Delhi Exit Polls 2013: Will AAP sweep or be swept?

AAP :WILL IT  SWEEP OR BE  SWEPT??

Delhi turned up in record numbers today to vote for its next government. At 7 pm, the voter turnout was an unprecedented 66 per cent. For the first time, the capital has three choices: the incumbent Congress, the main opposition party the BJP, and Arvind Kejriwal's new Aam Aadmi Party.

Well,it is certain that the debutant party has really made a strong effect on the young minds,but the question which arises;is it enough to get majority in the national territory?

The "exit poll of polls" shows the BJP winning 4-0 in Chattisgarh, Delhi, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan. In Delhi, Arvind Kejriwal's party makes an extra-ordinary debut.

WHAT THE CANDIDATES SAY?

Calling the record turnout "good", Ms Dikshit told NDTV, "I can't say anything on what the results will be. I am not an astrologer.

"Mr Kejriwal said he will meditate and do "vipaasana" till the 7th. Results will be declared on the 8th (Sunday).

The BJP's Chief Ministerial candidate Harsh Vardhan, an E.N.T surgeon and former Health Minister, also professed confidence. "We are far ahead of the others," he said. The BJP's campaign highlighted inflation, rising crimes against women and the shortage of power and water in the city of 17 million.

The former tax official and his nine-month-old Aam Aadmi Party are confident of outdoing the Congress and BJP with their promise of a corruption-free government to jaded voters. (Delhi polls: Heavyweights).However exit polls suggest a grand win for BJP in the 4 states including Delhi.

So Delhi needs to wait for the results which will be declared on 8th december.The people are looking forward to a better governance this term and are confident of having some change soon.

AIR- All India Radio's rendezvous with Politics

As All India radio (AIR) enters its platinum jubilee, it is worth reflecting on this national institution of inestimable worth that has fallen on bad times. In spite of the great changes in the Indian radio landscape, AIR remains a force to reckon with, given its 376 stations, its unrivalled coverage of more than 90% of the country, and broadcasts in 23 languages and 146 dialects.

Nonetheless, AIR remains a deeply paradoxical institution. On the one hand, its offers a truly national service that, to borrow from the old Heineken ad, reaches parts of the country other broadcasters don't. AIR's sound archives- consisting of both north and south Indian classical music and the spoken word- offer a unique memory of music traditions and styles and a repository of the political history of the nation, including recordings by Tagore, Subhash Chandra Bose, Gandhi, Jinnah and other national figures. The digitisation of these archives at a central level as well as in the regional centres is an ongoing project.

AIR has extensive experience of rural and farm broadcasting, with programmes on land and water conservation, sustainable agriculture, biotechnology, integrated pest management for crops, crop insurance schemes, environment protection and disaster management, which have benefited scores of farmers in the country. AIR has played a critical role during natural disasters, most recently during the floods of Uttarakhand. Both AIR's FM Rainbow and the station in Najibabad helped relay information that was vital to the rescue operations. It played a similar role during the cyclone in Odisha and tsunami that struck the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, both in 1999, as well as in the Indian Ocean tsunami of December 2004, and the Kosi floods in Bihar in 2008.

AIR's tryst with Indian Politics  

Being a highly esteemed public institution, AIR, however, has constantly been a focus point of many political events and controversies. On the very same day that AIR releases the music CDs of Pt Mallikarjun Mansur, the President of the Congress Party, Sonia Gandhi, announced the establishment of an AIR studio in rae Bareli, her parliamentary constituency. The relationship between electoral politics and broadcasting in India is, of course, not new, given that during the dark days of the Emergency, AIR became a propaganda mouthpiece for Indira Gandhi, earning the sobriquet "All India Radio", and a decade later, her son, Rajiv Gandhi, commanded the over-hasty expansion of broadcasting ahead of the 1989 elections. The late VC Shukla, who was the union minister during the Emergency, once banned Kishore Kumar songs from being played on AIR and Doordarshan because he had refused to sing at a Congress event in Mumbai. The fact that Rajiv Gandhi heard of the assassination of his mother from a report by the BBC correspondent Satish Jcob, a full five hours before it was announced on AIR, is a reflection of the fact that politics and political expediency have shaped the development of public broadcasting in the country.

The paradox that AIR currently is does it no favour. Although that it is no excuse to retire the service of starve it out of existence, it needs to become an independent and genuine public service broadcaster. To be sure, AIR does possess the capacity to broadcast content that counts and that is different from the hyper-commercialised music and talk shows that have become the norm for radio in the contemporary India. Surely, rather than letting it implode, we need to collectively reimagine AIR as an independent public service broadcaster suitable for 21st century India- and hope that our broadcasting mandarins understand that a relevant and responsive public service broadcaster ultimately makes for good politics.

Source: EPW

E-commerce is expanding and booming, but where are the profits ?

No matter how much lucrative has been the idea of launching an e-commerce start up, the basic objective of all such ventures lies in the market share one can achieve. Undoubtedly the logistics involved in actually starting a macro level e-commerce venture are huge and account for high preliminary as well as operational costs.  Major giants like Flipkart, Myntra, Jabong are advertising aggressively through television, print and digital media alike, in the process chunking huge expenditure cash flows. While it does make sense for all such websites to allow for high marketing budgets, the results have been dismal when it comes to the profit and loss statements.

However, there is, without a doubt, a sincere admission of the fact that conventional shopping has been replaced by online shopping in most of the urban households thus implying a tremendous up-line growth in the industry.

Conversely, even if these ventures have done enough to ensure an oligopoly market condition in the e-commerce industry, there is no guarantee that they will actually become profitable in next two years. After all, till when these websites will be aided through seed funding. With little bottom-line growth, the idea of going public also seems ominous. Thus we come to an easy sought out conclusion that only cost cutting and cost minimization can help cover the losses in such intense competition.

Business linking and partnerships are essential for growth thereby taking the leverage of economies of scale. Delivery mechanism should be among the best yet cheapest. Not more than a year ago, shopping on Flipkart required minimum aggregate of Rs.200 in order to avail free home delivery lest you pay Rs.30 extra. Now the minimum aggregate has been increased to Rs.500 on failure of which you pay Rs.50 extra. This has more often than not led to multiple and excessive shopping, buying those products which one does not even require.

All in all, now that we have been so capitulated and obsessed by the vogue of shopping from our desktops, we must not overlook the basic mantra of consumerism-   'Shop but respect your wallet' !

Why drug makers should not write veg or non-veg on their medicine labels?

Case - Italian Soaps and Toiletries Makers Association v Ozair Husain 2013

The Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940 or the rules thereunto do not mandate the mentioning or displaying symbol of ingredients of non-vegetarian or vegetarian origin. The manufacturing or others are not required to mention 'vegetarian' or 'non-vegetarian' on the label of drugs or cosmetics. A citizen has the right to expression and receive information but such right can be limited by reasonable restriction under the law. It is imperative for the state to ensure the availability of the right to the citizens to receive information  but such information can be given to the extent it is available and possible.

In the present case, the Union of India had taken a plea that information relating to the ingredients of drug particularly those ingredients of non-vegetarian origin should not be given 'in the interest of general public'. A specific plea has been taken that it is not possible to distinguish the drugs whether these are life saving or otherwise.

In the given circumstances the condition of a patient may be such that a drug which is ordinarily not treated as life saving may be essential to save the life. In such a case when drug becomes a life saving drug, it may not be desirable for the patient or his attendant to know the origin of the ingredients of the drug ie., whether 'vegetarian' or 'non-vegetarian'. Such option cannot be left on the patient or his attendant if required to save the life or eradicate a disease. 

Are the states vigilant and capable enough for disaster management exercises?

The devastation wrought by flooding in Uttarakhand is probably the worst the northern Himalayan state has ever faced in recent history. Entire swathes of territory have been laid waste and much of the infrastructure in the affected areas- roads, bridges and civic facilities has been destroyed.

More than 33,100 people have been so far rescued, as the military takes advantage of clearer weather, but another 50,400 are still stranded, the home ministry claims. Houses, buildings and vehicles have collapsed or been swept away by overflowing rivers and landslides, while bridges and narrow roads leading to pilgrimage towns have also been destroyed.

Two things stand out: the lack of early warning systems and the inability of the state government to manage the disaster. Any state in the geologically vulnerable region has to plan for such contingencies. This one clearly did not. It is not even clear if it had any such plans. And now it has to depend on the military and heavy task forces for the rescue operations to evacuate thousands of people stranded in remote valleys.

These days it is fashionable to talk about the empowerment of the states. But that is meaningless if the more elementary task of building their capabilities is not addressed. 

Samsung Galaxy Grand Quattro: The Poor Man’s Galaxy S3?

S

AMSUNG launched the Galaxy Grand duos earlier this year.The Grand had strikingly similar appearance with the GALAXY NOTE 2 and was priced at around Rs.19500,whereas the note 2 retails for around Rs.33500.

Now Samsung has finally launched the Galaxy Grand Quattro which sports a 1.2 ghz “quad core” processor and comes with Samsung’s smart dual sim technology. The phone is smaller than the original Galaxy Grand at about 4.7” and borrows its appearance from the Galaxy S3 which has a slightly larger screen at 4.8”.However Samsung has done away with the curved lines which are seen in the Grand or the S3.

The phone which is officially priced at about Rs.16990 is easily available for about Rs.15250 and is a very good option for people who want to experience a good branded Smartphone at very competitive price.

It would be unfair to compare it with the Galaxy S3 as the S3 is about Rs.10000 dearer than the quattro but it would help you fulfill your desire to own a high-end smartphone as it would give you a somewhat similar experience.Obviously it doesn't have the flagship features which were offered in the S3 but has a few intelligent features like:- the phones goes on silent mode if it is placed upside down on the surface.

Here is a quick look at the specs:

GENERAL 2G Network GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 - GT-I8550 GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 - GT-I8552 (SIM 1 & SIM 2) 3G Network HSDPA 900 / 2100 SIM Optional Dual SIM (Mini-SIM and Micro-SIM, dual stand-by) Announced 2013, April Status Available. Released 2013, May

BODY Dimensions 133.3 x 70.7 x 9.7 mm (5.25 x 2.78 x 0.38 in) Weight 143.9 g (5.04 oz)

DISPLAY Type TFT capacitive touchscreen Size 480 x 800 pixels, 4.7 inches (~199 ppi pixel density) Multitouch Yes

SOUND Alert types Vibration; MP3, WAV ringtones Loudspeaker Yes 3.5mm jack Yes

MEMORY Card slot microSD, up to 32 GB Internal 8 GB, 1 GB RAM

DATA GPRS Yes EDGE Yes Speed HSDPA, 7.2 Mbps; HSUPA, 5.76 Mbps WLAN Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Wi-Fi hotspot, DLNA Bluetooth Yes, v3.0 USB Yes, microUSB v2.0

CAMERA Primary 5 MP, 2592x1944 pixels, autofocus, LED flash Features Geo-tagging, touch focus, face and smile detection Video Yes, 720p@15fps Secondary Yes, VGA

FEATURES OS Android OS, v4.1.2 (Jelly Bean) Chipset Qualcomm MSM8625Q Snapdragon 200 CPU Quad-core 1.2 GHz Cortex-A5 GPU Adreno 203 Sensors Accelerometer, proximity, compass Messaging SMS(threaded view), MMS, Email, Push Mail, IM, RSS Browser HTML5 Radio Stereo FM radio with RDS GPS Yes, with A-GPS support Java Yes, via Java MIDP emulator Colors Ceramic White, Titan Gray - Active noise cancellation with dedicated mic - SNS integration - MP4/WMV/H.264/H.263 player - MP3/WAV/eAAC+/AC3/FLAC player - Organizer - Image/video editor - Document viewer - Google Search, Maps, Gmail, YouTube, Calendar, Google Talk, Picasa - Voice memo/dial/commands - Predictive text input

BATTERY Li-Ion 2000 mAh battery Stand-by (2G) / Up to 210 h (3G) Talk time (2G) / Up to 11 h (3G)

MISC SAR US 0.26 W/kg (head)     0.67 W/kg (body) SAR EU 0.12 W/kg (head)

 Pros
         The quad core processor is good enough to handle the heavy games.

  

           

       The Micromax and Karbonn phones which are about 2000-3000 cheaper than the Quattro fail to offer the rich user experience which is available on the Quattro. Thanks to Samsungs very own touchwiz user interface.

•        Samsung’s very own “DUOS” smart dual sim technology that lets you manage your professional and   personal life
•          Competitively  priced,gives a premium look,Latest android jelly bean 4.1.2
•       Very light and easy to hold.fits your hand perfectly,making it easy to operate with one hand(which becomes difficult in the Grand)
•           Easy Mode helps you access key functions such as favourite contacts, apps, dialer, etc on the homescreen with ease.
•          Perfect for watching your faviourate videos

Cons

•           The phone however lacks in terms of camera performance and the 5mp snapper doesn’t do the job very well.so don’t expect any DSLR like quality from the mighty 5 mp camera.
•           The internal memory of the phone could have been better
•            Battery life
•          A bit of a lag in high end games..(but hey you haven’t paid for a Sony PSP,right? :P)
•           The phone lacks full HD support and the screen quality is very far from what the Indian brands like micromaxx and karbonn have on offer.At around ppi the screen is not the best which you can boast of about.

           

   

Reviewed and written by:

• Nitigya Batra
• Pratyush Oberoi

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