MONTH THAT WAS

Starting trouble with Startup India

The much trumpeted Prime Minister Modi’s flagship Startup India scheme launched by him in January has recorded a success rate of not even 1% in five months.

Only one project has so far secured clearance from the government out of over 200 aspiring entrepreneurs who had applied for permission to set up the new business.

The only lucky entrepreneur to benefit from the programme is from Hyderabad whose firm Cygne Energy Private Limited has come out with the most innovative power back-up solution replacing the traditional inverters used in homes, to cope up with the power shutdowns.

The only lucky entrepreneur to benefit from the programme is from Hyderabad whose firm Cygne Energy Private Limited has come out with the most innovative power back-up solution replacing the traditional inverters used in homes, to cope up with the power shutdowns.

Technology for the back-up was developed in collaboration with the IIT Chennai to provide a 48V DC as a power back-up line through intelligent use of solar power stored in batteries. No inverters mean 50% saving in the electricity bill that got the government’s instant certificate enabling the entrepreneur go to banks for loan.

The Union Ministry of Commerce and Industry has launched a special Startup web portal and a mobile app to enable the startups avail all tax benefits announced for them. The officials explained away the low approval of the new enterprises under the scheme mainly because most of the applicants did not complete procedures and failed to submit relevant documents. They had no answers when asked whether it was the responsibility of the ministry to help them with all the paper work.

The Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion is supposed to facilitate in setting up new industries under the scheme. Its Joint Secretary Shailendra Singh said over 200 persons had applied on the startup portal for registration, but many ideas were not found innovative enough while many did not complete the formalities required for registration on the startup portal.

Out of over 200 applicants, 170 did not complete the process of registration while 25 others did not give details of the business they want to start under the scheme. Many projects were rejected by the selection board that decides about certification of the startups since they were not innovative enough. The department has an inter-ministerial board to verify the eligibility of the startup’s eligibility before recommending them for tax benefits.

Officials in the department said many entrepreneurs do not approach the portal for registration as they got funding from other sources to start own business. Asked if the registration process on the portal need to be simpler, the officials said it is already very easy as everything is available on portal with no human intervention.

Experts point out that any person seeking to register on the portal may not have the incubators for funding. Aspiring entrepreneurs with innovative ideas but no IIT or IIM background find it difficult to get the incubators. Experts suggest that the government should better appoint a third party expert body to assess the innovative business ideas instead of rejecting every idea because of the typical bureaucratic approach.

The Modi government has already declared a fund for the startups in the union budget, allotting Rs 2,500 crore per annum to the SIDBI for the next four years to finance the startups.

A Saudi father of 6 goes for 2nd Honeymoon & Wife burns home

Dubai: A mother of six in Saudi Arabia has burnt her house after learning that her husband had gone abroad for a second honeymoon, a media report said. 

The woman, who has been married for 10 years, was shocked to receive a text message from her husband, that he married a second wife and was travelling abroad with her for their honeymoon, Gulf News reported.

In a fit of rage, she set her home in Jazan port city on fire. However, when she saw the house being engulfed by the blaze, she raised an alarm for assistance from her neighbours, Saudi news website Al Sada reported.

The fire was doused by the fire brigade. A fire official said that one child, reportedly aged five, was harmed in the blaze. The case was referred to the police for investigation.

BBC report finds it is ‘too Christian’

The BBC should give more airtime to Hindu, Sikh and Muslim religious programmes and diversify its programmming to balance out its "too Christian" output, an internal review by its own ethics committee has recommended.

Aaqil Ahmed, BBC head of religion and ethics, has recommended in the report that the British public service broadcaster must diversify its religious programmes. "Christianity remains the cornerstone of our output and there are more hours dedicated to it than there are to other faiths," Ahmed said in a statement. "Our output in this area is not static, though. It has evolved over the years and we regularly assess it," he added. 

The report recommended upping the number of programmes for Muslim, Sikh and Hindu audiences, saying that non-Christian faiths were under-represented in the broadcaster's output. BBC director-general Tony Hall is considering the review's findings, which said the broadcaster's current output was "too Christian" and recommend more Hindu, Sikh and Muslim religious programmes be added to the mix.

The Sunday Times reported. The debate follows a government white paper on the BBC, which will require it to serve ethnic minorities better.

A BBC spokesperson said, "We are actually intending to do more programming around Christianity and more on other faiths as well, so there is absolutely no question of an 'either or' on our output." The Church of England said faith – and Christianity – was growing worldwide and "any comprehensive review needs to move beyond arguments of mere proportionality to embrace the need not only for greater religious literacy but also increased resources to explore religious world views." BBC's religious output currently includes 'Songs of Praise' and 'Sunday Morning Live' on television, plus 'Thought for the Day' and 'Act of Worship' on radio. The Muslim Council of Britain suggests televising Friday prayers from a mosque would be one way to better serve Muslim viewers, but not at the cost of Christian programmes.

Graduate @ 96

Tokyo: A 96-year-old Japanese man is potty at the prospect of breaking more records after being recognised as the world’s oldest university graduate with his degree in ceramic arts.

Spritely senior Shigemi Hirata received his Guinness World Records certificate after earning a Bachelor of Arts degree from Kyoto University of Art and Design earlier this year, local media reported.

Born on a Hiroshima farm in 1919 – the year the Allies and Germany signed the Treaty of Versailles – Hirata is something of a celebrity on campus. “Students whose name I don’t even know call out to greet me,” he told Japan’s Yomiuri newspaper.

“That gives me a lot of energy.” Hirata, who took 11 years to complete his ceramic arts course after taking up pottery as a pensioner, insisted he has not done setting records. “My goal is to live until I’m 100,” he said. “If I’m fit enough it might be rather fun to go to graduate school.” Hirata, who served in the navy during World War II and has four great-grandchildren, added: “I’m so happy. At my age it’s fun to be able to learn new things.”

Japan’s perky pensioners regularly set eye-popping records as the silver-haired generation enjoy longer and healthier lives.

Last year, 100-year-old Mieko Nagaoka became the world’s first centenarian to complete a 1,500-metre freestyle swim, 20 years after she took up the sport.

Many elderly Japanese remain physically active long after other people have given up the ghost.

Twinkle-toed sprinter Hidekichi Miyazaki, dubbed “Golden Bolt” after Jamaican superstar Usain Bolt, also set a world record last year, clocking 42.22 seconds for the 100 metres in the over-105 category a day after reaching the milestone age. There were nearly 59,000 centenarians in Japan in 2015, according to government figures – which means 46 out of every 100,000 people are 100 or over.

Pakistani barbarism

A mother slit open the throat of her 22-year-old pregnant daughter in Pakistan's Punjab province, the latest in a series of gruesome "honour killing" that have sparked national outrage.

Muqadas, a resident of Butranwali, Gujranwala, some 80 kms from Lahore, contracted love marriage with Taufeeq of her locality against the will of her family some three years ago, a police official said. Superintendent of Police (civil lines) Nadeem Khokhar said that the family of Muqadas was not happy with her as the victim married Taufeeq after eloping with him.

"Amna, mother of Muqadas, recently contacted her and told her that the family had pardoned her. She invited the couple to her house. However, when the 8-month pregnant Muqadas was present at a clinic in her locality for a check-up Amna reached there and took her to her house," he said.

Khokhar said initial reports are suggesting that Amna with the help of her husband Arshad and son Adil tortured Muqadas severely before she slit open her throat with a knife. He said a murder case has been registered against six people including mother, father and brother of the victim.

Greedy Tycoon tricked into ‘cash triple’

Hyderabad: A fake guru who tricked a renowned businessman here into paying him Rs 1.33 crore by assuring that he would triple the money by tantric ritual was caught by the police in Bengaluru. 

Telangana police arrested Sivananda from a hideout in Bengaluru and produced him before the media. His disciples Damodar and Srinivasa Reddy were also arrested, while the fourth accused Mohan Reddy from Kompally is still at large. 

City Police Commissioner Mahender Reddy said Sivananda, a native of Vandugampalli in Kuppam mandal of Chittore district, has been a repeat offender who cheats people by telling them he has powers to triple the money and gold they give as offering. 

He performed a tantric ritual with a Harry Potter book at the residence of Life Style building owner Madhusudan Reddy who is said to be in some financial trouble. 

The fake godman asked him to keep some cash on the puja if he wanted to triple the wealth and offered drug-laced prasadam to Madhusudan Reddy, his wife and son Sandesh. 

Sivananda took Sandesh out with him on the pretext that the cash bag should be taken to a nearby temple.