RERA Myths Busted: No Big Relief For Stuck Home Buyers, House Prices Won't Rise

The dust has finally settled on RERA or the Real Estate Regulation & Development Act. From Monday (1 May 2017) it comes into force across India, and the day will be remembered as a special day for home buyers who have been committing the largest chunk of their life savings to an industry which has been free for all.

A press release from the Housing Ministry stated how this day marks the end of a 9-year-long wait; and for the first time 76,000 companies engaged in building and construction activities across the country will become accountable for quality and delivery. Union Minister for Housing Venkaiah Naidu in his tweets called it the beginning of a new era making buyer the king, while the developers benefit from the confidence of a King in the regulated environment.

The big question: Is yoga for power or fitness, wisdom or devotion?

Today, any understanding of yoga is often obscured by a grand media war to dominate the discourse on yoga.

They say Jesus could walk on water, and turn water into wine. Many have postulated that he was a yogi, with siddha powers. That he must have learned it in a Hindu or Buddhist monastery in India during his missing years. This yoga-of-power is very different from the popular, and sanitised, yoga-for-fitness of the global village, or the yoga-for-devotion of the religious and the spiritual.

Health Crisis: India's Wealthier States Are Showing An Alarming Decline In Immunisation Process

By NEWSCOP | INNLIVE

The warning signs from the latest National Family Health Survey data have gone unnoticed so far.

A fair amount of media attention has been given to the resurgence of diphtheria in Kerala, which has been attributed to some Muslims rejecting immunisation efforts due to misinformation. However, a much more dangerous and widespread trend of declining immunisation rates as evidenced by the recent National Family Health Survey 4 data, seems to have gone entirely unnoticed.

Analysis: A Dubious Encounter In Telangana Revives Memories Of A Decade-Old Mystery Over Sohrabuddin Case

By NEWS KING | INNLIVE

The killing of a Maoist renegade-turned-extortionist near Hyderabad by police raises uncomfortable questions.

A hushed silence can perhaps best describe the mood inside the Telangana police, 48 hours after Mohammed Nayeemuddin, a Maoist renegade-turned-extortionist, was gunned down in Shadnagar, 50 km from Hyderabad, on Monday.

Superstar Salman Khan - The 'Last Sultan' Of India

By NISHI KHAN | INNLIVE

The man, the mind and the mayhem. Up close with Hindi cinema’s biggest star ever made.

Outside a large vanity van that casts a soft light upon its owner whenever it is opened, like a refrigerator in a dark room, Salman Khan sits under a temporary structure made of poles and tarpaulin sheets, across a table with several white plastic chairs. He sits at a slight elevation—two chairs stacked one atop the other—as if to distinguish his position from those who come to occupy the other chairs.

Money, Politics And Crime: Uncovering The Vicious Triangle That Plagues Indian Polity

By M H AHSSAN | INNLIVE

"Politics is the gentle art of getting votes from the poor and campaign funds from the rich, by promising to protect each from the other," - Oscar Ameringer

Yes, this is one of the bitter truths that applies to our polity as well. We have all come to accept it as a norm - not an exception. And almost every party does it in varying degrees. Little wonder then that neither the Yamuna nor the Gomti caught fire when two otherwise little-known MLAs belonging to the Bahujan Samaj Party - Romi Sahni and Brijesh Verma - "disclosed" at a press conference in Lucknow earlier this week that their party was busy auctioning poll-tickets for money in Uttar Pradesh.

#SalmanAcquittal: Did The Blackbuck And Chinkara Commit Suicide?

By NEWS KING | INNLIVE

Actor Salman Khan, on Monday, was acquitted by the Rajasthan high court in the Blackbuck and Chinkara poaching cases. Khan was accused of killing a Blackbuck and a Chinkara in two separate incidents in 1998 along with actors Saif Ali Khan, Sonali Bendre, Tabu and Neelam during the shooting of a film. 

The Big Question: Do Women’s Periods Really Synchronise When They Spend Time Together?

By ANNIE SADAF | INNLIVE

Research in the 1970s had indicated that being in close proximity led to the transfer of pheromones.

It is a popular belief that women who live together synchronise their menstrual cycles, and that it’s mediated by their pheromones – the airborne molecules that enable members of the same species to communicate non-verbally.

Opinion: Is Holding Simultaneous Elections For Lok Sabha And State Assemblies Necessarily A Good Idea?

By M H AHSSAN| INNLIVE

Will doing so address the real challenges of governing? What is the evidence from other countries?

The idea of holding simultaneous elections to the Lok Sabha and State Legislative Assemblies has gained some ground recently. In December 2015, a parliamentary standing committee recommended a move in this direction by streamlining elections into two phases – one concurrent with Lok Sabha elections, the second in the mid-term of the Lok Sabha.

Bollywood Analysis: From ‘Sultan’ To ‘Housefull 3’, The Horrid Ways Bollywood Targets People With Disabilities

By ABHA KHETARPAL | INNLIVE

Being a person with disability, and working as counselor for persons with disabilities and disability rights advocate I have always raised my voice against discrimination and stereotyping of disabled people.

Disability metaphors and analogies abound in our culture but disappointingly, Bollywood continues to shut out persons with disability with blatant ableist dialogues and storylines, which objectify disabled bodies.

Spotlight: Islamic State Readies For Fall Of 'Caliphate'

By SARAH WILLIAMS | INNLIVE

Even as it launches waves of terrorist attacks around the globe, the Islamic State is quietly preparing its followers for the eventual collapse of the caliphate it proclaimed with great fanfare two years ago.

In public messages and in recent actions in Syria, the group's leaders are acknowledging the terrorist organization's declining fortunes on the battlefield while bracing for the possibility that its remaining strongholds could fall.

There's A Glaring Inequality Between Health Insurance Benefits Given To Men And Women

By NEWSCOP | INNLIVE

For the age group of 70 and above, for every claim paid to a woman, more than 11 were paid to men.

In the last five years, when there were major concerns over the country’s economic growth, the Indian health insurance industry was doing surprisingly well. In fact, it had been growing at more than double the rate of the overall economy, according to data from Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority.

Analysis: Cabinet Reshuffle Is Aimed At UP Polls, But What If It Backfires?

By M H AHSSAN | INNLIVE

Recent Union Cabinet reshuffle - or 'expansion' as Prime Minister Narendra Modi likes to call it - threw up many clues for the poll-bound Uttar Pradesh.

Election analysts and poll pundits have already called the latest change in Modi's Council of Ministers an act of balancing caste and regional equations. Tuesday's expansion of the Union Cabinet is being touted as Modi's biggest political moves since he acquired the top office since May 2014.

Average Deposit In Accounts Under 'Jan Dhan Yojana' Scheme Doubled In 21 Months

By NEWS KING | INNLIVE

The number of accounts opened under the Prime Minister's financial inclusion programme quadrupled between September 2014 and May 2016.

The average deposit per account under Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana – a financial inclusion programme launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in August 2014 – increased 118%, from Rs 795 in September 2014 to Rs 1,735 in May 2016, according to IndiaSpend's analysis of government data.

India Is Slowly Cleaving Into Two Countries – A Richer, Older South And A Poorer, Younger North

By NEWSCOP | INNLIVE

Support to the elderly is fraying in India. But no one appears prepared for this – not families, not companies, not the government.

At traffic intersections, drivers in Delhi tune out the brown-haired, snot-nosed waifs who tap and scratch insistently at their car windows. Sometimes, the children are joined by equally ragged parents, mostly in their 20s, trying to sell cheap Chinese-made junk – from plastic flowers to cellphone and steering-wheel covers. The defining feature of destitution in North India appears to be youth.

Opinion: How All India Radio Lost Its Way On Its 80-Year Journey?

By M H AHSSAN | INNLIVE

Why isn’t India’s public radio as good as BBC or NPR? And what does the future hold?

In the 20-odd years I have been associated with radio, hundreds of people have asked me the same question: Why doesn’t India have something like the British Broadcasting Corporation or the National Public Radio? My reply, while boring, has been the same. We do, it’s called All India Radio.

Vulnerable Children: On Time Delivery – The Large Blind Spot In India’s Immunisation Policy

By M H AHSSAN | INNLIVE

Only a third of India's children are vaccinated on time under the government immunisation programme. One reason is that families don’t keep proper records.

The majority of children immunised under the government’s universal immunisation programme don’t get their vaccinations on time. New research shows that two-thirds of children under the age of five had either not been vaccinated at all, or received their vaccine shots much later than prescribed.

Spotlight: A Misplaced Emphasis On Indian Highways?

By LIKHAVEER | INNLIVE

Why does the government continue with its blind focus on highways and expressways when infrastructure for water supply, waste management and mass transit system is in desperate need of attention? INNLIVE criticises the government's prioritization and says there is more to public infrastructure than just highways and expressways.

Prolonged Repetitive Manual Work Ups Rheumatoid Arthritis Risk

By LIKHAVEER | INNLIVE

Prolonged repetitive manual work that includes lifting heavy objects or bending increases the risk of developing rheumatoid arthritis, a new study has found.

Although work-related physical activity over many years is known to cause many cases of osteoarthritis (OA) in selected joints, this is the first study to show a link between physical workload and rheumatoid arthritis (RA).

To examine whether physical workload is a possible risk factor for RA, information on different types of self-reported exposure was analysed from a population of 3,680 RA patients and 5,935 matched controls.

Is The Local Kirana Store Under Threat From The ECommerce Industry?

By NIKHIL SHARMA | INNLIVE

Looking back at the evolution process, e-commerce was introduced in India through shopping sites like Rediff, Indiatimes, Sify and HomeShop18 in the early 2000s. However, they failed to gain widespread recognition amongst the Indian masses due to their limited range of products and payment options. With advancement in technology and growing manpower, e-shopping has gained significant success and popularity in the last couple of years. But there is a major policy gap, which needs to be addressed.