Rs 60,000 is the new Rs 1 lakh in Uttar Pradesh real estate market

BAREILLY: Manish Gupta, 33, a software developer based out of Lucknow, has been pestered by calls from real estate agents. On the offer was a chance to invest black money in the business. "The offer was 60:40 on the deal. I then learnt that one lakh rupees, comprising Rs 1,000 and Rs 500 notes, will be equivalent to Rs 60,000 in the deal," said Gupta.

Customers are getting similar deals in other cities of the state including Allahabad, Lucknow, Ghaziabad and Noida in varying degrees of commissions ranging from 30% to 50%. A developer on condition of anonymity claimed that customers are also approaching them with offers to invest their black money.

This is ironic, compared to the initial lull in the real estate market in the aftermath of demonetisation. Developers, who were initially troubled by the announcement of scrapping of currency notes which account for nearly 86% of cash in circulation, have discovered loopholes sooner than expected.

There are many small and big developers who have their projects operational in all major cities of the state. Experts say that the demonetization might delay projects, which has sent developers, especially the small ones, into panic mode.

Speaking to TOI, a chartered accountant based in Varanasi said, "I have heard about real estate agents charging commissions ranging between 30% and 50% in such cases. But this is a vicious network. The person at the end of the chain is bound to land in trouble."

Sources close to TOI revealed that these agents have managed a network of close to 100-150 bank accounts and will use it to deposit the money in smaller amounts.

Supreme Court refuses to restrain lower courts from hearing pleas on demonetisation

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Friday refused to restrain various high courts and subordinate courts from hearing petitions against the Union government's demonetisation notification, saying "people are facing real problems and we cannot shut them from moving courts to register their grievances."

The SC, however, asked the Centre to file a plea seeking transfer of cases on demonetisation filed in different courts across country to one high court.

Attorney general Mukul Rohatgi listed out several measures taken by the Centre to ease the situation owing to demonetisation. He said the situation is being monitored at the highest-level everyday and things are getting sorted out. "Queues are getting shorter," he said.

The apex court said that the government had promised during the last hearing to increase the exchange limit from Rs 4,500, but, instead, it has reduced it to Rs 2,000. "Why? Is there shortage of even Rs 100 notes," the SC bench asked.

The government on Thursday reduced the exchange of old Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes from Rs 4,500 a day to Rs 2,500. Justifying the move to cut the exchange limit, finance minister Arun Jatiley+ said that that the exchange window of Rs 4,500 a day was being misused and this had led to the government reducing the amount to Rs 2,000 in a bid to curb use of "currency mules" to change illegal wealth to new notes.

"The queues are becoming smaller. Deposits and withdrawals are progressing well... With this (however), the facility to exchange Rs 4,500 has been misused. The government will not accept this misuse. This amount has been reduced," Jaitley said.

Verbal spat between Mukul Rohatgi and Kapil Sibal

During the hearing, attorney general Mukul Rohatgi and senior advocate and Congress leader Kapil Sibal had a verbal spat over problems faced by people due to demonetisation. The attorney general acused Kapil Sibal of politicising the court proceedings because of his affiliation to political party's stand. Sibal, on his part, said that the government is inept and clueless about handling the situation that has arisen because of ill-planned demonetisation.

Rohatgi said Sibal was bringing politics into court room. "I have heard you in the press conference yesterday. You are speaking the same language here in court on demonetisation," he said. Sibal replied: "I have freedom of speech to criticise government policies. I am talking here about the problem faced by people not politics."

The SC asked Sibal to file documents substantiating his charges on inept handling of demonetisation and posted the matter for further hearing on November 25.

Two Kannada actors drown after 60-ft plunge during shooting near Bengaluru

TIPPAGONDANAHALLI (KARNATAKA): Two actors drowned while shooting for a Kannada movie after they jumped off a helicopter into the Tippagondanahalli reservoir, 35km west of Bengaluru, on Monday afternoon. A motorboat stationed on the banks to pull the actors out of the water developed a last-minute snag and remained ashore, resulting in the tragedy.

Duniya Vijay, hero of the movie Maasti Gudi, who also made the jump with the other two, survived as he was rescued in the nick of time by a local who rushed to his help in a coracle.

Officials of the Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board, the custodian of the reservoir, said the film crew had violated the conditional approval, they had barred the crew from taking aerial shots and entering prohibited areas, including the water. Police said the three actors didn't have life jackets on. The two who died weren't even good swimmers.

According to eyewitnesses, the actors jumped into the 40-foot-deep reservoir from a height of 60 feet, at least 200 feet away from the bank. The scene required Vijay to fight Anil Kumar and Uday Venkatesh in the helicopter. Vijay had to jump while holding the two actors by their necks.

After jumping, Vijay, Anil and Uday began swimming towards the shore. However, Anil and Uday started drowning after swimming for 50 metres. A local, Ramagiri, meanwhile, rushed in a coracle to rescue them. Vijay scrambled onto the coracle.

"As the coracle could hold only one more person, I brought him to the bank and returned to the middle of the reservoir only to find Anil and Uday had drowned," 

Anil and Uday were said to be old friends of Vijay and part of his earlier ventures. Vijay said he was too disturbed to speak to the media. A fire tender was stationed at the shooting location as part of the safety arrangements, said officers of the fire control room.

Rupee recoups losses against US dollar; closes up 5 paise

MUMBI: The rupee on Friday recovered by 5 paise against the US currency to end at 66.70 on stray dollar selling by banks and exporters even as stock markets continued to decline.

In yet another day of range-bound trade, the rupee-dollar outright spot dealings remained quiet due to lack of market-moving factors.



Excess volatility and movements of the US dollar in global trade largely weighed on trade during the day, but the home currency withstood the midsession volatile momentum.



Continued selling by FIIs in equities and debt on the back of wavering global financial markets restricted the rupee gains, a forex dealer said.



The rupee today resumed marginally up at 66.73 compared with Thursday's closing value of 66.75 at the Inter-bank Foreign Exchange (forex) market and confined to narrow trading band 66.70 and 66.7650 through the session as scattered dollar demand was absorbed by the adequate supplies.



It finally settled at 66.70, revealing a gain of 5 paise, or 0.07 per cent. The home currency had lost 4 paise yesterday.



On the global front, the American currency traded little changed against all major trading partners after a failed attempt to bounce back.



The dollar Index, which measures its broader strength against a basket of currencies, was down 0.02 per cent at 97.17 in the afternoon trade.

The RBI today fixed the reference rate for the dollar at 66.7219 and euro at 74.0546.



In cross-currency trades, the rupee remained under immense pressure against the pound sterling to end at 83.30 from 82.88 and fell back against the euro to close at 74.03 from 73.87 yesterday.



It also dropped against the Japanese yen and finished at 65.21 from 64.68 per 100 yens earlier.



Meanwhile, domestic bourses plunged to their lowest levels in nearly four months as selloff deepened on growing anxiety among investors over the US presidential election next Tuesday.



Foreign investors offloaded equities worth Rs 343.30 crore on net basis today, as per the provisional exchange data. They had sold shares worth a net Rs 706.77 crore yesterday.



The benchmark BSE Sensex tumbled over 156 points to end at 27,274.15, while broder Nifty shed 51 points to 8,433.75.



In the forward market, premium for dollar declined due to fresh receiving by exporters.

The benchmark six-month premium for April moved down to 173.5-175.5 paise from 174.5-176.5 paise and the forward- October 2017 contract edged lower to 349-351 paise from 350.5-352.5 paise yesterday.

Crude prices continued to trade with high volatility and on course for their sixth straight day of falls on Friday.

Mumbai, Nov 04 (PTI) The rupee today closed up by 5 paise against the US dollar at 66.70/71 per dollar.

The domestic unit fell further against the pound sterling to finish at Rs 83.30/32 per pound at the Interbank Foreign Exchange market today.

95% of ex-servicemen happy with OROP, Manohar Parrikar says

NEW DELHI: Amid the ongoing political slugfest over the death of ex-serviceman Ram Kishan Grewal, who allegedly committed suicide over the implementation of One Rank One Pension(OROP), defence minister Manohar Parrikar said on Saturday that 95% of veterans have already got the benefits of the OROP scheme and they are happy with it.

"Rest are very old pensioners, so their records are incomplete. We are in the process of completing the records of these 5%, it will be done in the next two months," Parrikar said in a press briefing.



The government is sensitive to OROP issue as it was not implemented for the past 43 years, Parrikar had said on Friday.



"Only one lakh ex-servicemen (out of over 20 lakh) are not getting pension as per OROP scheme due to some technical difficulty or documentation problems. We will resolve these problems in coming two months," he said

The scheme, announced in September 2015, among other measures, is meant to ensure equal pension to servicemen who retired on the same rank and after the same duration of service, regardless of the year of retirement. However, retired soldiers have been alleging that the government has not addressed their concerns fully about disparity in pension payments.



The issue snowballed into a major political war after Grewal, 70, a former Rajputana Rifles subedar, demanding immediate implementation of the scheme, committed suicide by consuming poison at a Delhi park on Tuesday evening.



A combative Rahul Gandhi on Friday stepped up pressure on the government over OROP, accusing Prime Minister Narendra Modi of "lying" on the issue and insisting what the retired defence personnel were now getting was "enhanced pension" and that 'One Rank-One Pension' demand was yet to be fulfilled.

"What PM says is One Rank-One Pension is actually pension enhancement and not OROP. PM should stop lying on the issue. "OROP is the right of armed forces personnel and government will have to give it," Rahul, who was detained thrice over two days during protests over the suicide by army veteran Ram Kishan Grewal, told reporters on Friday.

Finance minister Arun Jaitley accused Rahul Gandhi of trying "exploit the tragedy" of the suicide of a former soldier and termed it an "irresponsible behaviour" by a national leader.

"No one should try to change a personal tragedy into political gain, especially a party whose fortune is already sinking," Jaitley said.

He said that for 10 years, when the Congress-led UPA was in power, it did not initiate any meaningful step to implement the OROP scheme.

BSF’s women take fight to the enemy’s gate

Pooja Sharma, Anubala & Rabinder Kaur.

ABDULLIYAN (RS PURA, JAMMU): Shortly after sunrise, constables Rabinder Kaur and Anubala sling their 5.56mm INSAS rifles across their shoulders, and march towards one of the border outposts in Jammu.



Once there, the young BSF personnel, both women, quickly get into position at the morcha, from where they can draw a bead on Pakistan Rangers personnel. Trained to handle medium machine guns (MMGs) and 51mm mortars, the two are merciless in their retaliation if firing from across the border injures locals or their colleagues.

Rabinder and Anubala are among more than 90 women personnel of the BSF posted along the 192km stretch of the international border in Jammu. "We're the new woman power," Rabinder, a Jammu local whose husband works in Australia, told TOI.



" Hum log bhi jawaab denge, aur aisa jawaab denge ki 100 saal tak yaad rakhenge ki women constables ki taqaat kya hoti hai (We, too, will retaliate, and in a manner that they will remember the might of women constables for 100 years)," she added.

Most of the BSF's women soldiers are aged between 23 and 30 years. Some stay with their families at the battalion headquarters, while others have left their children with their husbands' families to fight at the border.

Most say that their choice of career evokes not derision, but pride at home, even among the men of their villages "The elderly men and women at my village in Pathankot bless us and say 'Humari bahu aur betiyo ne humara naam roshan kiya hai (Our daughters-in-law and daughters have done us proud)'," says Anubala, who has been in the BSF since 2008.

Some of them are also deployed in the more sensitive forward areas of Akhnoor, Arnia and R S Pura, which had to bear the brunt of Pakistani shellinglast year.

From standing for six to eight hours inside a watch tower with their heavy rifles, to seizing contraband from villagers, BSF's women personnel walk shoulder-to-shoulder with their male counterparts in the combat zone. Constable Lakshmi of Samba summed it up: "We are ready for any action."

Stumped Tata camp rethinks strategy

MUMBAI: The decision of the independent directors at Indian Hotels (IHCL) to wholeheartedly back Cyrus Mistry came as a shock for the Tata camp. As the impact sunk in, there was growing acceptance at Tata Sons that they needed a more proactive strategy to convince independent directors, investors, and the public at large to back them in their boardroom battles.



The Tata brand, valued at $13.7 billion by the UK-based Brand Finance in July, has for decades stood for trust and reliability. Tata insiders fear the current uncertainty over leadership is going to rob the brand of some of its sheen, in addition to eroding the market cap of group companies.



The holding company is becoming aware of the need to build a more convincing narrative for change in leadership among independent directors and other stakeholders, with whom Mistry seems to enjoy support. On Friday, all six independent directors on the IHCL board backed Mistry for his leadership and strategic acumen.



As the board meeting was on, the IHCL stock rallied nearly 3% to close at Rs 112.


Since October 24, the day Mistry was forced out of Tata Sons board, observers see some amount of reluctance within the company to elaborate on the sequence of events and reasons leading to the sudden change in leadership at the helm of Tata Sons.

"It was terrible management on the part of Tatas, especially when we knew half the IHCL board were Mistry sympathisers," said a Tata insider on condition of anonymity. "We somewhere didn't realise that there is a Mistry-appointed CEO who would present a compelling case for the ousted chairman," the source added. In 2014, Mistry had brought in veteran hotelier Rakesh Sarna as its MD & CEO to run IHCL.


Now the Tata camp is planning to go on a communication overdrive to build a strong case in favour of their decision to sack Mistry as Tata Sons chief. Tatas are connecting with old hands at communications, corporate affairs and brands who have served the group well.

There will be an immediate stock-taking of the likely support Mistry might enjoy in the boards of other group companies. "We know this is going to be a long-drawn battle, and it would probably take up to three years to get Mistry out of all the boards," said a source.

All municipal schools to stay shut for a day

NEW DELHI: In a first, all municipal corporation-run schools will be shut on Saturday due to smog. The 1,747 schools teaching around 8.75 lakh students will be the only public institutions to be closed due to pollution this season.



Schools across the city are changing the way they function to protect children from the noxious smog. Although the air was clearer on Friday, some schools stayed closed. Others rescheduled sports and other outdoor activities. Some will decide whether to open on Sunday evening. South Corporation has postponed its second parent-teacher meeting next week, which was earlier scheduled on Saturday.

"The government orders us to close when it's too cold or too hot. Although ours is an air-conditioned school, we follow. This, too, is an extreme situation. We will check the levels on Sunday evening and take a call on whether to open on Monday," says Neena Kaul, principal, The Heritage School, Rohini. The school has a substantial number of children who are asthmatic and Kaul herself suffers from allergies. All Heritage Schools remained shut on Friday, as did Modern School, Barakhamba Road.

Those schools where classes were held, schedules have been changed and parents sent advisories. Springdales, Pusa Road, and Vasant Vihar's Tagore Internationalhave both suspended all sports coaching till conditions improve. The latter has suspended assemblies for the rest of the month. They'll decide on whether to resume in December. The municipal schools have been told to stop holding assemblies and outdoor activities too. Additionally, children who need medical assistance will get it. However, teachers don't get Saturday off.

"School is on but all outside activities have been cancelled. Attendance was good and some kids have come to school with masks. They are either asthmatic or were taking precautions," says Tania Joshi, principal, The Indian School.

Amity International School, Mayur Vihar, stopped all sports the day after Diwali, expecting poor air-quality. They organised activities for the smaller children in their auditorium. The school moves classes to the afternoon for the winter months in any case but this time principal Priyanka Mehta has told teachers and students to also look out for the sun. "If it is bright and sunny outside, go out. If it isn't, don't."

Why people stay in jobs they hate

Prisoners. That's term of art for those stuck in a job they hate but can't se em to leave, according to an Aon Hewitt survey based on data from 500,000 workers. It seems about 8% of the global workforce have no interest in their jobs and no motivation to quit them. Thus did these inert, unhappy workers earn their name, a slightly aggressive term for gainfully employed people suffering from ennui.

Having no motivation at work does make it a slog and that seeps into the rest of your life. "If you're that disengaged and you feel that stuck, what kind of spouse, or partner, or friend, or life do you have outside of work? It's not a great place to be," said Ken Oehler of Aon Hewitt. "We feel for these people."

So why don't they do something about it? Why don't they try to change their circumstances, especially given the improving labour market? How annoying.


One reason: They're shackled to their desks by an elegant pair of golden handcuffs. Prisoners, by Aon Hewitt's definition, aren't people who can't find work. They're people who don't even want to look. And that's because they're often overpaid. Aon Hewitt's research found that more than 60% of prisoners make above-market wages, compared to around 48% of nonprisoners.

"They are getting paid higher than they could maybe find externally out in the mar ket," Oehler said. "Then you get this feedback loop, because they're not getting performance management."

Then inertia sets in. The longer you stay with a company, the likelier you are to feel stuck in that job, the research found. "You have people that have been with the company longer and feel like they've been through a lot with the company ," he said.

The burden of achieving happiness (or "engagement," to use the buzzy term favoured by HR folks) shouldn't fall entirely on the employee, Oehler said. "Engagement is something that organisations owe to employees," he said. Of course, as prisoners know all too well, many companies just aren't going to provide it. In that case, the imprisoned can act. "There is a choice in this matter," Oehler said. "We would suggest people are more empowered than perhaps they think." Ask for what you want.And if that doesn't work, now's a pretty good time to start looking for a new job.

India revives project to acquire Japanese US-2i amphibious aircraft worth Rs 10,000 crore

NEW DELHI: India has revived the stalled project to acquire a dozen Japanese US-2i amphibious aircraft, worth around Rs 10,000 crore, ahead of PM Narendra Modi's visit to Tokyo on November 11-12 to further cement the bilateral strategic partnership.

While the inking of a civil nuclear cooperation agreement is likely to be the centrepiece of the meeting between Modi and his Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe, sources say the declaration of India's intention to acquire the US-2i aircraft is also going to be a major highlight of the summit.

The US-2i project, with six of the huge amphibious planes each for the Navy and Coast Guard, is also slated to be taken up by the defence acquisitions council (DAC) meeting to be chaired by defence minister Manohar Parrikar on Monday. "The DAC will take up the... inking of a bilateral MoU between the two countries for the procurement of the 12 aircraft," said a source.

Powered by four big turbo-props, the US-2i is capable of short take-offs from land as well as water. While basically meant for search and rescue operations, the US-2i can also rapidly transport 30 combat-ready soldiers to "hot zones" in an emergency.

Though the Navy has much more critical operational requirements ranging from submarines to multirole helicopters, the proposed US-2i deal is intended to send a strong signal to an increasingly belligerent China in the Asia-Pacific region.

Both India and Japan are wary of the China's aggressive territorial claims. India has till now ruled out joining the quadrilateral security dialogue proposed by the US, with Japan and Australia being the other members. But Japan since 2014 has become a regular participant of the annual Malabar naval exercise between India and the US, which has riled China.

Negotiations for the US-2i aircraft deal, which will be the first-ever purchase of military equipment from Japan since it ended its five-decade old self-imposed embargo to export military hardware, have been underway since 2013 but were stalled on the high costs involved.

Japan has now agreed to somewhat reduce the price, which was earlier pegged at $1.6 billion or Rs 10,720 crore for the 12 aircraft, to clinch the deal and expand its strategic partnership with India.

Pakistan army personnel replacing Rangers as border heat escalates

R S PURA/SAMBA (JAMMU)/NEW DELHI: In what seems to be a sign of escalating tensions, Pakistan army personnel are being increasingly deployed along the 190km international border in Jammu at border outposts and camps usually manned by thePakistan Rangers.

The change in deployment has been noted by the Border Security Force and is seen as a clear departure from the practice of specialized paramilitaries, instead of armies, guarding the borders in Jammu, Rajasthan, Gujarat and Bengal.

Top sources in BSF and the government confirmed that the Pakistani army had deployed soldiers and weaponry at the Rangers' posts, placing regular Pakistan troops face to face with the BSF. "It's difficult to say if the Pakistani army has taken control of the Rangers' posts at IB but there is certainly a lot of movement, with many vehicles regularly bringing soldiers and arms. This has been going on for the past 8-9 days," said a senior official.

There is no intelligence input on what the Pakistani army is doing exactly, but the intent seems to be to beef up military presence along the international border.

The change ties in with New Delhi's assessment that the Pakistani army will continue to provoke hostilities until the end of the month, when chief General Raheel Sharif is due to retire. "General Sharif may be hoping to leverage the tension he has created on the border to determine the choice of his successor," said a senior government functionary in Delhi. The Indian Army is in charge along the line of control (LoC) in Jammu & Kashmir, where the boundary does not have official recognition and is disputed.

The BSF has gathered information on the rank and number of Pakistani regulars, and is linking their presence to the firing and shelling directed at Indian civiliansalong border areas.

According to sources, the sector commander of Chenab Rangers (part of Pakistan Rangers) in Jammu is Brigadier Amzad Hussain, an army officer. "There seems a high probability that Pakistan's army is directing attacks on civilians in contrast to the Indian Army," said a BSF official.

The sector opposite the Indian sector hit worst last week — Samba, with eight civilian deathstoo has an army officer, believed to be Lt Col Hashim Bhatti, commanding the 24 Chenab Rangers.

Similarly, opposite India's Chicken Neck sector, Pakistani army's Lt Col Tariq is understood to be in charge of the 21 Chenab Rangers, which oversees 30-odd border outposts in Head Marala. Lt Col I A Khan looks after 12, Wing in Langay Manjkay across India's R S Pura sector.

Jayalalithaa controls doctors and nurses, Apollo Hospitals chairman Dr Reddy says

CHENNAI: Tamil Nadu chief minister Jayalalithaa has completely recovered and she understands what is going on around her, said Apollo Hospitals chairman Dr Prathap C Reddy on Friday.

Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of an event organised by the hospital here to launch a text book of medicine, Dr Reddy said: "She [Jayalalithaa] is now aware of what is happening around her. She asks and demands what she wants. We are happy to tell you she is well."

Replying to a question, he said: "When to go home is now a small thing. The decision will be made by her. The most important part of the treatment is that it is over and very successful."

"She is under control. She controls the doctors and nurses [when it comes to] what she and they should do... You know her nature very well. She understands herself very well. She will ask us very soon 'when I am going home.' It must be on top of her mind. It will not be too long before she sees you all," Dr Reddy said.

"It's a contribution not just by doctors, but nurses as well. It was a team work. We have given her word's best treatment," said Dr Reddy.

Jayalalithaa was admitted to the hospital on September 22 with complaints of fever and dehydration. She was later put on respiratory support and treated with antibiotics for her infection and lung congestion. She was given passive physiotherapy.

A team of doctors from the UK and All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, joined the team of doctors at the Apollo Hospitals to treat her.

Tata Sons makes organisational changes; Padmanabhan to head HR

MUMBAI: Over a week after Cyrus Mistry was ousted as Chairman, Tata Sons on Friday announced organisational changes bringing in S Padmanabhan as the group human resources head.

Besides, the former Tata brand custodian under Mistry's regime Mukund Rajan has been given the responsibility of overseeing operations of the overseas representative offices of Tata Sons in the USA, Singapore, Dubai and China.

This is in addition to his existing responsibility of ethics and sustainability.

Harish Bhat, who is responsible for marketing and customer centricity, will henceforth also be responsible for managing the Tata Brand, Tata Sons said in a statement.

"In the interim, he will oversee the functions of Strategy and Business Development," it added.

Padmanabhan has been given the responsibility of Group Human Resources in addition to his existing role of leading the Tata Business Excellence Group.

Tata Sons further said Gopichand Katragadda will continue to be the Group Chief Technology Officer, while Sanjay Singh will oversee the Public Affairs function out of the Delhi office.

Three members of the now-disbanded Group Executive Council set up by Mistry -- Nirmalya Kumar, N S Rajan and Madhu Kannan -- have already quit.

They have decided to explore options outside Tata Sons and have left the services of the company, the statement added.

On October 24, Tata Sons board had replaced Mistry as Chairman and appointed Ratan Tata as interim Chairman. The company had said it would find a new Chairman in four months.Since then, a war of words has been going on between the Tatas and Mistry, who alleged that he was pushed into a position of "lame duck" chairman and changes in decision making process created alternate power centres in Tata Group.

Tata retorted saying Mistry's removal was "absolutely necessary" for the future success of the Tata Group and insisted that the decision was a well-considered and serious one for its board members.