Dinesh Kamath's Editorial 'Arrest of Indian students in US' that was published in Newsband

Arrest of Indian students in US

In the sting operation carried out by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, 129 Indians were arrested on the charge of wilfully violating immigration laws to stay and work in the United States. Either they fell victim to unscrupulous recruiters who offered to secure an I-20 student document that allowed them to undertake paid work using the provision for Curricular Practical Training, or knowingly engaged in fraud.

The Ministry of External Affairs has made the correct distinction between students who may have been duped and the recruiters. Students who are eligible to pursue studies at an authorised university in the U.S. should, therefore, get a further opportunity and not be subjected to summary deportation or humiliation.

This incident should serve as a reminder to India’s policymakers that access to higher education, job-creation and raising of living standards to meet the aspirations of youth must receive priority. They should create opportunities at home so that our students don’t have to go to foreign countries to beg for jobs.

If we have to migrate, then it will be a good idea for us to migrate legitimately so we live with honour. It is going to be a big task for those affected students to come back to normalcy. It is a lesson for others aspiring to go. In a way, it will be good if we do not have such income disparity in the world which forces so many of the youth looking for greener pasture and ending up on the wrong side of law. I feel the External Affairs Ministry can get legal assistance and protect the legal rights of the affected students. Definitely this incident is going to make life difficult for genuine students who are aspiring to pursue their higher studies in the US and other countries.

The matter, of course, should be dealt by US government as the major scam is hatched in their own nation and under their own jurisdiction

Let us all not feign ignorance about a basic FACT that in India we have corrupted the entire Democratic processes, and anybody can make ANY certificate as well as get encomiums and (even) Bharat Ratna as if just some Politically powerful persons alone that matter, on whose whims and fancies we could get anything done, even if such a thing is against Law/Constitution. We must be a bit happy that somehow the US administration did not zero in on this junk behavior of the average Indian, until now. Not that ALL those who migrate for Jobs etc are under such category; but a very large percentage amongst them are. While at home the Govt is trying hard to "separate" "outsiders" such as "Rohingyas" etc, our own youngsters are found setting feet in alien lands, unlawfully. We must begin charity at home. Talk of an impending demographic dividend is meaningless without creating opportunities at home.

It is wrong to say that students go to the US because they lack access to higher education or jobs. They go there to earn money and they try everything to stay back because people can earn a lot more there than what they can in India. The work culture in the US companies is another major reason why people do not want to come back.

Dinesh Kamath's column 'Shraddha Kapoor to play ace shutter Saina Nehwal in an upcoming film' that was published in Newsband

Movie World

Shraddha Kapoor to play ace shutter Saina Nehwal in an upcoming film

Shraddha Kapoor, who will be playing the role of ace shutter Saina Nehwal in a movie, has worked hard on the project. Titled "Saina", the film directed by Amol Gupte, went on floors last September. The script is lovely. It is taking some time to complete. But it is turning out well.  Life stories of sports stars make for a good movie plot line as they are full of hardships and motivate people to do better in their lives. All the sports star have wonderful stories behind them. The struggles and hardships, they have gone through are very different from each other. So, a film on any sports star will make a good plot. If there is a biopic on a sportsperson, go and watch it because it motivates a lot.

Shraddha and Nora Fatehi will start filming in London soon. Actor Varun Dhawan has started filming Remo D'Souza's dance film in Amritsar while Shraddha Kapoor and Nora Fatehi are preparing for their ultimate dance-off sequence, which will be filmed later. In this untitled dance film, Shraddha and Nora are part of two competing teams in a dance competition. Both, Shraddha and Nora, belong to opposing teams in the film and will be a part of an intense face-off in a street dance form that will be shot in London. All the actors have started rehearsing for their dance sets and the duo is looking forward to the sequence that is an important part of the story. Remo is giving his all to choreograph the dance-off sequence.  Shraddha is currently learning five different dance forms - Afro, Krump, Locking and Popping, Animation Tutting and Urban. Shraddha Kapoor filled Katrina Kaif's spot in the cast after the latter opted out of film citing clash of dates with her work-in-progress film Bharat, co-starring Salman Khan. This will be Shraddha Kapoor and Varun Dhawan's second dance film with Remo D'Souza after 2015's ABCD 2. The work-in-progress film also stars Prabhu Deva, Dharmesh Yelande, Punit Pathak and Shakti Mohan.

Here is a true story that shows the human qualities of Shraddha Kapoor. 13-year-old Sumayya is fighting the third stage of tuberculosis. Her only wish was to meet her favorite actress, Shraddha Kapoor. Ketto, Asia’s most visited crowd-funding platform, reached out to the actress via a tweet on January 25. The actress was filled with humility and sadness after reading the detailed story on Ketto’s website and expressed her desire to meet the child and her family. Summaya is only 13 years old and was diagnosed with tuberculosis of the liver. Shraddha Kapoor went all the way to KEM hospital to meet and cheer up Sumayya. Now, Sumayya is more determined to live and play. An estimated Rs. 3 million are needed for a liver transplant to save the girl, and it has become much easier after Ketto’s initiative and Kapoor’s visit.

Shraddha is also working with NItesh Tiwari. Nitesh Tiwari who last shot 'Dangal' is currently working on his next 'Chhichhore'. He is searching for the right locations before concluding on the final one. Starring Sushant Singh Rajput and Shraddha Kapoor in the lead the film is being shot in Mumbai itself. For one of the hostel sequences, he has come across 56 locations in total across Mumbai-Thane-Vashi areas out of which one perfect location will be chosen. Chhichhore has been a different experience for all, especially Shraddha Kapoor who is working under Nitesh’s guidance. Making a set and shooting v/s finding the perfect real location and shooting there is a huge difference. Producer Sajid and director Nitesh are carrying out extensive search for the right locations for the film in which Shraddha Kapoor is playing a prominent role. You will know how Shraddha has acted in 'Chhichhore' only when the film hits the screens - most probably on 30^th August 2019.

Dinesh Kamath's Editorial 'Delay in releasing key employment data' that was published in Newsband

Delay in releasing key employment data

The Centre had refused to release new data on employment that were due to be made public in December 2018. The findings of the new Periodic Labour Force Survey, for July 2017-December 2018, are not too flattering, with unemployment registering a five-decade high. On the question of job-creation for the youth, the Prime Minister and his Cabinet have been building an argument that jobs abound, but credible data are missing. Arun Jaitley, in his last year’s Budget speech, cited ‘an independent study’ to claim seven million formal jobs will be created in 2018-19.

It is essential for elected representatives of people to realise that most of them are not quite up to the intellectual levels to understand the complex mechanism of how things change in society. It is for that reason essential to have independent agencies that provide it with a mirror on the impact of their policies on the society. The NSC is one such. To criticise that the members of that institution do not know how to do their job is laughable at best and scary to the core. A chai-wala can become a PM; but he needs to go to college and train under experts to become a good statistician or an economist.

Not making the data public is more dangerous than the data itself. Isn’t this what 'Fascism' is about?

Some people are finding faults in BJP. But nobody is completely pure in politics. Modi govt is thousand times better than this family based Congress. Why do we forget the scams that surrounded us during UPA regime?

On the employment front, despite what the govt wants us to believe, there is a set back in the sphere of organised sector jobs. The govt is outsourcing many of its jobs in hospitals railways offices municipalities etc. Taking a cue from this, private sector systemically intent on profits and never on employment production and supplying the needs and concomitant improvement in invested capital use, jobs are in jeopardy. There is systemic decline in employment elasticity of growth: lowering levels of creation of employment for every unit increase in production. Even in the putatively highly employment intensive construction sector there is mechanisation and displacement of labour, becoming more and more capital intensive.Increased capital intensity lowers distributive justice or, spread of incomes among the lower strata in the socio-economic ladder. The Nov 2016 Demonetisation has contributed to lowering availability of employment from 20 days a month to hardly 10 in India.

Statistics are much more important than generally believed. That most of the Statistics and data put out in public domain by the Govt (from as early as the 1950's) have been suspect in terms of Truth and veracity is known. Earlier data had the problem of non-availability and non-collation of the full information, under consideration. Additionally, the mechanism to strictly monitor how the Officers entrusted with Statistics subject (collection/ collation and data management/ dissemination) is still under cloud. At times the Govt would want to present a "rosy" picture and influence the Statistics as per the whims and fancies of the Party/leader at the helm. It is now becoming very clear that such fudging and fumbling are being practiced at a maximum level under Modi Govt - almost reaching a stage that Trust is lost in Govt statistics. How this would affect ground realities of various Planned actions for Development - only Time will tell.

The institutions that release statistical information on wide range of subjects must be indepent and free from governmental intervention to manipulate or fludge the data to show lime light of the ruling party. This is bad. The government must scrap niti aayog and bring back the planning commission. This system in the past used to take into account the opinion from public on important issues but niti aayog a poor quality institution that never cared to take in to account public opinion on certain decisions that effect the common man's life.

People will lose faith completely in government statistics and data, and turn to anecdotal evidence.

Dinesh Kamath's Editorial 'The interim budget is not bad' that was published in Newsband

The interim budget is not bad

Interim Budget 2019-20 must rank as one of the most politically expedient ones this country has seen. They could be aimed at seeking votes but a lot of thought has gone into identifying and targeting the sections of population across social segments that are in distress and unhappy with the Centre.

Proposal for income support scheme for farmers, pension scheme for informal sector workers and income tax concessions for the middle class is a good move. The housing-related tax proposals can give a leg-up to the real estate sector. People should be prepared for the next budget which may have unexpected and ' unimaginable ' taxes to ' cover' voter sentiments.

No doubt, the interim budget was slightly dented towards the ensuing elections in mind. But leaving that aside, if it is seen from salaried middle class, there are quite a number of features that benefit them be the increase in Standard Deduction, increase in TDS limit and the exemption of tax upto Rs 5 Lakh, increase in the threshhold on house rental income etc.

A major chunk is budgeted for Railways to the whopping of Rs.1.58 lakh crore for track renewal, track doubling, laying new lines, ROBs and under bridges, gauge conversion, passenger amenities and rolling stock. The 2% interest subvention for MSME sector and the allocation of Rs. 500 crore towards pension for the unorganised sector is quite a welcome move. Roll over of Capital Gains Tax on the sale of houses is expected to benefit the people of big cities like Mumbai.

Now the news media will say it is for votes, conveniently forgetting 65 years of misgovernance by the Congress by only delivering their own family budgets. These are not sops, these are honest payback honest tax payers are getting. No media can malign the honesty of tax payers and honest returns they get due to their tax discipline. BJP has run the final nail on the coffin of enemies to save this nation from scandal mongers and corruption specialists.

If Rahul proposes “Minimum Income Guarantee” it is visionary and altruistic Game Changing Policy for India’s welfare without any electoral calculations. However, when NDA proposes similar but fiscally responsible sops, it has to be for shopping votes.

Here are some facts: (1) There are over 600 million working class in the age group 18 through 60 (2) Only about 50 million in those have any proper jobs with Salary PF Medical benefits etc (3) India, thus, holds the biggest number of UNDEREMPLOYED (and Unemployed) adults numbering 550 million.

The government has done good fiscal math and managed the economy well to be able to reward sections in distress. The foundation of the economy has been resurrected and if this government gets next term in office it is sure to chart out the next leap.

For the opposition parties it is shopping for votes. This budget is not shopping for votes. The budget has benefited the farmers, the real estate specially for housing, the younger generation who are earning less an annual income of five lakhs, the banks would able to get more deposits since TDS to be deducted is only above Rs40000 as interest earned. Hence this is excellent for all sections of the society except for the opposition parties

Dinesh Kamath's column 'Sonam Kapoor’s best performance was in ‘Neerja’' that was published in Newsband

Movie World

Sonam Kapoor’s best performance was in ‘Neerja’

A Bollywood movie about a family accepting their daughter is a lesbian was hailed by one and all. It comes after the country's Supreme Court scrapped a colonial-era ban on homosexuality. Ek Ladki Ko Dekha Toh Aisa Laga (How I Felt When I Saw A Girl) show parents dealing with their daughter being in a same-sex relationship.

The Hindi-language drama has veteran actor Anil Kapoor star alongside his daughter Sonam Kapoor. In the movie, Anil Kapoor, 62, is trying to get his daughter Sweety - played by Sonam Kapoor - married. But she is in love with a woman though. Will her family accept the relationship? That’s what the film is about. It is a beautiful and heartfelt film.

A leading magazine L’officiel had Sonam starring on the cover page for the February 2019 edition. On the cover page, she looked breathtakingly beautiful. Her million-dollar smile won many hearts. 

Sonam Kapoor Ahuja had stepped into the film industry with Sanjay Leela Bhansali's Saawariya opposite Ranbir Kapoor. Her career of over 10 years includes her sterling performances in films like Neerja, Ranjahnaa, Padman, Sanju and Veere Di Wedding,

The fashionable actress who has had a great run at the box-office last year is all set and determined to make 2019 a great one. Sonam might reunite with Padman co-actor Akshay Kumar for Rohit Shetty's much-awaited cop drama Sooryavanshi. Many actresses were considered for this role. But it could be the Neerja actress who might take the cake. In fact, Rohit had met Sonam along with his team to discuss an upcoming project. It was in all probabilities about Sooryavanshi. If Sonam bags this movie, there will be considerable addition to the number of fans she already has.

I personally feel that Neerja was so far the best film Sonam acted in. This was a brilliant movie. Sonam proved her prowess as an actress. She had given her best throughout the movie. This is the second movie of hers which I liked after Ranjahnaa. No one in Bollywood couldd have done this role better than Sonam. There was hardly anyone who had not showered praise on 'Neerja' and protagonist Sonam Kapoor. The film was indeed an inspiring masterpiece. This film was, in fact, the favourite of cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar too. Sonam Kapoor played the role of the brave heart Neerja Bhanot so excellently that the Indian government came up with a stamp in honor of Neerja Bhanot. Sonam was deeply moved by Neerja's story and she went all out to narrate the tale of this forgotten hero to one and all.  Several from the industry have watched the film and loved it. But Sonam will always cherish the compliment that came from cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar.

Dinesh Kamath's column 'Alia Bhatt is a terrific actress!' that was published in Newsband

Movie World

Alia Bhatt is a terrific actress!

By Dinesh Kamath

News about the second instalment of the 2008 hit film 'Dostana' has been doing the rounds for quite a while now. But some say it is a rumour. Someone said that Alia Bhatt had apparently been roped in to play the lead in 'Dostana 2.' It seems that the 25-year-old actor who made her debut with Karan Johar's 'Student of The Year 2' is also keen about working on the film.

However, filmmaker Karan Johar has cleared the air about any speculations surrounding the upcoming film. He further confirmed that no one has been approached.

SS Rajamouli’s ‘RRR’ is searching for a female lead, and it could be Alia Bhatt. It seems that Rajamouli’s team has approached Alia Bhatt through her mentor and godfather Karan Johar who is co-producing the film.

Bhatt is interested in the offer. Alia will be tied up with promotions of her upcoming films and the shoot of ‘Brahmastra’ in the next few months. At the moment, she is trying to figure out dates for the Rajamouli film after wrapping up ongoing commitments. If confirmed, this film will mark Bhatt’s Tollywood debut.

Here are some Alia Bhatt movies every Bollywood buff has to watch

Alia Bhatt has proven herself as one of Bollywood’s strongest actors over the years. Ahead of her latest, Gully Boy, here’s a look back at her best work yet: Alia Bhatt joined Bollywood just seven years ago. Only 19, Bhatt made her debut with a bang in Karan Johar’s rom-com Student of the Year (2012). Bhatt played high school Queen Bee Shanaya Singhania, the roles. Thus she put her acting prowess in the spotlight. Two years after Student of the Year released, Bhatt gave another sterling performance in Highway (2014), an intense, heart-breaking film in which she played a sheltered girl who finds her voice after getting kidnapped by a gang. Her strong-minded persona as Ananya Swaminathan in 2 States (2014) and her devil-may-care attitude as Kavya Singh in Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania (2014) made her fans adore her stillmore. For Udta Punjab (2016), Bhatt threw away her smartphone while getting into Bihari labourer Kumari Pinky’s skin. She gave an honest, open performance as Kaira in coming-of-age drama Dear Zindagi (2016). Her role of Indian spy Sehmat Syed in Raazi (2018) was excellent. She has played the role of Sakina in 2018’s musical drama, Gully Boy.

Dinesh Kamath's Editorial 'Chanda Kochhar case' that was published in Newsband

Chanda Kochhar case

The conclusion arrived at after the inquiry by former Supreme Court judge Justice B.N. Srikrishna into the allegations against former ICICI Bank CEO Chanda Kochhar was that she did not conduct herself as she should have in relation to conflict-of-interest issues. The Central Bureau of Investigation filed an FIR against Ms. Kochhar, her husband Deepak Kochhar, head of the Videocon group Venugopal Dhoot and ICICI Bank executives for sanction of credit facilities in violation of rules, that caused a loss of ₹1,730 crore to the bank.

Were the loans given in return for financial favours? If it is so, then it becomes a criminal case. Clearly, Ms. Kochhar erred, and badly at that. Just a day after a ₹300-crore loan was disbursed to Videocon International Electronics in 2009, Mr. Kochhar’s NuPower Renewables received ₹64 crore from the Videocon group. It is impossible to believe the board was not aware of the allegations against the CEO.

The ICICI Bank episode is only one among several instances of governance lapses in corporate India in recent times. This is just one illustration of the mismanagement and gross misuse of banking sector by some vested interests by consistent violation of rules.

In the early stage board was overly indulgent and now overly harsh. She herself should have resigned much earlier without precipitating an inquiry by judge.

Efficiency in the private sector is often overrated and corruption in the private sector is often underrated".

Ms Chanda Kochar’s case underscores the fact that often the sub-committees of Board of Director of a listed public limited company may be ineffective in dealing with irregularities. Independent Directors on Board of a listed public limited company have to be really independent. Question is this: are they really independent? Another question related to investigations in Ms Kochar’s case is this: Would the investigations be really free?

This transaction took place a decade ago, roughly around the time Ms Chanda Kochhar became CEO. The stake acquired by the Dhoots and Kochhar family would convert a dodgy favour into an outright bribe. The intriguing question that arises is whether this was a solitary transaction or part of a larger pattern of misconduct spanning a decade at the helm.

Chanda Kochchar is made accounted for her acts against Corporate Governance norms while UPA government is at helm. What is wrong then, in going after Mayawati or Akhilesh for Power misuse? This is tax payers’ money not shareholders’. It is the time Congress moves beyond Rafale deal and also look at the hands they are shaking for opportunistic gains. It is clear, NDA Government is delivering results.