Kartik Lokhande's blog

Published in The Hitavada CityLine page 3 on March 30,2013 ALL ABOUT SET TOP BOX By Kartik Lokhande With the cable television signals going digital from analog from midnight of March 31, every household is talking about installation of set top box (STB). Though many in the administration and in households are talking about STBs, many aspects about this device are still not part of common knowledge in general public. ‘The Hitavada’ presents reality about set top box and busts myths associated with it. Why Set Top Box? What is it? Set Top Box is a device that converts digital satellite signals to television sets. Installation of STB has been made mandatory after passage of Digitalisation of Analog Cable System Ordinance, paving way for amendment to The Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Act. The Government has made STB mandatory with the main intent of plugging revenue leak. The Government gets entertainment duty on every cable television connection. However, in the ex

After 1962 war, Chavan lays blue-print for India's defence effort As a successor to V K Krishna Menon, Yashwantrao Chavan was a young Defence Minister. He had the big responsibility of answering to the pointed queries of the Opposition as well as own party members. He had to make sure that while replying to a flurry of questions on what went wrong in 1962 war, he had to provide a blue-print of India’s future defence effort. For the purpose, a holistic thought needed to be given. In his maiden speech seeking grants for Defence, Chavan focussed on all these points. Here is an abridged version of the speech he gave in Lok Sabha on April 8, 1963.  AT THE outset, I must thank honourable Members who participated in the discussion on Demands for defence, not only for participation but for unanimous support for Demands they gave. I do not propose to go into details of some of the administrative type of questions raised, but certainly I propose to deal with some major issues

Published in The Hitavada CityLine on March 27, 2013 Child/under-age marriages still exist in Maharashtra By Kartik Lokhande Child marriages are gone, at least in Maharashtra. Or, so do we tend to think. But, the latest data compilation by a non-Governmental organization shows that child marriages still exist in a progressive state of Maharashtra, and not a single district including State capital of Mumbai proves to be an exception. Vidarbha region fares well only by comparison on the count of child or under-age marriages, as none of its districts features in ‘top five’. National Plan of Action for Children, 2005, had set the target of eradicating child marriage by the year 2010. However, the ‘Children in India-2012’ report published by Central Government a couple of months back shows that 113 offences were registered across the country under Child Marriage Prevention Act. Of these, 19 were reported in Maharashtra. With this figure, Maharashtra ranked second across the

TRICK-I-PEDIA (Published in The Hitavada ‘Time and Tide’ column on April 20, 2012) The latest research by Marcia W DiStaso, Assistant Professor of Public Relations at Penn State University, points out a factually correct observation about Wikipedia. The research finds that 60 per cent of Wikipedia entries are full of factual errors. When Wikipedia was launched, the initiative was lauded the world over as the game-changer in referencing and information warehousing. However, as the days passed by, it became a common experience that not all the information or maps uploaded on Wikipedia were factually correct. Virtually untraceable sources wrote articles by referring to sources available to them and their own knowledge, which in most cases proved to be their perception. Besides, some cases of information placed on Wikipedia with an intention to assassinate someone’s character also came to fore. A writer, whose father’s factually incorrect biography was posted on Wikipedia by untrac

Two movements, one thread… and the ‘Animal Farm’ (Published in The Hitavada on November 22, 2011)   By Kartik Lokhande In ‘Animal Farm’ (1945), included among the best 100 English language novels, the author George Orwell discussed well the concepts of revolution, transition, people’s Government etc. In the novel, animals in a farm revolt and drive out its owner. Animals take control of the farm and frame Seven Commandments. The most critical Commandment is – All animals are equal. However, things go wrong. Predators starve as they follow the rule and treat the prey equally. Several other factors get involved, raising questions about applicability of the most important Commandment. Finally, it all ends up with a little addition to the Commandment. The revised Commandment reads – All animals are equal, but some animals are More Equal Than Others . One can find that the story is true even today. Especially, the revised Comandment quoted above. Going just a few mon

Dear friends,  I am uploading text of Mr Arvind Kejriwal's speech at Wharton India Economic Forum. He has raised some valid questions and issues in his speech. However, uploading of his speech on this blogspot should not be construed as subscription of the author of this blogspot to Mr Kejriwal's line of thinking or political party. It shall be my endeavour to upload some good speeches for the benefit of readers of this blogspot. I hope issues in Mr Kejriwal's speech are discussed freely, fairly, and decently on this blogspot...  Kartik Lokhande Text of Mr Arvind Kejriwal’s speech at Wharton India Economic Forum on March 24, 2013 Thank you for inviting me to address the Wharton India Economic Forum. It is an honor to interact with such an audience. There is something that is troubling me. Therefore, before I start speaking on this topic, I would like to get it out of the way. I am not a supporter of Mr. Modi. In fact, I don’t agree with him on many things and h

Published in The Hitavada CityLine as lead on March 25, 2013 Maharashtra Govt fails to realise taxes of Rs 32,520 cr! By Kartik Lokhande Penny wise, pound foolish. Only these words can best describe Maharashtra Government’s fiscal management. Else, how can one explain levying of new taxes of Rs 1,150 crore in the budget while there is non-realisation of taxes to the tune of Rs 32.520 crore? Presenting the latest budget, Finance Minister Ajit Pawar announced levying of new taxes to raise Rs 1,150 crore and mitigate drought situation in some districts of the State. He claimed that Maharashtra’s fiscal management was good and that all vital indicators like debt stock as percentage to Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP), fiscal deficit to GSDP, revenue deficit to GSDP etc were well below the prescribed limits. However, Finance Department’s own disclosures on medium-term fiscal policy and fiscal policy strategy statement reveals that Maharashtra Government raised taxes of R

Maharashtra Legislature admitted 88 breach of privilege notices (Published in The Hitavada on March 23, 2013) By Kartik Lokhande  While the latest admission of Breach of Privilege notice against two editors of two television channels has created quite a sensation in the State, it is not new if one refers to the history of Maharashtra Legislature. In fact, in its history since 1960, Maharashtra State Legislature has admitted 88 Breach of Privilege notices till July 2012. Interestingly, a big number of these admitted cases pertained to criticism in newspapers, publication of expunged remarks, casting aspersions on the Speaker, article containing serious allegations against member of the House, etc. In most cases, the matter was concluded after Editor of respective newspapers tendered apology and, in some cases, published correction. However, in a case related to ‘Aapla Mahanagar’ in which then columnist Nikhil Wagle had allegedly made some objectionable comments, the Legisla

Published in The Hitavada CityLine on March 21, 2013 Beware! Sales Tax Deptt is watching your accounts online By Kartik Lokhande MUMBAI, March 20: In order to widen tax net and detect manipulations in accounts, Sales Tax Department has set up a Cyber Forensic Lab in the State. In fact, with the help of this facility, the department has collected ‘extensive information’ about tax evaders. Cyber Forensic Lab is part of the automation exercise of Sales Tax Department. Automation is being done to increase tax collection efficiency. It is being updated further to achieve greater efficiency in tax administration. The lab has got ultra-modern facilities that will detect manipulations or tampering in books of accounts maintained on computers. Thus, online records of accounts will be under scanner of Sales Tax Department. With automation, extensive information is available in electronic form with the department. Deputy Chief Minister and Finance Minister Ajit Pawar mentioned in hi

Published in The Hitavada on March 21, 2013 State budget leaves Vidarbha sour By Kartik Lokhande MUMBAI, March 20: The state budget presented on Wednesday, has very little to offer to Vidarbha region. Most of the provisions are too regular in nature and allocation made for specific projects is very limited. Sample this. The ambitious project of Multimodal International Hub and Airport at Nagpur (MIHAN) has got an outlay of Rs 200 crore in the year 2013-14. So far, the Government has claimed to have incurred an expenditure of Rs 1,000 crore on infrastructure development and land acquisition for the project. Still, not all the bottlenecks have been removed. But, the Government claimed that the project would generate 1,25,000 direct jobs and 2,40,000 indirect jobs. How many have got jobs is known to all. After the detailed project report, it was expected that the State Budget will include some outlay for Nagpur Metro Rail Project. However, Deputy Chief Minister and Finan

Published in The Hitavada on March 21, 2013 State presents drought-centric budget, curtails plan size * Special tax proposals to raise funds for tackling drought By Kartik Lokhande MUMBAI, March 20: Trying his best to strike a balance between budget cut and drought relief, Deputy Chief Minister and Finance Minister spelt out some tax proposals to raise funds for drought mitigation. At the same time, he curtailed plan size of the budget. Presenting the budget in Legislative Assembly on Wednesday, Pawar said at the outset, “The State is facing drought situation frequently due to its peculiar geographical reasons. We face some new challenges every now and then. However, some minimum permanent measures are required to be planned for this. Accordingly, the Government has done planning and will be spending maximum allocations on them.” Stressing that the drought relief would require huge funds, Finance Minister announced temporary tax proposals. He announc