'Not sure if Asia Cup is good advertisement for T20 cricket'

 India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni feels that the 22-yard-strip at the Sher-e-Bangla Stadium is certainly "not ideal" for the batsmen to try and practice attacking shots keeping the ICC World T20 in mind. 

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"We thought it will be very good practice for T20 World Cup but in terms of hitting maybe it is not. But when it comes to reading the game and respecting conditions, it is good for us," Dhoni said after India defeated Pakistan in a low-scoring game where 15 wickets fell in 33 overs. 

"Whether it is good (advertisement) for T20 cricket is difficult one to answer with so much of bounce and movement. In games over here, it has been very difficult to come out and play big shots.

"In one game, we scored 170 but it seemed like we would score 140, because of the firepower in our batting and few good overs, we managed, to reach 170. Otherwise all other games have been low-scoring ones, which is not good," Dhoni was frank in his assessment.

'GIFT is just another Modi vanity project like Make in India'

 Percy Mistry, chairman of the committee which drafted the report on developing Mumbai as an International Financial Centre, has opposed Narendra Modi government’s proposal of following Gujarat’s GIFT City model in Mumbai without regulatory ring-fencing and basic infrastructure.

Replying to a query on promotion of GIFT City, near Ahmedabad and Mumbai, as IFC during Make in India Week last week, Mistry said this kind of emotive exuberance is obscuring the fundamental underlying policy failures and foundational deficiencies in the Indian economic and financial system with advertising slogans and mega events that distract attention from real problems.

“The GIFT is just another Modi vanity project like Make in India, Digital India, Clean India, Connect India, Support Start-ups and all the other slogans and schemes that have become gospel over the last few months.

GIFT is a non-starter; unless, of course, many arms are sorely twisted and domestic as well as foreign financial institutions are forced to do things that they really should not be doing (like leasing space in GIFT which is going to be left empty for a very long time), in order to please the authorities to avoid awkwardness in their daily business and tax dealings,” he said in an email, responding to a query.

During Make in India Week, both Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and Gujarat Chief Minister Anandiben Patel tried wooing investors to their respective IFCs -- triggering a competition of sorts between Mumbai and GIFT City.

Mistry, however, said that given the problems with regulations in India, and the manner in which any opening for regulatory arbitrage (especially in the financial system) is instantly exploited, this kind of approach may lead to chaos.

“It will be the kind of madness that the RBI will not be able to contain or manage.

"Neither will Sebi, which has many profound difficulties of its own, be able to handle this.

"The RBI has not been able to manage even its own simple business of banking regulation/supervision. Its gross regulatory/supervisory failures from 2010 onwards are now visible for all to see, in the egregious level of non-performing assets that have emerged in the state-owned banks,” he said.

“What was the RBI doing when the SOBs were reporting huge fictitious profits and paying out large amounts of dividends and taxes which they should have retained to meet their provisioning and capital needs?

"These gross failures of the RBI are now being covered up by draconian, but hopelessly belated, measures for accelerated provisioning and write-downs which are over-stretching the fragile balance sheet elasticities of all public banks.

"And this (is happening) at a time when the government’s capacity to recapitalise them is in serious question.

"It amazes me that people still think the RBI is doing a great job with a great Governor who should have seen the rot in bank portfolios immediately upon taking office three years ago,” he said.

Mistry said things at market regulator Sebi are also in bad shape.

“Though its ambitions are commendable, its capabilities are severely limited.

"Its management and staff capabilities are already hopelessly over-extended as it attempts to deal with too many issues of malfeasance by too many players on too many fronts all at the same time.

Eyes fixed on Amir as India take on Pakistan in Asia Cup

Saturday's match will serve as a precursor to the two teams' opening round battle in the ICC World Twenty20 next month.

Back after serving a five-year ban for spot-fixing, pacer Mohammad Aamir is expected to come out all guns blazing against India's batsmen.

IMAGE: Pakistan's Mohammad Amir celebrates after taking a wicket during the One-Day International against New Zealand, in Wellington, on January 25, 2016. Photograph: Hagen Hopkins/Getty Images

Cricket's most intriguing rivalry will again be renewed when India take on an unpredictable Pakistan, with rehabilitated pacer Mohammad Aamir being the focus of attention, in a round-robin league encounter of the Asia Cup T20 tournament, in Mirpur, on Saturday.

The match will also serve as a precursor to the two teams' opening round battle in the ICC World Twenty20 next month.

India-Pakistan cricket contests over the years have carried a legacy, not to forget the political undercurrents involved whenever the two bitter neighbours square off on the 22 yards strip.

But the most exciting aspect will be whether the tainted Aamir gets to play in the eleven.

Back after serving a five-year ban for spot-fixing, Aamir is playing for the national team since the tour of New Zealand. This immensely talented bowler will certainly come out all guns blazing against the Indian batsmen.

For Aamir, though, a good performance against India will probably help him gain some credibility not only in the dressing room but also among the common cricket-loving public in Pakistan.

In terms of preparation, both teams have been suitably prepared considering the amount of Twenty20 cricket they have played in the past month.

IMAGE: Mahendra Singh Dhoni leads the Indian team on to the field. Photograph: Daniel Kalisz/Getty Images

India kicked off their World T20 preparations in style, winning six out of the seven games played so far.

Pakistan's cricketers, on the other hand, are coming straight after playing in the Pakistan Super League (PSL), which make them well-prepared.

Traditionally, India have never lost to Pakistan in global events, but it is not the case in a continental event where Shahid Afridi and co have performed well.

However, the Asia Cup has never been played in the T20 format, which is also a first.

The two teams met exactly a year and 11 days back in Adelaide during the 50-over World Cup game, which India won by 76 runs.

Post the World Cup, the proposed series on a neutral venue never happened as the Board of Control for Cricket in India did not get approval from the Indian government.

On the field, the Indian team, under Dhoni, is peaking at the right time with all the departments coming together.

The emergence of Hardik Pandya as a batting all-rounder, who can bowl seam-up, has lent the side the requisite balance that Dhoni has long been craving for.

Over the years, one has been a witness to Pakistan teams hitting the zenith and nadir in a space of few matches.

On paper, the Indians are way ahead in each and every department of the game but the beauty of this game is Pakistan's unpredictability.

How the Union Budget is made

 The main responsibility for producing the Budget rests with the Budget Division of the Department of Economic Affairs in the finance ministry. The NITI Aayog is also roped in for consultation. In September of every year this Budget Division issues a circular to all Union ministries, states, UTs, and the defence forces asking them to prepare their estimates for the next fiscal year. once the finance ministry gets these proposals from the ministries and other autonomous departments, various arms of the FinMin -- Department of Revenue, Department of Expenditure and the Department of Economic Affairs get into action.

Review: The Revenant is a big-screen epic for the ages

The Revenant is a devastating, visually jawdropping film that, for all its sins of tedium, makes up with scale what it lacks in artfulness, feels Raja Sen.

Blood stands for beauty in The Revenant. 

Alejandro González Iñárritu’s brave -- and bravura -- new film is a frostbitten epic.

It is a film that mesmerises with its brutality and its breadth, its ragged relentlessness and its barely masked masochism, and, perhaps above all, a film that must be experienced in a theatre -- ideally with a sweater at hand. 

So brilliantly do Iñárritu and his master cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki evoke the sense of freezing cold that it’s hard not to shiver, and the colour white, in all its pristine glory, emerges the most forbidding, most biting of the lot: the picture-perfect frames are composed around temperature rather than merely colour, with the white of the snow and the white of rapids more frightening and endless than any angry animal.

Icicles crust around big beards making whiskers look like they could be snapped off like twigs, steam from mouths fogs up even the lens of the majestic camera, and, once in a too-blue moon, we find respite in the form of a warmer temperature: in firelight and in blood. 

Blood, in all its forms.

Blood as it runs down a broken nose or a recently-stabbed leg, blood as it drips out from a furry carcass or from a still-throbbing liver, blood as it colours and cakes the snow to break a parent’s heart, blood as it fills vengeful eyes. Iñárritu is clearly consumed by a self-imposed quest for blood and beauty, but -- the question must be asked -- how much must beauty bleed? 

Also, how deep is the wound, truly?

Iñárritu ramps up the suffering more and more, loading up the misfortune to the point where one begins to brace oneself for what fresh, frigid hell he will conjure up next for his protagonist Hugh Glass, played by Leonardo DiCaprio.

DiCaprio doesn’t come close to hitting a false note but Iñárritu, tragically, does: as an edge-of-the-seat revenge drama, the film is right up there, but the filmmaker overreaches for grander themes, making do with some hokum expressed by philosophically shallow visions and obvious spirituality.

There is even some heavy-handed exoticising of Native Americans. Even these significant missteps, however, look sensational. 

There might not be much profoundness in the imagery, but, my God, what images The Revenant holds.

From a haunting close-up of a horse’s eye to the thrilling, surreal vision of a spotted horse being ridden across dalmatian terrain, this film is a spectacular showcase for Lubezki, and the ace -- on a hot streak after Gravity and Birdman -- flexes his muscles so hard that the film belongs to him.

There are moments his mighty Steadicam swivels around in a giddy sweep, like an eager child trying to drink it all in, trying to contain the spellbinding beauty of the impossible settings without blinking -- a smashing early shot follows attackers and fleers during an ambush in stunningly visceral style, riding with them and falling with them -- and others where his camera seems to gazes at the proceedings helplessly -- like when a bear takes charge.

Prabhu's freight corridors dream hinges on GST

FMCG, automobile industries say if GST regime kicks in, rail hubs can take Make in India to a new high.

 

As Railway Budget 2016 promised focus on freight corridors and Railway Board Chairman A K Mittal revealed the strategy to tap sectors like fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) and automobiles to increase traffic, the success of the ambitious plan hinges on the goods and services (GST) tax regime.

If freight corridors become reality as promised, FMCG sector could cut down expenses and streamline operations.

The inventory-heavy industry, in which logistical efficiency and warehousing play a significant role, will be able to shift towards centralised production at cheaper rates.

Currently, Indian Railways transport only 1,000 million tonnes of FMCG products every year.

While a few majors such as Nestle and milk co-operatives use the railways for supply of raw materials and dispatching finished goods from the factories, a majority of the players depend heavily on road transport.

"We are open to considering railways as the preferred mode of transporting goods, provided that is economically viable," said Lalit Malik, chief financial officer, Dabur India. 

According to top executive of a milk co-operative, while the industry uses railways to ferry milk, for items such as ice creams and foods, it is not viable. "We have a set infrastructure for that. Also, railway freights are higher than the road," he said.

While most FMCG companies have welcomed the initiative, various state-level taxes are a major hindrance in transporting goods from one part of the country to another by train.

To avoid multiple state-level taxes, most FMCG entities are forced to set up manufacturing units and warehouses near every major market. For example, Coca-Cola India has 57 production units while PepsiCo has 41 units.

According to a Coca-Cola India official, transporting glass bottles through railways could be a game changer since it will help beverage makers reduce the number of bottling units in the long term.

"If GST is implemented, the companies may not need to set up sales depots in every state as is the requirement now," said Harsh Mariwala, chairman, Marico.

"Typically, primary freight is used by most companies including us to transport raw materials such as palm oil from ports to factories. For secondary freight (using railways) is a challenge since delivery of finished goods in FMCG tends to be door-to-door," said Sunil Kataria, business head, India & SAARC, Godrej Consumer Products.

"Rail transport can become viable if manufacturing and distribution centres are fewer, so goods can travel large distances resulting in economies of scale." 

Trump gets a double shot in the arm before 'Super Tuesday'

In a major boost to his White House bid ahead of a multi-state vote next week, Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump has got a surprise endorsement from New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, who was himself a contender till recently.

Close on the heels of Christie's endorsement, Maine Governor Paul LePage also backed Trump saying, "I'll be very honest. I originally said I'd like it to be a governor, but unfortunately, the American people are not going for a governor this year. So I'm going to endorse Donald Trump."

Fifty three-year-old Christie, at a rally in Fortworth, Texas, on Friday said,"Donald is a leader. He is a successful person that, like me, isn't afraid to tell it like it is. Our system is broken and it won't be fixed from the inside. I am proud to offer my endorsement of his candidacy for President."

Former White House contender Christie's endorsement to Trump just ahead of the 'Super Tuesday' -- in which primary elections would be held in 11 states -- is expected to what is supporters said "seal the deal" for the 69-year-old reality TV star-turned-politician.

"It is my great honour to receive the endorsement of the Governor (Christie). We have had a wonderful relationship for many years. He is a solid person that I have tremendous respect for. I am really proud to receive the support of the Governor and his family," Trump said.

Christie, a former federal prosecutor, is a moderate Republican running a largely Democratic state and was once seen as one of the party's best hopes in 2016. He dropped out of the presidential race after poor showings in the Iowa and New Hampshire primaries