The People’s Chronicle | www.thepeopleschronicle.in
Imphal, Sunday, April 23, 2017
07
INDICES
Sensex 29,365.30
Nifty 9,119.40
Nikkei 18,620.75
Hang Seng 24,042.02
US firm seeks to
withdraw stents
after price cap
MUMBAI: Two months after
the Indian governmentcapped prices of coronary
stents at Rs 29,600, US
manufacturer Abbott has
filed an application with
National Pharmaceutical
Pricing Authority (NPPA)
to withdraw two of its
premium stents from
the Indian market,
stating “commercial
unsustainability”. It is
learnt that the company
sought to withdraw its
revolutionary dissolvable
stent, Absorb, priced at
Rs 1.9 lakh each before
the cap. The other, Xience
Alpine, introduced in 2016,
was priced at Rs 1.5 lakh
till February 14, when NPPA
slashed stent prices.
Gold reclaims
`30,000-mark on
global cues
MUMBAI: Gold prices reclaimed the Rs 30,000mark for the first time in
over six weeks by climbing Rs 200 per 10 grams
on Saturday, tracking a
firm trend overseas amid
increased buying by local
jewellers. Traders said
apart from a firm trend
overseas, pick up in buying
by local jewellers to meet
the wedding season
demand at domestic spot
market, mainly led to rise
in gold prices.
Indian sportswear
brand Zeven bags ICC
merchandise rights
BENGALURU: Indian sportswear
brand Zeven, jointly owned
by tennis star Mahesh
Bhupathi and former Nike
country head Hemachandra Javeri, has snapped up
the rights for International
Cricket Council (ICC) merchandise in 23 markets,
including India, making it
the biggest multi-geography bet on cricketing
gear till date. The fouryear contract gives Zeven
exclusive licence rights to
apparel, accessories and
select footwear, including
replicas and lifestyle ranges of ICC.
“India’s GDP to grow at 7.5% in 2017-18”
Medium-Term
Growth Poised To Go
Above 8 %: IMF
RICH NATIONS
STILL HAVE A BIG
RESPONSIBILITY AND
OBLIGATION TO USE
THEIR RESOURCES
TO SUPPORT
MULTILATERALISM
AGENCIES
WASHINGTON : Indian economy
will grow at a clip of 7.5 per
cent this fiscal, up from 7.1 per
cent in the previous year, and
remains resilient with low
inflation, fiscal prudence and
low deficit, finance minister
Arun Jaitley has said.
Participating in G-20 finance ministers' and central
bank governors' meeting, he
said emerging economies have
become increasingly important in driving global growth,
accounting for more than 75
per cent of global expansion.
Among emerging economies, "India has been a major driver of global economic growth with an expected
growth of 7.5 per cent for
2017-18 against 7.1 per cent
in 2016-17," an official state-
ment quoted him as saying.
India's growth, he said,
remains resilient with low
inflation, fiscal prudence and
low current account deficit
(CAD), talking about robust
structural reform measures.
Addressing the meeting
yesterday, Jaitley said India
is on course to introduce the
goods and services tax (GST)
from July this year.
GST, he said, will eliminate
the multiplicity of taxes and
make India a single common
market.
As per IMF projections, India's medium-term growth is
poised to go above 8 per cent,
Jaitley said.
About demonetisation,
the finance minister said the
move will push the Indian
economy to a less-cash trajectory, increase tax compliance and reduce threats
from counterfeit currency,
which acts as a source of terror funding.
"These and many more
multi-faceted reforms are
expected to ensure India can
withstand volatility of the
global economy as well as
ensure an upward growth
trajectory," he asserted.
Jaitley is on an official tour
to the US to attend the spring
meetings of the International
Monetary Fund (IMF) and the
World Bank and other associated interactions.
He is accompanied by RBI
governor Urjit Patel, economic affairs secretary Shaktikanta Das and chief economic
adviser Arvind Subramanian.
Separately participating in
the Development Committee
Restricted Lunch Session on
the theme of 'Inequality', Jaitley said rich nations still have
a big responsibility and obligation to use their resources
to support multilateralism.
Also, they need to make
institutions like the World
Bank strong to be able to fund
policies and programmes for
growth and development of
poorer nations.
India, according to Jaitley,
has significantly stepped up
investment in electricity,
roads, financial access and
housing for the poor and
the government has taken
a number of steps to ensure
inclusive growth.
It is using technological
innovations in a big way for
better targeting of government services, he said.
AGENCIES
Apple hires man who 3D
printed his brain tumour
NEW DELHI :
AGENCIES
Hero keen to invest
`400 cr for ‘cycle
valley’ in Punjab
Amid the revival in industry
sentiment in
Punjab, Hero
Cycles
on
Saturday expressed interest in setting up
a Rs 400 crore 'cycle valley',
on the lines of the Silicon Valley, near the state's Sahnewal
town.
This was conveyed by Hero
Cycles' Pankaj Munjal at a
meeting with Chief Minister
Amarinder Singh here.
During the meeting, the
Chief Minister asked Munjal
to share a detailed proposal
for the project, which would
include technical and research
and development centres,
among other critical industry facilities, according to an
spokesperson in the Chief Minister's office.
Munjal informed the Chief
Minister the project would require about 100 acres of land
and would lead to a doubling,
from the current 4.5 lakh, of
the people involved directly or
indirectly in the cycle industry.
NEW YORK :
Apple has hired
Steven Keating, the doctoral
student from Massachusetts
Institute of Technology (MIT)
who made a 3D printout of
his own brain after he was
diagnosed with a tumour, a
media report said.
According to a report in
CNBC on Friday, it is still not
known whether Keating is
working on one of Apple's
teams dedicated to health care
or he has joined another team
that can take advantage of his
expertise in mechanical engineering.
Keating made headlines in
2015 after revealing the depths
of his science experiment to
better understand his own
tumour.
Keating told Vox that he
collected 75 GB of his health
information.
Keating on Friday addressed
audience Sage at Bionetworks'
annual conference "Assembly"
held in Seattle as an Apple
employee.
He spoke about the chal-
lenges for patients to aggregate their own medical data.
Keating said he ended up going
to medical school at least in
part so he could study his own
tissue, the report added.
Apple recently acquired a
personal health data startup called Gliimpse which is
designed to help people aggregate their medical information.
Sage Bionetworks, a
non-profit research organisation, has been a major proponent of Apple's ResearchKit
software, which is designed
to make it easier for medical
researchers to launch mobile-based studies.
A secret team of biomedical engineers at Apple is also
working on an initiative to
develop sensors that can
non-invasively and continuously monitor blood sugar
levels to better treat diabetes.
If such sensors are successfully developed, that would be
a breakthrough as it is highly
challenging to track glucose
levels accurately without
piercing the skin. It can help
millions of people turn devices like Apple Watch into a
must-have.
COMMODITIES
CURRENCIES
-57.09
-17.00
+1.03%
-0.06%
US Dollar `64.41 Euro `69.30 +0.08%
-0.03%
Gold Oil `29,418.00
`3,208.00 +0.42%
-2.90%
India will welcome Apple if
it comes, says Prasad
AGENCIES
BENGALURU : India would welcome Apple to make its iconic
iPhones in the country where
a lot of big firms were already
making mobile phones, said
Union IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on Saturday.
"A lot of big mobile phone
manufacturing companies
have come, and if Apple comes
fine, they are welcome," he
told reporters at the margins
of an IT event here.
Noting that he would soon
be meeting top officials of
the US-based firm to discuss
its plans to make its mobile
phones in India, Prasad said
as India was a huge market,
making in India for the domestic and export markets
was important.
"They (Apple) are very keen.
Its executives are going to
meet me in a couple of days
though I need not share with
you what they are going to
discuss with me," quipped
Prasad after an interactive
meet with captains of the IT
industry, organised by the
state-run Software Technology Parks of India hereb.
Noting that 72 global telecom firms have started production in the country over
India, Indonesia to cooperate
in oil, coal sectors: Goyal
AGENCIES
NEW DELHI : India and Indonesia have agreed to explore
cooperation in areas like oil,
coal, electricity and energy
efficiency, power minister
Piyush Goyal said.
"Two sides have agreed to
explore cooperation in number of areas such as upgrading
of refineries in Indonesia, relocation of gas-based plants
from India to Indonesia, sharing of experience in use of
LEDs and renewable energy
in India, sharing the expertise
of Indonesia in gasification of
fuel oil, exploration of oil, gas
and coal fields," Goyal said.
Goyal and Indonesian energy and mineral minister
Ignasius Jonan met on April
20 during the first 'India Indonesia Energy Forum' held
in Jakarta.
According to a statement,
Goyal requested Jonan to consider joining International
Solar Alliance as Indonesia
is a solar-rich country. He
also requested Jonan to revisit changes in policy in coal
sector and work visa.
Jonan said Indonesia is an
important destination for investing, especially in energy
and infrastructure sector. He
added that a team of 19 officials from oil and gas, coal and
power sectors will be visit-
ing India to look into several
issues discussed during the
Energy Forum, including relocation of gas-based plants
and large scale use of LEDs.
A Memorandum of Understanding between the Ministry
of Petroleum and Natural Gas
and the Ministry of Energy
and Mineral Resources (Indonesia) on cooperation in the
field of oil and gas was signed
on the occasion.
The MoU seeks to establish
an institutional framework to
facilitate and enhance bilateral cooperation in the field
of oil and gas.
India is the third largest
importer of coal from Indonesia. India's imports of coal
from Indonesia amounted to
$3.5 billion in 2016.
Several Indian companies
have invested in coal mines in
Indonesia. The bilateral trade
between the two countries
stood at $15.90 billion in 201516 with Indonesia's export to
India amounting to $13.06
billion and India's exports to
the country at $2.84 billion.
the last two years, the Minister
said 42 of them were making
handsets while others (30)
were manufacturing components like batteries and other
parts.
"Though we (India) missed
the industrial revolution and
the entrepreneur revolution,
we don't want to miss the digital revolution. We want to
become leader in that, which
is our fundamental philosophy," he said.
Asserting that India was
at the cusp of a digital revolution, he said the country's
digital economy would be a
trillion dollar market, for its
stakeholders, including IT/
ITeS, e-commerce, digital
payments and communications.
RBI minutes hint
at a rate increase
next: Nomura
NEW DELHI: The minutes of the
RBI’s April 6 policy meeting
suggest that the next move of
the Central bank will likely be
a hike in key policy rates, says
a report. According to the Japanese financial services major
Nomura, all members expressed
concern about stickiness in core
inflation and believed that the
disinflationary effect of demonetisation will be transient. The
minutes of the MPC meeting was
made public yesterday.
Overall, the minutes suggest
that there are growing divergences within the MPC with
two out of six members biased
towards rate hikes. “We concur with the majority of the
MPC members on upside risks
to inflation and now expect a
cumulative 50 bps repo rate
hike in 2018,” Nomura said in
a research note.
Nomura believes that inflation
will remain benign at sub-4%
levels in the second quarter but
will rise sharply to 5.5-6% by
the fourth quarter of 2017 and
in the first half of 2018 as cyclical factors such as a narrowing
output gap, stronger rural wage
growth and adverse base effects
push it higher.
“We have, therefore, changed
our policy call and now expect
a cumulative 50 bps rate hike
in 2018 (25 bps each in second
quarter and third quarter of
2018),” Nomura added.
SUNDAY SPECIAL | LITERARY REVIEW
Chilling stories lay bare
horrors of dictatorial regime
TITLE: The Accusation: Forbidden Stories From Inside
North Korea; Bandi (pseudonym); Publisher: Hachette
India in arrangement with
Profile Books; Price: `599.
T
he period is between 1989 and
1997. Bandi -- the pseudonym of our North Korean author
who is working in the nation’s
official writers’ association -contributes to the government’s
official periodicals. Behind the
scenes, however, he secretly pens
volumes of poems and stories
criticising the state.
The 743-page manuscript is
then smuggled out of North Korea
in a Hollywood-like sequence and
the seven stories that make up
this volume are selected from the
smuggled work to make what is
the first-ever critical work of fiction by a North Korean resident.
The author of “The Accusation,” known only as Bandi
(Korean for firefly), bluntly states
that he is “fated to shine only
in a world of darkness”. And it
stands true to a large extent as
neither we nor the North Korean
authorities know the wherefores
and whereabouts of this courageous genius.
According to the publisher,
all we know about Bandi -- the
man who risked his life to enlighten the world of the slavery
and tyranny in North Korea -- is
that “he belonged to the Korean Writer’s Alliance, a government-controlled organ dedicated
to producing censored literature
for state-run periodicals of the
North”.
“The Accusation” is a deeply
moving and eye-opening work
of fiction that paints a powerful
portrait of life under the North
Korean regime. Set during the
period of Kim Il-sung and Kim
Jong-il’s leadership, the seven
stories that make up this pathbreaking book give voice to people living under this most bizarre
and horrifying of dictatorships.
In these moving stories -based entirely on experiences
and thoughts of the people as
told to the author but weaved in
a fictional narrative -- we learn
some of the bitter realities of living under the dictatorial regime
in North Korea. The seven stories
that find place in the book aptly
convey the hardships and constant trauma that peopleface in
a countrty cut off from the rest
of the world.
Written with deep emotion
and elegance, the offering is at
the same time a hopeful testament to the humanity and rich
internal life that persists even
in such inhumane conditions.
More than anything else, this
book reminds its many readers
of the conflicts that people -- not
very different from the rest of us
-- are undergoing in North Korea
and how easily the world has
forgotten about their individual
rights. The book stands as a classic
case study on the impact of fear
of being constantly watched and
suspected.
Consider the simple nuances of
family life, for instance. No matter
how small a “crime” -- anything
that is against the regime -- is
committed by any member of
any given family, there is no hope
for any family member to rise
above this status of being “criminals” ever in their lives. Even
the generations to come after
them suffer the brunt of being
constantly watched, suspected
and penalised for reasons best
known to the all-powerful leader.
The characters of these haunting stories belong to a wide variety of backgrounds -- from a
young mother living among the
elite in Pyongyang whose son
misbehaves during a political
rally, to a former Communist war
hero who is deeply disillusioned
with the intrusion of the Party
into everything he holds dear,
to a husband and father who is
denied a travel permit and sneaks
on to a train in order to visit his
critically-ill mother.
Along with fear, trauma and
all things dark, “The Accusation”
also stands as a melting pot of
hope and passion. Bandi’s stories
are an amalgamation of his hope
for a brighter tomorrow and passion for writing. In many ways,
the author perhaps finds solace
in writing as the manuscript
was never originally intended
for publishing. It was a secret
material created and possessed
by Bandi.
The compelling elements of
this offering -- its totalitarian
structure juxtaposed with the
political scenario, the many underlying symbolisms, thoughtful yet submissive characters,
strong family relationships and
the stronger control of the state
and disturbing endings that
haunt the readers forevermore
-- make this book worthy of the
legitimate recognition that “The
Accusation” has gained.
Adding to the mystery
TITLE: The Indian Spy: The True
Story of the Most Remarkable
Secret Agent of World War II;
Mihir Bose ;Publisher: Aleph
Book Company; Price: `599.
TITLE: The Women of Baker Street; Michelle Birkby;
Publisher: Pan Macmillan UK;
Price: `399.
N
etaji Subhas Chandra Bose
is a fascinating, and an unusual, historical figure who combines charisma and mystery, a
deadly cocktail that has spurred
a flourishing industry of books,
essays, documentaries, films and
endless discussions. Even seven
decades after he disappeared, Bose
continues his unusual exuberant
journey stoking Indian pride and
imagination.
London-based journalist-writer
Mihir Bose has played a crucial role
in filling the many mysterious gaps
and critical information about Netaji ever since his first biography of
the freedom fighter came out in the
1980s. His latest book The Indian
Spy: The True Story of the Most
Remarkable Secret Agent of World
War II was originally published in
2016 in the U.K. as Silver: The Spy
Who Fooled the Nazis.
The book adds yet another fascinating chapter to the Bose mystery, and how World War II played
out in the lives of Netaji, many
of his supporters and among the
global powers. All that is narrated
through the life of Bhagat Ram Talwar, known to Indians as the man
who accompanied Bose when the
former Congress party president
escaped to Kabul in 1941. Most
of what ordinary readers know
about Talwar, who was nicknamed
Silver by the British intelligence,
is from a book that he published
via the publication division of
the Communist Party of India,
of which he was a member. The
Hindu Pathan, born in Ghalla Dher
village not far from Nowshera, at
the age of 68 wrote The Talwars of
Pathan Land eulogising his role in
Netaji’s escape.
Mihir Bose’s new book meticulously reconstructs Talwar’s real
The other detectives of Baker
Street - and their chilling cases
O
character, relaying on original
documents from several archives
to establish that Silver was actually
the only quintuple spy of WW II.
He spied for the Italians, Germans,
Japanese, Soviets and the British,
and deceived Netaji, made a fortune and played a crucial role in
the global war.
He was awarded one of the
highest military decorations by
Nazi Germany, and was handsomely paid by all the powers that
benefited from his information
and treachery. According to Bose,
Silver actually deceived the Nazis
on behalf of the British and Soviet
Union.
Peter Fleming—his brother Ian
Fleming created James Bond—
handled Silver on behalf of British intelligence. Silver in turn fed
misleading information directly to
Berlin, where Netaji was among
those who consumed his fake news
during the period. He made a dozen trips during the war period
between Peshawar and Kabul via
foot always feeding the Germans
wrong information, every time
pretending to be a Muslim.
Compassionately read, Silver’s
life story is itself a chilling narrative of what happens to young
idealism as it matures, especially in strife-torn regions. Once
a member of Naujawan Bharat
Sabha (Young Indian Association)
founded by Bhagat Singh, and a
former associate of Abdul Ghaffar
Khan, Silver was once a young man
bitter about the Congress party’s
soft politics.
n the foggy streets of
gaslit, late-19th century
London, evil is again afoot.
Inmates of a women’s ward
in a leading hospital are dying
in suspicious circumstances,
while boys from the street
are disappearing and some
reappearing in a mysterious,
nocturnal gang. Probing these
cases and their connections are
investigators from Baker Street
-- but not the ones expected.
In the second instalment of
her series utilising two of the
most vital but neglected figures -- both women -- from
the Sherlock Holmes canon,
crime writer Michelle Birkby
spins another dark tale of obsession, love and relationships
that well captures the mood of
the original and of the times.
The principal character
(and narrator) is Mrs Hudson, Holmes’ “long-suffering”
landlady, who throughout the
canon, has never been even
described or given a first name.
At her side is Mary Watson, the
wife of Holmes’ close companion, in a more feisty and
determined role than she has
originally (save her key part in
“The Sign of Four”).
The story begins in October
1889 when Mrs Hudson suddenly collapses -- soon after
Holmes and Watson’s return
from investigating the case that
became famous as “The Hound
of Baskervilles” -- and is taken
to hospital for surgery and then
admitted to a special ward,
courtesy Dr Watson’s influence.
Waking up in the dark after
her operation, she sees what
seems to be cold-blooded
murder of a fellow patient by a
shadowy presence. She initially
dismisses it as a nightmare due
to tension and the effects of
the anaesthetic and morphine
dose, despite learning that a
woman did die there. But then
she learns the ward, presided
over by a strange sister who
always stays overnight but
never checks or interacts with
the patients, has seen more
deaths than can be expected
-- including some who didn’t
seem that ill.
Then the other inmates
are a singular bunch, some
near-regulars and some not
what they seem. And when
Dr Watson tells her of the misgivings about the ward and
requests her to observe as much
as she can, her interest is fully
piqued.
Meanwhile, Mary Watson
is investigating the cases of
disappearance of children,
whose going missing will not
set off alarms, after the fact is
brought to her notice by Billy,
a member of the Baker Street
Irregulars. And then there are
the rumours of the “Pale Boys”,
whose appearance on certain
streets of the metropolis in the
night may mean death for their
unwary beholder.
Has this rumour any basis
and are there any sinister forces
behind these two cases? Join
Mrs Hudson and Mrs Watson
as the two realise the lethal
connection through a spate of
wrong trails and chilling and
hazardous situations, in a dark
hospital ward, an abandoned
house, a river island and finally in a deserted riverside area
-- where let alone the forces
of law and order, reason and
civilisation seem far away.
And then memories, scarcely unpleasant, from their first
case still lie heavily on both
of them -- while Inspector
Lestrade pursues it with his
usual tenacity, even trying to
get Holmes’ help.
This second instalment,
which the author tells us was
borne out of her own hospitalisation and wondering if
murders could be carried out
in a place no stranger to death,
is not only an intriguing and
haunting mystery, but also
helps to add to the considerable depictions of Holmes’ and
Watson’s world. And that too
by those closest to them.
Particularly engaging are
tidbits like Holmes’ reaction
to Robert Louis Stevenson’s
“Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde”, some
revelations about Dr Watson,
and more significantly, hinted but never fully revealed,
Holmes’ attempts to catch Jack
the Ripper.
Birkby also ensures her own
characters do not become auxiliaries by the appearance of
the principal characters, who
are available to advise and
counsel but kept from direct
involvement.
Though this can be read
stand-alone too, the references to the earlier adventure
and a chilling realisation at its
end make it rather advisable
to go through “The House at
Baker Street”. And if you like
them, be assured more are on
their way.