1) A Hundred to remember for Virat Kohli!
Virat Kohli silences his critics with the bat as he hammered his maiden Ton in England by kissing his wedding ring to the delight of all his fans. The last tour of England was a disaster for Kohli who could garner a handful of 140 odd runs in the series and everybody blamed his girlfriend Anushka Sharma for being a distraction on tour. Lady luck seemed to have smiled on Kohli as the same Anushka now his wife has motivated his husband to score one of his best hundreds till date in a country where he has never succeeded before.
Virat Kohli is the best batsman in the Test Cricket at the moment and his style of play is what makes Test Cricket interesting in today’s era of ODIs and T-20. Kohli’s brilliant Ton saved the day for India at a time we looked in the dire state to concede a big lead. He fought singlehandedly when others crumbled like cookies and his gigantic innings of 149 towered to the next best score of 26 scored by Dhawan. The Test Match is interestingly placed and Kohli’s match-winning innings could prove the difference between both the sides!
– S.N.Kabra
2) No meals in Air India short-duration flights
Since every private airline company in India except Jet Airways has discontinued serving free-of-cost meals, snacks, beverages etc. in domestic flights as a cost-cutting measure to provide cheaper air-tickets, Air India should have also adopted the same practice long back. Rather all these private-airline companies started profiteering by selling food-items at prices much higher than normal market prices. Now Air India has decided to give boxes of low-cost peanuts etc. instead of costly snacks but only in short-duration flights up to one hour.
Air India instead should totally do away with free-of-cost food in all its domestic flights, and follow most other private airliners to sell food-items as a cost-cutting measure to bring down heavy losses greatly hurting public-exchequer. It is a matter of concern that private airline-companies are minting money to regularly add to their fleets with new and latest aeroplanes, public-sector Air India, on the other hand, is regularly adding to its accumulated huge losses.
– Madhu Agrawal
3) A friend in need is a friend indeed
Friendship Day has come to be celebrated in a big way in India and elsewhere in the world. The noble idea of honouring friends has really caught on with the youth and one can see the festival is celebrated by the youth, especially, students. Every one of us needs a good and loyal friend to share bad or good life events, enjoy happy moments and share unbearable events of our life. Friendship is also the key to strengthening family bonds and relationships. Many a time, being friends with your siblings, parents, cousins, etc., makes that relationship even stronger. Friends are also our helping hands in our times of need or whenever we are in trouble. It is rightly said that “A friend in need is a friend indeed.” This Friendship Day again gave us a reason to show to our friends what they mean to us. A friendship card or a gift, a get-together or just simply hanging out in some park or restaurant go a long way in telling our friends how much we appreciate them.
– Jubel D’Cruz
4) Hope India-Pak bond will get stronger!
It is not hidden from every Indian that the Pakistan Tahreek-e-Insaaf PTI last week sent out the invitation to Kapil Dev, Sunil Gavaskar, Navjot Sidhu and Aamir Khan for the oath-taking ceremony of PM-elect Imran Khan on August 11. It is interesting to note that these big dignitaries are Imran’s close friends and he did not cast aside his old relationship in his happiest moment and he invited them. It seems that Imran’s government will pay attention to make the relationship strong between both countries.
– Md Azim Zafar
5) LIC should lower commission on Jeevan Akshay
Presently, Life Insurance Corporation of India is paying a hefty commission of two per cent to its agents on its popular pension-plan Jeevan Akshay where the one-time heavy premium is payable to get a lifetime pension on a fixed rate which does not vary with regularly fluctuating rates of bank interest. There are lucrative incentives of various types over and above two per cent commission. Knowledgeable takers of this plan easily bargain for pay-back of up to 2.5 per cent from the agents. The one-time premium of, say Rs 15 lakh, can easily get a pay-back of Rs 37,500 from the agent. Persons without knowledge about such hefty pay-back are deprived of such extra benefit when they directly approach LIC branches where usually every staff-member has some indirect agency to grab hefty commission.
But LIC agents deliberately avoid giving knowledge about wonderful pension-plan Pradhan Mantri Vaya Vandana Yojna (PMVVY) exclusively for senior citizens aged above 60 years with Rs 15 lakh as an upper limit of investment which is also routed through LIC, because commission to agents for policies under this plan is just Rs 1,500 for a policy with a one-time premium of Rs 15 lakh.
LIC should arrange that each branch of every public-sector bank may be associated with some LIC branch where LIC policies can be purchased. Banks can arrange the instant issue of LIC policies with authorisation received from LIC with some nominal commission like on PMVVY paid to banks. Commission and other incentives on Jeevan Akshay Plan presently payable to agents should be at par with those payable in respect of Pradhan Mantri Vaya Vandana Yojna.
– Subhash Chandra Agrawal
6) We condemn Mob lynching!
Mob lynching is against humanity, religion, and laws of India. We condemn it! Everybody has a right to live in India. No one can be deprived from this. And no one has a right to punish anyone except judiciary.
– Syed Salman
7) High five for higher education
Good education is the right of every citizen and it’s the government’s duty to take care of the students’ future both in educational and job prospects. At this point of time, the government should encourage helping schemes of discount in fees considering recession neither should be a burden for unemployed parents with the fee hike. It is high time that we should take some steps to encourage higher education as there are more students enrolling for PG and Ph.D. and fewer takers for diplomas. A study reveals that enrolments in Maharashtra are on the rise and it is a good sign. With riding a high wave, the state government should make it a point to encourage more such admissions and the admission process should be transparent to avoid middlemen involving student for fake admissions in the hope of getting the required seat. Gender wise enrolment shows a positive result and the trend should be followed closely and provide the students with many openings as per the wishes of the students. At last, there is a positive response for higher education and that augurs well for higher enrolment.
– Nickhil Krishnan
8) Didi’s Dadagiri
Mamata Banerjee has the slogan ready for the opposition campaign in the upcoming general election. She has already made the first move in the direction by inviting the political leaders to her mega rally on Jan 19, pitched as a show of opposition unity ahead of the 2019 national election. In fact, the day started with a courtesy call on BJP veteran and former deputy prime minister LK Advani. The Chief Minister was also on the hunt of partners in suspended Kirti Azad, Deve Gowda, Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi to keep the momentum going. But the writing is on the wall. There is no opposition unity and the honeymoon will not last till the General Elections. Moreover, Mamata is not the obvious choice for the top post and the Bengal CM is not in favour of Rahul Gandhi as well. But Didi’s Dadagiri continues in the wake of a political war.
– Jayanthi S. Maniam
(The views expressed by the author in the article are his/her own.)
