed by the Indo-American filmmaker Aneesh Chaganty, whose roots are in Hyderabad. Chaganty worked for a couple of years at Google before gravitating to full-time filmmaking.

His stunning directorial debut, “Searching”, is set in the cyber universe where a distraught father attempts to locate his missing daughter.

Interestingly, Chaganty, who grew up on a staple diet of Bollywood and Hollywood films, pitched “Searching” to the studios as an eight-minute short film. The producers suggested Chaganty turn it into a full-length feature film. The director initially declined the offer, arguing that he didn’t want to stretch a good idea beyond a point.

However, Chaganty did finally make “Searching” as a feature film. Released on August 24, the film, made on a shoestring budget with Korean star John Cho in the lead, has already established Chaganty as a filmmaker to reckon with. The ultimate compliment for this small-budgeted blockbuster came from the “Crazy Rich Asians” crew when they booked an entire theatre to watch the film.

The young filmmaker names Manoj Night Shyamalan as his main influence. No doubt Chaganty’s thriller-noire approach to cinema makes him the new “Night” among Indo-American filmmakers. I fervently hope Chaganty’s career doesn’t follow Shyamalan’s trajectory.

There was a time after “The Sixth Sense” when Shayamalan, who likes to be called “Night”, was seen as the brightest filmmaker from India in Hollywood. And then it all fell apart, film by film.

“Unbreakable”, which followed “The Sixth Sense”, was received fairly. But soon after, Shayamalan rapidly declined into the night with “Signs” (2002), “The Village” (2004), “The Lady In Water” (2006), “The Happening” (2008) and, worst of all, the 3D abomination “The Air Bender”, which, apart from other atrocities, also revealed Dev “Slumdog” Patel to be an extremely inept actor. To be honest, one thought “The Air Bender” to be a kind of closure on Shyamalam’s career as a spook merchant. We thought it couldn’t get any worse.

But it did.

In how many more ways could Shyamalan tell the same “Sixth Sense” story over and over again? The eerie has become progressively dreary in his oeuvre.

I remember just before the release of “The Happening” (not happening at all), I asked Shyamalan why his career lost momentum after “Sixth Sense”.

Protesting loudly, the filmmaker said: “I hear this a lot in India. It feels like everyone is five years behind. You can’t judge my career by the box office alone.”

Agreed, but I do hope Aneesh Chaganty remembers that being the new Shyamalan doesn’t mean that you turn blind to reality. Night can never be described as day.

[IANS]

New Delhi It was a rainy Saturday morning in the national capital and NCR region with the minimum temperature recorded at 23.5 degrees Celsius, three notches below the season’s average.

The Met forecast more spells of rains and thundershowers to occur during the day.

“The sky will be generally cloudy with light to moderate rains,” an India Meteorological Department (IMD) official said.

The maximum temperature was likely to hover around 32 degrees Celsius.

The humidity was 100 per cent at 8.30 a.m. There was 25.5 mm of rainfall in the last 24 hours.

Friday’s maximum temperature settled at 34 degrees Celsius, normal for the season, while the minimum temperature was recorded at 27 degrees Celsius, two notches above the season’s average.

Panaji Amid demands for dismissal of his government by the opposition and confusion in the state BJP ranks over leadership issues, Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar left for the US from Mumbai early on Thursday, for treatment of advanced pancreatic cancer.

“The Chief Minister left by a 1.30 a.m. flight. He is expected to be back in a week’s time,” sources close to Parrikar said.

Parrikar was admitted to Mumbai’s Lilavati Hospital last week, hours after he returned to Goa from a New York medical facility, following a second round of treatment abroad.

The Congress in the state has appealed to Goa Governor Mridula Sinha to dismiss the BJP-led coalition government in the coastal state due to the severe health crisis that has hit the state cabinet.

Four out of the 12 cabinet ministers including Parrikar, have been suffering from serious ailments, which has forced them to abstain from discharging their official duty to full capacity.

On Wednesday, there was confusion in the ranks of the Bharatiya Janata Party, as well as alliance partners, over facilitating an “alternative arrangement” in the absence of Parrikar.

While Union Minister of the State for AYUSH and North Goa MP Shripad Naik told reporters on Wednesday, that he would be meeting party chief Amit Shah along with the members of its state core committee to form an alternative arrangement, some members of the committee later said that there were no such plans on the anvil.

The Chief Minister’s Office was later forced to issue a statement saying Parrikar himself would be overseeing functioning of the coalition government from the US.

Parrikar was diagnosed in February and was treated in a New York medical facility from March to June. On August 10, Parrikar had again left for the US for review of his treatment.
(10:40)
Panaji, Aug 30 (IANS) Amid demands for dismissal of his government by the opposition and confusion in the state BJP ranks over leadership issues, Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar left for the US from Mumbai early on Thursday, for treatment of advanced pancreatic cancer.

“The Chief Minister left by a 1.30 a.m. flight. He is expected to be back in a week’s time,” sources close to Parrikar said

Parrikar was admitted to Mumbai’s Lilavati Hospital last week, hours after he returned to Goa from a New York medical facility, following a second round of treatment abroad.

The Congress in the state has appealed to Goa Governor Mridula Sinha to dismiss the BJP-led coalition government in the coastal state due to the severe health crisis that has hit the state cabinet.

Four out of the 12 cabinet ministers including Parrikar, have been suffering from serious ailments, which has forced them to abstain from discharging their official duty to full capacity.

On Wednesday, there was confusion in the ranks of the Bharatiya Janata Party, as well as alliance partners, over facilitating an “alternative arrangement” in the absence of Parrikar.

While Union Minister of the State for AYUSH and North Goa MP Shripad Naik told reporters on Wednesday, that he would be meeting party chief Amit Shah along with the members of its state core committee to form an alternative arrangement, some members of the committee later said that there were no such plans on the anvil.

The Chief Minister’s Office was later forced to issue a statement saying Parrikar himself would be overseeing functioning of the coalition government from the US.

Parrikar was diagnosed in February and was treated in a New York medical facility from March to June. On August 10, Parrikar had again left for the US for review of his treatment.

[IANS]

Twenty years ago, in August 1998, then Chinese Prime Minister Zhu Rongji proposed, in a meeting of China’s State Council, a total ban on logging in the forest slopes of Sichuan province. It was in response to the devastating flood-crisis that China was facing in the Yangtze river basin.

That policy was enacted overnight, while the floods in Yangtze river were still at its peak and rescue operations were in full swing. It was just a year after the Kyoto Protocol on Climate Change, but Zhu was in no mood to analyse if that extreme event was due to climate change.

He cited that similar devastation had occurred due to Yangtze floods in 1870, 1931 and 1954 when climate change was not around. Zhu declared severe punishment for logging in the same meeting and incentivised afforestation with ambitious targets by 2000 and 2010.

The same month, but now 2018, India is facing the devastation in Kerala, the worst ever since 1924. With over 400 dead and a million homeless, the questions are gushing like the waters from the flood gates of its dams. Is it a natural or man-made disaster? Is it climatic event or due to global warming?

It is easy and convenient to link the causative chain to climate change. Indeed, global warming has led to a rise in ocean and atmosphere temperatures (nearly one degree Celsius over pre-industrial times) which has resulted in the increased frequency and intensity of extreme weather events over the last six decades.

To this extent, global warming is indeed responsible for higher rainfall. But that does not explain “extreme” and “localised” rainfall. Blaming each of such weather disasters on climate change has in reality become a way for the authorities to absolve themselves from their essential responsibility of preventing the consequential colossal damage to life, infrastructure and ecosystems. Unprecedented rainfall could not have been prevented, whether it is due to global warming or not, but the resulting catastrophe could have been contained.

Indiscriminate logging in Kerala has reduced the forest cover between 1920 and 1990 by 40 per cent, according to the report of Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel. Nearly one million hectares of the forest land has been lost between 1973 and 2016, as per an Indian Institute of Science report. This has reduced the soil’s capacity to hold the mud-slides. Illegal mining, including that of sand and stones that “bank” the flood waters, is rampant in Kerala. Over-enthusiastic water tourism has allowed the infrastructure and habitat to be vulnerably exposed to the flood waters. The uncoordinated dam-water management has left the communities and wildlife to find their own ways to save their lives.

Is there way out?

There are numerous examples and initiatives to learn from and to participate in. The Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) mission of NASA and the Japan Aerospace Agency predicted the Kerala floods just a few days in advance. Collaboration with GPM and initiating disaster management measures “just-in-time” could still would have helped.

Switzerland (about the same size as Kerala) has 200 major dams as against Kerala’s 61. Switzerland’s designated central authority coordinates safety and the operation of the flood gates. Collaborating with Switzerland on such dam-management and inundation-mapping would prepare India in future. In Kerala, dam safety analysis had not been done for any of its 61 dams.

China has now acquired huge experience in disaster and flood management; five most deadly floods in human history were all in China. Cooperation with China would go a long way in managing and containing the flood damage.

[IANS]

Kathmandu Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi who arrived here in Nepal on Thursday to participate in Fourth Bimstec Summit will be meeting heads of state from the member nations.

Modi was received by Nepal’s Deputy Prime Minister and Defense Minister Ishwor Pokhrel at the Kathmandu airport. All domestic and international flights were suspended for two hours ahead of his arrival.

Before participating in Bimstec inaugural session, Modi and other heads of state will jointly call on the President Bidhya Devi Bhandari followed by a luncheon meeting.

Modi will later meet Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena.

He will attend the Bimstec inagural session and deliver a speech. After the inaugural session, Modi will hold bilateral talks with his Nepalese and Bangladeshi counterparts K.P. Oli and Sheikh Hasina.

[IANS]

Delhi-based music band “Kitchensink” is all set to perform its debut album at the National Centre for Performing Arts (NCPA) here on Thursday, as the first stop of their album launch tour.

The album “Harmless Things”, which released in July, features 10 tracks written since the bands’ inception in 2014, and is reflecting of their journey ever since.

The album songs, according to a statement from NCPA, offer lyrical storytelling inspired by psychedelic rock and improvised music.

The five-member band will perform at Bengaluru and Hyderabad, in quick succession of the Mumbai event as part of its album launch tour.

It will conclude with a performance in Delhi on September 21.

The Western music band comprises Smiti Malik, Siddharth Jain, Adhir Ghosh, Amar Pandey, and Ritwik De.

It has performed at the Chandigarh Jazz Festival, The Friends of Music Concert Series, the Giants of Jazz Festival, the Jazz India Circuit Launch, and performance venues like The Piano Man Jazz Club and Depot 48.

[IANS]

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Wednesday demanded a white paper on demonetization from the central government, saying that people suffered immensely from it.

“People suffered immensely due to demonetization. Many died. Business suffered. People have a right to know – what was achieved through demonetization? The government should come out with a white paper on the same,” Kejriwal said in a tweet.

He attached a tweet which said the RBI’s annual report had stated that 99.3 per cent of all money in circulation came back to the banking system after the note ban.

The central government on November 8, 2016 announced it was taking back all Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 bank notes.

[IANS]

By: Faizan Rizwan

The Indian Gymkhana one of the oldest and reputed clubs of Bangalore has contributed immensely for the Kerala and Kodagu relief fund.

Everyone knows by now the catastrophic plight of the Keralite’s and even the people of Kodagu. And everyone has done their best to provide instant relief to the victim’s nay sufferers of the worst tragedy ever as far as one can remember.

So to lend a helping hand The Managing Committee of the Indian Gymkhana decided to contribute and collected for the Noble Cause. So for this very purpose they organized the Kodagu/Kerala Food Relief Fund Collection Center.

Needless to say that the response of the members of the club and family friends relatives and donors from Bangalore was humongous and as of now commodities and clothes food materials medicines etc was collected and their 1st relief Vehicle left Bangalore for its destination on 27th August, 2018.

New Delhi With light rains in the morning in some parts of the national capital on Monday, the minimum temperature settled at 26.5 degrees Celsius, the season’s average.

The Met Office predicted few spells of rains and thundershower to occur during the day.

“There will be a generally cloudy sky during the day with light rainfall and thundershower likely to occur,” an India Meteorological Department (IMD) official said.

The maximum temperature is likely to hover around 34.9 degrees Celsius.

The humidity at 8.30 am was recorded 72 per cent.

Sunday’s maximum temperature was recorded at 33 degrees Celsius, the season’s average, while the minimum temperature settled at 27 degrees Celsius, one notch above the season’s average.

[IANS]

Mumbai, July 6: The 15th Finance Commission was asked to use the 2011 population census for deciding states’ share of central taxes. This may mean that states with higher populations will receive more central funds.

The decision has turned into a political controversy because it meant that the southern states — Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala — would see a fall in their share of central taxes. In these states, progressive health and education measures ensured the population fell four percentage points to 21 per cent of the national population in 2011 from 25 per cent in 1971. In comparison, the population of northern states — Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh — rose from 33 per cent in 1971 to 37 per cent in 2011.

T.M. Thomas Isaac, 66, Minister for Finance in Kerala’s Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M)-led Left Democratic Front (LDF) government, has been campaigning against the decision ever since it was announced. He believes its implementation would lead to financial disruption in the states. He also warned of a political fallout.

Isaac is also upset with the implementation of the goods and services tax (GST). Though the collections are high, states have not benefited from the bounty, he said. In an interview with IndiaSpend, Isaac discusses all these concerns and more.

Q: Although you’ve maintained that Kerala, as a consumer state, would benefit from GST, you have also expressed dismay at its implementation and the tax returns that Kerala has been receiving. What is the precise problem?
A: Since the introduction of the e-way (electronic way) bill, our checkposts have not been functional, leading to leakage of inter-state trade. This has badly affected Kerala’s revenue where nearly 80 per cent of commodities are brought in from outside the state. The return form [to file GST returns] is yet to be finalised. The 3B form [filed by everyone registered under GST] is only a summary statement of the voluntary declaration by the merchant. There is no way that we can check the veracity of input credit as some of the data is not available. Further, in order to scrutinise data, we do not want the annual return [of GST] to be postponed any further. All of this is affecting the collection of GST. The benefits that we were expecting in terms of revenue are yet to come.

Q: What are the presumed benefits of the GST, and have these been realised yet?
A: Taxes have reduced sharply, but this is not reflected in the prices. Very few commodities have seen a reduction in prices. It was a gain for corporates, while ordinary people did not benefit as much. The small-scale sector was hit partly because their excise exemption had to be given up. Then, there are region-specific problems. The present GST does not permit any kind of regional independence. Everything must be confirmed by the GST Council. Overall, we are yet to accrue the benefits of the decisions. I’m optimistic that things will improve, but, so far it is gloomy.

Q: You had said the attempt to implement the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management (FRBM) Act — it seeks to set targets for the government to reduce fiscal deficits — without consulting states and the move to limit the borrowing power of states is a challenge to their financial independence. How do you foresee the future for state governments?
A: Many policymakers at the Centre seem to be obsessed with the country’s [credit] ratings. To improve the ratings, they want the fiscal deficit ratio to be reduced so that there is fund flow from outside. I believe that the state governments play an important role in development, especially in welfare and social and economic infrastructure. So, they [Centre] are taking the easy route by asking us to reduce the deficit. It is preposterous. We can’t accept that this must done for the benefit of some foreign power. This cannot be done by using the FRBM Act to bring down the fiscal deficit ratio. Since 2008, the Centre has a real deficit of around four per cent. Even if you consider it to be 3.5 per cent, it camouflages the figure. For example, the states deserve half of the estimated Rs 150,000 crore in the integrated GST. But they [Centre] have put it in their kitty to claim a lower fiscal deficit ratio. If they want to rein in states, why have state governments?

Q: The details of the 15th Finance Commission stated that the 2011 population census would be used to consider allocations. What do you think of this?
A: We are not against the Finance Commission. All we are demanding is that the it be allowed to perform its constitutional duty. The Centre must not micro-manage it or the details by adding [clauses] that tax devolution must be curtailed, borrowing power must be made conditional, etc. These are not aspects to be put here. Every state’s share cannot rise, no matter what formula is used. It will vary. Let us create a rule that this variation is contained in a narrow band such that the finances of the state are not disrupted.

At present, Kerala receives 2.5 per cent of the central tax revenue. It would receive less than two per cent if it is assumed that the 2011 population census is used. If there is mechanical acceptance of the details of the commission, there is a danger of [financial] disruption at the state level. We want to avoid it. I want to make it clear that we will not accept any decision that undermines the state’s fiscal domain… If anything of the nature happens, I am certain there will be a serious political fallout.

Q: The latest NITI Aayog health index has placed Kerala among the best performers. If the index is used to fix incentives from the Centre in terms of money, infrastructure, technology and so on to reduce last-mile development problems, do you fear that a top performing state like Kerala would lose out?
A: Some of the states are [performing] much above the national average. But these achievements have raised many second-generation problems which require expenditure intervention by the government. For example, due to universal education everyone aspires to receive quality education which demands huge state resources. We are seeing an increase in lifestyle diseases which require investments in speciality care.

Development does not mean that the expenditure requirements have reduced. At the same time, we must ensure that there is a minimum level of service across the country. No one can deny the need to transfer resources from developed regions to under-developed regions. I accept that. But, it must be done with a sense of proportion and must not disrupt the development process keeping in mind that it needs substantial resources.

Q: In your budget speech, you proposed resource mobilisation for a comprehensive healthcare scheme using lotteries run by the directorate. The revenue receipt for lotteries is Rs 11,110 crore (budget estimate for 2018-19) and expenditure, Rs 7,874 crore. Will the government utilise the profit to include all beneficiaries in the Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana and the new National Health Protection Scheme (NHPS)?
A: From what I understand, all households will not be covered in the new NPHS programme. We want to cover those left out too. A proportion of the households in the state are covered by employee and pensioners health programmes while the rest must be brought under health coverage. We do not want to just use an insurance programme. In Kerala, the public health system’s very important. Unlike the rest of India, we have a wide chain of government-run hospitals where service is provided. We want to link this programme to our public health system to handle the demand.

We are investing close to Rs 5,000 crore in the health sector hiring doctors, nurses and paramedics to handle the demand that we foresee, including speciality health services. We intend to provide people access and assured treatment at accredited and government hospitals. This would require a substantial premium which will be provided through the lottery. The only justification for the lottery is that the profit will go into a social good. Through the lottery we are trying to tell people in Kerala that you can try your luck, but if you do not win, consider the investment a donation to the health sector. We expect to roll it out this financial year.

[IANS]