N.Ambika, DCP North, Mumbai - The real story

N.Ambika, DCP North, Mumbai

N Ambika was just 14 years old when she got married to one of the Police constable at Dindikal, Tamilnadu, even she was a victim of Child Marriage. But she didn’t blame the system for her marriage. At the age of 18 she blessed with a 2 daughters Aigan and Niharika.

Ambika’s husband works as a Police Constable in TN Government, one fine day he leaves his home early to attend a Parade program and the guest were followed by the IG and DG of the respective locality. Ambika was curious about the honouring and respect given for the DG and IG, and the same day when her husband arrives back home, she questions him about the DC and IG, when her husband says that he is the rank 1 officer for our department, a dream arises in the Ambika’s mind that even she wants to become that level of officer.

But Ambika was married at a very small age, she couldn’t even complete her SSLC, but her husband supports her dream, and advices her to take the external SSLC, later she even completes external PUC and Degree. She requests with her husband that she want to move to Chennai for the IPS coaching, can he make a arrangement of the PG facility, Ambika’s husband was very cooperative for all her works and he used to support her in all the ways. He makes a PG facility for her in Chennai and makes all other facility for her IPS Coaching.

Even after lot of efforts, Ambika fails to clear IPS in 3 attempts, her husband comes back to her and advise her that come back to his place and also says that government has given me know Accommodation facility and by the time I get retire even I will be having 2 stars on my shoulder.

Ambika listens patiently to her husband words and replies give me one-year time, if I wouldn’t pass, I will come back and after this much struggle at least i could work as a Teacher in some school. In the fourth Attempt, Ambika clears IPS prelims, Mains and Interview.

After clearing IPS in 2008, she gets into training provided by the Department, In training she was a Batchmet of Ravi D Chennanavar DCP Bangalore, he used to say about her in the camps, how attentive and brave she was in the training moment.

Ambika now works as a DCP North 4 division in Mumbai. If Ambika would blame her parents on that day for child marriage then she wouldn’t become DCP today. So instead of blaming the system or people, make an attempt to come outside of that system and try to change the system.

By this today Ambika has become a role model for many and there are many Ambika hidden who are reading this story, be brave and start the journey towards your destiny.

Nirav Modi defrauds PNB of Rs.11,400 crores and flees away

Nirav Modi with PM Narendra Modi at Davos on 24-Jan-2018

Nirav Modi, who defrauded PNB by over Rs.11,000 crores

• Punjab National Bank (PNB) said on 14-Feb-2018 that it had been defrauded of about Rs 11,400 crores by jeweller Nirav Modi, his maternal uncle Mehul Chinubhai Choksi, and other relatives through a clutch of companies they own.
• Two of its employees were involved in the scam, where the bank’s core banking system was bypassed to raise payment notes to overseas branches of other Indian banks, including Allahabad Bank, Axis Bank, and Union Bank of India, using the international financial communication system, SWIFT.
• As the payment request was raised by PNB, and therefore, the payment would have to be met by the Delhi-based Punjab National Bank. PNB in a letter to banks, indicated clearly that it was in no mood to pay back and alleged connivance of employees at the foreign branches of other Indian banks. The banking system is heading towards a protracted legal battle as other banks will start suing PNB over non-payment of dues and refusal to honour commitments.
• An age-old method employed to defraud the banking system. It involved LoUs raised at the PNB’s Mumbai office by firms owned by Modi and his family. A LoU works like a bank guarantee, which the importer can sell to other banks at a discount. At the end, the bank that holds the LoU goes back to the issuer bank (PNB in this case) and gets its due. The issuer bank (PNB) recovers its due against the LoU from its client (Modi).
• However, issuance of the LoU involves a lot of process and to mitigate the risks of fraud, banks insist the client deposit an equivalent amount of assets, mainly cash, in the local branch, to avail of the overseas facility. Since LoU expires within a maximum of 180 days and fresh LoU needs to be issued. Since first LoU was issued to Nirav Modi in 2011, several fresh LoC's issuance could not have happened with political patronage and connivance of bank's top brass.
• PNB disclosed that it detected fraudulent and unauthorised transactions worth around $1.78 billion (approximately Rs 11,400 crores) “for the benefit of a few select account holders” with the help of the bank staff based in one of its Mumbai branches. “In the bank these transactions are contingent in nature and liability arising out of these on the bank shall be decided based on the law and genuineness of the underlying transactions,” the bank said.
• DFS Secretary Rajiv Kumar said this seemed to be an isolated case and would not impact other banks.
• Nirav Modi & his family are believed to have left the country several days before lodging of FIR by CBI and is believed to be in Switzerland.  
• An interesting reader's comment ...
  

  "You cannot fault Rajiv Kumar, for sure. He knows which side of the bread is buttered, and so, unsolicited, he jumps to the govt's defence by invoking 2011. But deafening silence from the FM, the RBI, the Finance Secretary -- not to mention the PM for whom, understandably, Rs 11k Crore is a measly little sum totally undeserving of his attention. He is busy doing what he does best: address election meetings where, other than subtly stoking communal fires, he speaks grandly of Vikash. Surely his Vikash model has stood Nirav Modi in good stead, and as far as the ordinary Indian citizen is concerned, our PM couldn't care less, as every Bharatiya happens to know by now. So the field is left open for the usual buffoonery of Ravishankar Prasad and a pugnacious (though completely witless) intervention by the Raksha Mantri. Nobody has apparently suggested to Nirmala Sitaraman that she had better take care of the country's porous borders -- which happen to be under her charge and are leaking all the while -- rather than talking about things she doesn't have the foggiest idea about. But, then, who will advise whom about what in the madhouse that Modi's India has turned into?"

SNAP SHOT

1. On 14 Feb 2018, the CBI received complaints from PNB, which detected a Rs 11,292 crore fraud involving jeweller Nirav Modi.
2. The number of suspended employees now stands at 18.
3. Nirav Modi’s home, offices in Mumbai, Delhi and Surat were raided by the ED on 15 Feb 2018.
4. The CBI and the ED have moved separate applications with the EAM, seeking the revocation of passports of Modi and his partner Choksi.
5. PNB suspended 10 officials from its Mumbai branch in connection with the case.
6. In two days, PNB lost over Rs 8,000 crore of market valuation.
7. The case turned political after the Congress termed Nirav ‘Chotta Modi’.
8. Officials said Modi and his family fled India in the first week of January, days before the first complaint was filed.

Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. 

All those experiments have a bad ending.

Read the source article

Gem of a scam - Business Standard

Every new government will be 'clean' during first 1-2 years. Their misdeeds will surface by end of 3rd year or later. BJP & Modi are no exception. Modi just followed the time tested corruption path established by Congress and even more reckless. Only narrative is different. The fact that more than 90% of political donations reached BJP coffers speaks volumes about quid pro quo's involved. While the Nirav Modi's scam occurred during past 1-2 years, BJP attempting to link it to Congress invoking 2011 is just nonsense. BJP may or may not be responsible for this scam, but the way they are responding leaves people of India without any doubts about their involvement. There is no way BJP or any political party will accept their wrong doings, the best - people of India can do is to defeat them in 2019 general elections. This may pave way to Congress regain power but we hardly have choice. In Indian political arena even a saint ascending to power will end up in corruption, cronyism, nepotism etc. Even in USA, no one ever retired from Presidency more respected by political friends and foes alike. Such is the power of power & money.

Bullet train: Another oxymoron of Modi

Modi (PM Of India) and Shinzo Abe (PM of Japan)

• 508km Ahmedabad-Mumbai bullet train (HSR) project's estimated cost is Rs.110,000 crores. 80% i.e. 88,000 crores is a soft loan (0.1% interest payable from 16th through 50th years) from JICA, Japan and 20% i.e. Rs.22,000 crores to funded by Govt of India. 
• The JICA is notorious for funding projects in which Japanese companies are in the fray and there are often hidden costs.
• This Rs.22,000 crores will easily go up to Rs.50,000 crores, or even more, in due course.
• This project has been awarded to Japan on a “nomination basis”, without any competitive bidding process and with the direct negotiations by Modi with Japanese PM Shinzo Abe. It is expensive when compared to Chinese rates by 59% to 97%.
• No competitive tendering, no cost benefit analysis or any other due diligence for minimizing costs and maximizing benefits was ever undertaken.
• Modi highlighting that "it is virtually free'' tantamount to lying and misleading the nation and doesn't befit his occupying PM chair.
• JPY/INR exchange risk is also going to be a huge burden. No one will hedge exchange rate risks beyond 6 months. INR is always a depreciating currency where as JPY an appreciating currency.
• The pricing of tickets would be close to flight travel tickets and hence useles for common man.
• Worldwide all bullet train projects are loss making and supported by government. This HSR project will be a white elephant and big drain on tax payers money for many decades.
• Mumbaikar's demanded 'we want basics not bullet trains' in response to Elphinstone Bridge stampede incident where 23 people lost lives on Sep 30, 2017.
• If we don’t dream big, we will never achieve big ... But these trophy projects drains scarce funds which otherwise rightfully would have gone for education, healthcare, drinking water, sanitation, transportation and welfare - benefiting lower strata of society. 
• Development with poorer classes funds is an outrageous model of development.

Gandhi's Talisman: Whenever you are in doubt, or when the self becomes too much with you, recall the face of the poorest and the weakest man whom you may have seen, and ask yourself, if the step you contemplate is going to be of any use to him. Will he gain anything by it? Will it restore him to a control over his own life and destiny? In other words, will it lead to freedom for the hungry and spiritually starving millions? Then you will find your doubts and your self melt away.

Lemon Socialism ... socialise losses and privatise profits 

Commonsense tells us that we get best price only when we buy things with our own cash. Any kind of loans & financing will erode our bargaining capability and we will be saddled with not only interest charges but also hidden costs and front loading. Government borrowing money with soft interests with long term repayments is ok for investments in infrastructure benefiting masses and accelerating overall development in that region/ state/ country but not for nonviable political projects just for ego satisfaction and showcasing and displaying to foreigners and publicity devoid of any merit. Sardar Sarovar Dam's incomplete canal systems during his 13 years as CM of Gujarat, is a testimony for Modi's incompetency. GIFT city project is another white elephant. Like demonetization and mangled & unprepared GST roll out - bullet train will add to woes of nation. If it turns out to be scandalous, no one will be surprised. With Railway safety at its worst, priority is not bullet train but to invest and ensure safety of passengers. Finally, we don't have to compete with any one in the world; we just need to improve ourselves year after year, carrying all sections of people together.

India losing its way, 70 years after independence

• In 1960, an American writer predicted that in an unstable India no outsider will be able to say with assurance where political legitimacy resides.
• Three years earlier, C.Rajagopalachari had predicted that “the centrifugal forces will ultimately prevail”, bringing anarchy or fascism. Older generation people, who had survived partition, mournfully surveyed the country’s future, some even hoping the British would come back.
• Even in 1969, India relied on wheat given away by America, and a “guest control order” specified that only 50 people could be invited to parties where food was served. To travel abroad, Indians required the approval of the Reserve Bank.
• India has not reduced poverty levels as dramatically as China. Still 250 million Indians live on less than four dollars a day, but the progress since the British left has been impressive.
• In 1947 life expectancy was 32 years, now it is 68. The per capita income in India was $439. Now it is US $1861, an all time high and was at record low of US$ 304 in 1960.
• In 1947 only 1,500 villages – a mere 0.025% – were electrified; now 97% of 6.41 lakh villages have electricity. After two centuries of British rule, literacy in India was only 12% of the population and now 74% are literate.
• Every change of government since 1947 has been via the ballot box, with the army never involved - something Greece, Spain, Portugal or even France can’t claim..

As its 70th anniversary approaches, India beset with fears? 

• The way, since Narendra Modi’s astonishing election victory in 2014, the country seems to be turning its back on the tolerant, secular society India’s founding fathers wanted. 
• Modi has always ridden two chariots: Modi’s real business of making India prosperous; and his Hindu business of appeasing his fanatical Hindu followers.
• Some people are confident that Modi will change India for the better, and that the Hindu business will amount to nothing.
• Yet Modi has proved a timid reformer, whose tinkering has included an overnight demonetization that led to such chaos that many people died.
• His Hindu followers have been given free rein. This has seen a ban on the slaughter of cows, and a growing intolerance of minorities and their lynching.
• Today in Mumbai, there is now a form of religious apartheid in housing. A Muslim client wanted to buy a flat in a suburb but the broker said “You are a Muslim. This building is not for Muslims. Hindus only.” 
• In some parts of Mumbai, the most vibrant city, have become so segregated that “owners say this building is for vegetarians only, so no Muslim, Christians, Jews, Parsis or even meat-eating Hindus”. Ironically 31% of Indians are vegetarian and 69% are non-vegetarian.
• In Mumbai of the 50's and 60's, all faiths lived side by side. 

Narendra Modi: Is he India's saviour, or sectarian with blood on his hands?

Bulllet Train - Mumbai Ahmedabad

Salient features:

Mumbai - Ahmedabad bullet train

1. The proposed Mumbai - Ahmedabad bullet train will run at 350 kmph whereas the present fastest Shatabdi Express runs at 160 kmph. It will be 8th high speed train in the world. 
2. The 508 km distance will be traveled in just 2 hours. At present Ahmedabad-Mumbai flight takes 2.5 hours including check in time. 
3. It is expected that around 36,000 daily users per day both ways by 2023, going up to 186,000 by 2053. 
4. The non-stop journey from Ahmedabad to Mumbai will take 2.07 hours. There is another train stopping at all the 12 stations enroute will take 2.58 hours. The 12 stations are Mumbai, Thane, Virar, Boisar, Vapi, Bilimora, Surat, Bharuch, Vadodara, Anand, Ahmedabad and Sabarmati.  At present, Duronto Express takes about seven hours to cover this distance.
5. The bullet train work will start in 2017 and competed in 2022-23.
6. Out of Rs. 97,636 crores total cost, 80% loan will be be provided by Japan at 0.1% interest repayable in 50 years, with 15 years moratorium. Total duration of Bullet Train Project would be 12-13 years.
7. Construction cost would be Rs.140 crores per km where as Delhi Metro costed Rs.175 crores per km and Vijayawda Metro cost estimated at Rs.288 crores per km. While the cost of construction of a normal railway route is Rs 5 crore per km, the estimated expenditure on the high speed railway line for bullet train will be Rs 140 crore per km.
8. In 2010 UPA govt sanctioned the feasibility report for 6 bullet train routes (including Ahmedabad-Mumbai route). In 2012 Narendra Modi, the then CM of Gujarat, visited Japan, traveled in Bullet Train and then requested centre to include Ahmedabad-Mumbai route. It was included since it was cheapest and best suited route for Bullet Train Project. Entire process took 6-7 years study and 5-6 years of building the project totaling 13 years

9. 

   Modi travelling in Bullet Train in Japan in 2012

10. The Ministry of Railways has proposed a tariff for the upcoming bullet train service between Mumbai and Ahmedabad that will be 1.5 times the first class AC fare prevailing now. In Duronto Express, the current AC 1st Class fare between Mumbai and Ahmedabad, is Rs.2,200. This means, for the 508-km run between the two cities — via a dedicated, high-speed corridor — the fare will be around Rs.3,300. In Japan, a similar, 550-km run between Tokyo and Osaka  costs around Rs.8,500.
11. According to a study 55 per cent of air passengers, 55 per cent of high-end train passengers, 38 per cent of luxury bus users and 22 per cent of car users will shift to the bullet train in the first year of operations.

The six routes considered for bullet train study and implementation during UPA regime are (1)  Delhi-Patna (2) Pune-Mumbai-Ahmedabad (3) Howrah-Haldia (4) Delhi-Chandigarh-Amritsar (5) Hyderabad-Dornakal-Vijaywada-Chennai and (6) Chennai-Bengaluru-Coimbatore-Ernakulum  and curiously Ahmedabad-Mumbai route is being taken up first by Narendra Modi government. 

After all technology determines what can be done, economics determines what should be done and politics determines what will be done.

My View:
The bullet train fare near about Airfare clearly eliminates its usage by middle & lower classes. No prudent middle class or salary earner will travel by this bullet train, except during emergency situations.

Even though soft loan* with moratorium etc seems justification for this investment, it is unlikely that similar loans could be arranged for subsequent bullet train projects that will follow. Eventually, for all bullet train projects loans consolidated, we end up paying market rates for the loans. That is how advanced countries sell their products in developing countries.

At a time (after about 70 years of independence) when we need to invest heavily for providing basic amenities like drinking water, sanitation, primary education, primary health care to the deprived classes amounting to almost 50% of population, investment of this kind of money, whether soft loan or own funds, on classy luxuries for the benefit of rich people is not appreciated. Ours is a democracy and if we take referendum on this large proposed investment, I am sure at least 60-70% will vote against it.

*Soft loan is only for 80% and remaining 20% our own funds. Add to that over heads will be another 10% making our own investment of whopping Rs.30,000 crores for this bullet train project in one corridor is highly debatable especially when some Railway Projects in Andhra Pradesh are still on drawing board even after 25 years waiting for funds allocation.

Only yesterday, our FM Arun Jailtley was weeping (crocodile tears, of course) in RS saying that with budget deficit of 6.9% he is unable to allocate funds for Polavaram project, the life line for Andhra Pradesh, and extend financial support to AP as committed in AP Reorganization Act 2014. From where this money would come for bullet train project for the benefit of Modi's Gujarati rich business friends? I wonder!