Even as Mumbai's real estate market reels under a stressful period with slowing sales velocity and with buyers sitting on the fence, waiting for prices to drop, a one-off deal in the island city's luxury market for Rs 202 crore is making headlines. According to confirmed reports, a sea-facing triplex penthouse measuring 17,000 square feet in South Mumbai's Napean Sea Road has been sold to a prominent industrialist for a whopping Rs 202 crore. This works out to be one of the most expensive transactions in the country as the buyers is paying Rs 1.20 lakh per square foot. The apartment is on the 20th, 21st and 22nd floors of the Residence, being built by the Runwal Group and offers views of the the Arabian Sea and the Queen's Necklace and has 21 car-parking slots as part of the transaction.
Over the years, Bengaluru has been slowly losing its “garden city” reputation. Between 2001 and 2011, the southern metropolis lost 66% of its tree and vegetation cover as its population surged, with a construction boom fuelled by its arrival as India’s Silicon Valley. Despite the countless new office buildings and high-rise apartments, one tiny, endangered primate species, which has always called the city and its environs home, has persisted in holding on to its corner of Bengaluru.
Bookselling as an art and science has been taken out of the sparse resources of a bookshop. There were five of us mourners at Fact & Fiction bookshop in South Delhi’s Vasant Vihar market, as if trying to console the well-known book seller Ajit Vikram Singh. There was a sense of disbelief , tinged with some nostalgia as Singh packed away some old books, talking about the inevitability of closing down his bookshop. “If society is not bothered and cannot take care of it, bookshops will not survive,” he said underlining his own epitaph.
I live my life in a state of constant duality. Between fervent ambition and numbing nihilism. Between professionalism and ideology. Between Mumbai and Chennai. Call me fickle, call me confused. But being in limbo doesn’t paralyse me. My duality drives me to seek answers and explore sides of me that a well-adjusted me might never chance upon. All dualities aren’t constant though. Take for instance the oscillating pendulum between my blind faith in God and my strongly atheistic pragmatism. Spoiler alert: I chose the latter. The journey though, is a long story and every story has at least two sides to it. Both versions in this case are mine.
The focus on ending open defecation and ensuring a toilet in every home is a limited one. Lasting success will require a much larger focus on sanitation. Among its many areas of focus, the Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM) promises to provide toilets for all and make the country Open Defecation Free (ODF) by October, 2019; a tribute to Mahatma Gandhi, whose 150th birth anniversary, would fall that year. The fervour engendered by this mission is truly commendable, and is revealed in the physical progress in the construction of toilets. Swachh Bharat Mission – Gramin lists an addition of 21 lakh toilets in 2014-15, and 58 lakhs in 2015-16. Swachh Bharat Urban reports 10 lakh sanctioned toilets and 3.5 lakh completed.
The Southern region of India is expected to face high energy deficit this year while the Western and Eastern region will have a surplus of energy generation. INNLIVE explains why such regional skew in energy generation and energy consumption exists and what it will take to resolve it. Southern India is expected to face a severe electricity shortage this year. The Central Electricity Authority (CEA) in its latest annual forecast anticipates the energy deficit in the southern electricity grid to be over 11 percent, equivalent to a generation capacity deficit of 4000 MW. For Karnataka and Telangana, the forecasted energy deficit is greater than 16 percent.
The Indian military has so far maintained a dignified distance from the civilian and government affairs. But now there appears to be an increasing proximity between the military and the government. This does not bode well for India. Normally, it is only at the Republic Day celebrations that one would expect to find India’s three military chiefs (along with troops) at the centre of the national capital’s Rajpath, the main road that witnesses the annual march past. However, when last spotted on the Rajpath the three chiefs were with a brigade worth of troops arrayed behind their prime minister in breaking the world record for the highest number of participants at a Yoga event.
Lack of open communication between parents and school authorities is diminishing trust and respect between them. This in turn has caused many unfortunate incidents that could have been avoided. When Viraj Kalra – a student of Class 6 in one of Lucknow’s oldest schools, La Martiniere Boys College, (LMBC, established 1845) was slapped hard by a teacher for having longer hair than permitted, his father Amish decided to take on the school, adding to the numbers of parents who are openly and often aggressively challenging school managements.
