Author: The Metrognome

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Trends

Maharashtra’s done well for its people: UNICEF

However, as per the State of the World’s Children Report, State needs to redouble efforts to prevent crimes against women.
by The Editors | editor@themetrognome.in

This year happens to be the 25th anniversary of the Convention on the Rights of Child.  The Convention on the Rights of the Child was adopted by the United Nations’ General Assembly on November 20, 1989 and came into force on September 2, 1990. As per the UNICEF’s report ‘State of the World’s Children’ released in Mumbai last week, Maharashtra State has done well on the fronts of the handwash campaign for school children, as also reaching its Millenium Development Goals (MDG) for Under-5 years mortality and Maternal Mortality Rate.

The report was launched by the State Governor Ch Vidyasagar Rao at Raj Bhavan in Mumbai. On the occasion, the Governor called upon UNICEF, Maharashtra to reach out to the State’s poor children through its various programmes and to serve as a bridge between the Government of Maharashtra and the people.

Expressing concern over the killing of girl child and the practice of sex-determination, the Governor called for counselling of doctors who were conducting sex-determination tests. Complimenting the UNICEF Maharashtra for making significant gains in Health, Nutrition, Education and Child Protection in Maharashtra, the Governor lauded its efforts in implementing the handwash campaign for school children in rural areas of Maharashtra. The Governor called for making the campaign broad-based by including students who are outside the school system.

Said Rajeshwari Chandrashekhar, Chief of Field Office, UNICEF Maharashtra, “Maharashtra reached the MDG for Maternal Mortality Rate in 2010 (87) which is lower than the national average of 178. Further, Maharashtra has reached the MDG for Under-5 Mortality in 2009 (28), which is lower than national average (52).”

Some of the highlights of the UNICEF State of the World’s Children Report for Maharashtra:

  • State reached MDG for drinking water in 2003.
  • 30 per cent of open defecation-free villages in India are in Maharashtra
  • Increase in literacy rate from 77 per cent to 83 per cent between 2001 and 2011: rate higher than the national average
  • Performance of students in both language and Math significantly above the national average
  • Three-fold jump in the number of RTE compliant schools (from 7,355 schools in 2013 to 23,148 in 2013)
  • Child marriage decline from 31 per cent to 12 per cent (from 1998 to 2013)

 (Picture courtesy Raj Bhavan, Mumbai and www.unicef.org)

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Watch

Attend: Rainer Fassbinder film festival

The Max Mueller Bhavan, Mumbai, is hosting a retrospective of films by the German filmmaker, actor, till December 19, 2014.
by The Editors | editor@themetrognome.in

Maverick German filmmaker and actor Rainer Werner Fassbinder, many say, died too soon. Born in 1945, Fassbinder breathed his last in 1982, at the age of 37. However, the prolific film personality and pioneer of the New German Film Movement made 43 films in 15 years.

The film director was synonymous with the German New Wave in cinema, and he made fascinating collages with truly colorful characters in his films.

Fassbinder film festivalAll this week, the Goethe-Institut/Max Mueller Bhavan, Mumbai is hosting a seven-day retrospective of Fassbinder’s select films on specified dates (see image on left) designed to acquaint the viewer with the political complexities of his films. His work is known to challenge the viewer to continuously re-orient himself owing to the films’ constantly changing cinematic structure.

This retrospective is not to be missed.

(Pictures courtesy theredlist.com and Max Mueller Bhavan Mumbai)

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Enough said

As Christmas nears…

Why are Christians in several parts of the country being persecuted? Is this trend a coincidence or a systematic design?
Humra Quraishiby Humra Quraishi

Recently, I got in touch with a prominent Christian leader, John Dayal, for his reaction on the destruction of St. Sebastian’s Church in East Delhi. He was very upset by the manner in which the Church was found burnt and destroyed.

He also said that for the last few months (from the summer of 2014, to be precise), there had been systematic attempts to attack the Christian community in the country. “In Madhya Pradesh, on November 30, two house churches in Annupur district were attacked,” he said. “Chhattisgarh has particularly witnessed regular and repeated attacks on the fundamental rights of the minority Christian community.

“Most recently, local politico organisation such as the VHP are pressurizing local Catholic missionaries to put up pictures of Goddess Saraswati in their educational institutions. Catholic schools are under pressure to rename the principals in their schools, as ‘Pracharya’, or ‘Up-pracharya’, instead of the term ‘Father’, which is usually used,” he said.

Dayal added that the entry and propaganda by Christian missionaries is banned in more than 50 villages of Chhattisgarh’s Bastar region by the local gram panchayats since late May. Elsewhere, in Odisha’s Deggarh district, several tribal Christian families were excommunicated on April 28 allegedly at the behest of religious extremists. “Three Christian families were excommunicated and deprived from enjoying common facilities of the village road, water and forest land because of their faith in Christ. The well commonly used by the Christians was polluted by adding filth to it. And the Christians have been forbidden to mix or talk to anybody, to take part in any social functions or walk on the main road,” Dayal explained.

Reportedly, extremist elements have also threatened to snatch away the Government land allotted to the Christians, cancel their BPL Cards and demolish their houses if they do not renounce Christ. “In Chhattisgarh’s Jagdalpur, about 100 Christians who were denied rations for two months for their faith in Christ were beaten up by a mob,” Dayal went on to add.

Madhya Pradesh fares no better, apparently, with reports of local religious political groups threatening to harm Pastor Bhikanlal Dhurvey several times for conducting prayer meetings in Bhopal. However, the pastor continued to conduct worship services and later started to build a prayer hall in his land. Subsequently, the extremists filed a police complaint against the pastor for illegal construction. The construction has since been stopped and prayers are now being conducted in the homes of local Christians.

Two churches in Kundupur, Karnataka and three chapels in Irinjalakuda diocese were also damaged by miscreants.

I can’t help but wonder, coupled with extremely inappropriate utterances by ministers in Modi’s Cabinet, which way will the tide turn for the religious minorities in the country?

Humra Quraishi is a senior political journalist based in Gurgaon. She is the author of Kashmir: The Untold Story and co-author of Simply Khushwant.

(Picture courtesy www.lapidomedia.com. Image used for representational purpose only)

Categories
Tech

Review: Lenovo Vibe X2

It is almost love at first touch with the Lenovo Vibe X2, which scores with its design and software performance.
by Manik Kakra | @Manik_K on Twitter

Lenovo has been a dark horse in the smartphone race; the company has steadily been leaving its mark in various smartphone markets. Now, it seems to be focussing on the mid-range segment of smartphones, with the Vibe X2.

The looks. Vibe X2 (X2-AP) has quite a unique design language. With three layers (all different and bright orange, peach and light bronze) besides the screen, the manufacturer gets credit for the first look. Further, you can attach a couple of accessories like an external battery unit or speaker making it the fourth layer minus a shabby look. There’s a lot of Magnesium in use here, the phone weighs about 120 grams and is 7.3mm thick, which makes it comfortable to carry around.

Around the sides (with the three stripes running), you have the dual SIM tray (houses a nano SIM and micro SIM) placed underneath the left side panel, and the volume rocker and Power/ Lock key on the other side. I would have liked these physical keys to be a bit more tactile and less flushed to the body surface as you will often find them inconvenient to spot and press without having to look at them. The microUSB port and primary mic sit at the bottom, and the 3.5 mm headset jack is at the top.

On the front, there’s the 5-inch full HD panel, along with the 5 MP front-facing camera, sensors, speaker grill, and a tiny LED notification light on its top; while there are three capacitive buttons – Option (Menu), Home and Back button placed below the screen, which are not very dim. The rear seems usual – Camera and LED flash on the right corner, then the secondary mic, Lenovo logo in the middle, and loudspeakers towards the bottom.

Display. The phone boasts a 5-inch (1920 x 1080) LCD touchscreen. The display of the phone is sharp, quite bright and decent for using under sunlight. The colour reproduction, though, does not pop as a high-end device, but it’s not bad. Viewing angles are also on par with most full HD panels, and videos and high resolution images appear pretty nice on the screen.

Camera. The Vibe X2 sports a 13 MP (AF) camera along with an LED flash. Here are a few sample images.

The phone’s camera isn’t its best feature. More often than not, pictures turn out to be just okay. Colours sometimes appear washed out, and only decent when the camera is able to focus well, which is another place where it struggles. Low-light shots aren’t much to talk about. With decent conditions, you can get a few detailed shots, but don’t expect more. You are better to try taking shots in the HDR mode than normal as it turned to be more than useful on several occasions. The 5 MP front-facing camera is not bad for making video calls or taking a selfie. The camera app, in contrast to the rear camera, is smooth and simple to work around.

Battery. With a 2,230 mAh battery unit inside, you will have to charge it up in about 15 to 16 hours. With brightness level at 20 per cent, and always on WiFi, the phone’s battery is not a great performer. Also, the Vibe X2 doesn’t support fast charging.

Audio. Audio on the phone is also not that great. Though loudspeakers are on par with most smartphones when it comes to videos and games, in-ear sound quality is average. Using the bundled headset with another phone gives you a noticeably better sound, meaning the Vibe X2 (with the bundled headset) isn’t much of a standout.

Software and performance. The device is equipped with MediaTek’s MTK 6595 SoC (1.7 GHz quad-core and 2 GHz quad-core processor, PowerVR GPU) along with 2 GB of RAM. It runs on Android 4.4.2 with Lenovo’s Vibe UI in use.

If you have used another Lenovo phone from last year, you are going to notice and mostly like what changes the company has done to its software. There’s no separate app launcher like before and all your app shortcuts appear on Home screens, but the whole look, icons, arrangement of UI elements is much better. The phone is fluid to open apps, reboot, responsive to play games on, and hardly ever stuttered during my entire usage.

The notification center and Settings have also been given a facelift. You can edit which toggle buttons appear above the notification bar, and also take a screenshot. Lockscreen now allows you to directly jump into Call Log, messages or open the Camera app. Status Bar changes its colour depending upon the app you are currently on. It is white by default, but, for instance, if you move to Settings (which has a White background), the status bar and icons turn black.

You can also double tap to wake the screen, which works well. Long-pressing the Options key brings up recent key (in iOS manner), and long-pressing the Home key pops Google Now up (by default). The user gets about 26 GB of accessible storage space. All in all, one can sum up the software and performance experience by saying Lenovo has done a lot of good work in improving its software and making the phone a stellar performer.

To sum up, the Lenovo Vibe X2 seems to be a great value for money purchase about Rs 20,000. With a good screen, great performance, average battery life, if you aren’t too concerned about the camera performance, this smartphone surely comes as a great option for this price.

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Bombay, bas

Ah, December!

A Mumbaikar makes a wish list for holiday destinations as December sets in, with its festivities and wonderful cool climate.
Pooja Birwatkarby Dr Pooja Birwatkar

I find that December, of all the months, is most charming, the most awaited and most celebrated as we look forward to the new year while waving goodbye to the old year. It is also the time of the year when the holiday mood that sets in with the Diwali break is on the brink of culmination.

With the chill in the air (though Mumbai is still battling with humidity and heat in the day time), our  moods also calm down as we await the Xmas spirit and the excitement of the impending new year. For most of us, however, it’s a time for a mini-break from the city, especially if we’ve had a less-than-happy year.

Few years ago, holidays were actually visits to grandparents and the homes of extended family members. However now with our ultra-nuclear and condensing family structures such plans are in for a face change. As a devoted Mumbaikar, my getaway plan comprises filling the void created by missing so many things I want to do but never get the chance to. And hence, my ideal holiday destination must have the following:

First, the place must not be crowded. We see so many people in Mumbai that my idea of a holiday is to be in a place where there is nobody around for miles. Though my experience tells me that after the initial euphoria of being in a place without people in it, we Mumbaikars start feeling uneasy with the lack of crowds. Pretty much like the classic tale of the fisherwoman who, when given a chance to sleep in the most luxurious room devoid of any noise and smell of fish, kept tossing and turning the entire night and could finally sleep only when a basket of  fish was kept near her bedside. She was probably a Mumbaikar.

Next, the place must have greenery. This is something we long for and satisfy ourselves with the small potted plants kept on our window sills and the few unkempt gardens around us. We want to Saying goodbye to 2014run on green grass, swing on the drooping branches of trees, feel mud under our bare feet, smell the aroma of wet soil, see the blooming flowers and the hovering butterflies, and for once, see some beautiful birds other than our constant uninvited guests, the pigeons and crows. We also long for tree-lined roads with branches swaying in a light breeze. I am sure it would be most Mumbaikars dream to lay their hands on a hose pipe and water the plants in a garden.

The next on my wish list is for many of us a place that offers sumptuous sea food or anything that satisfies a non-vegetarian’s delight. Okay, I don’t mind eating vegetarian food as well, as long as it is affordable, because I find Mumbai eateries rob me of my hard-earned money with every meal I eat out.

Oh, and the place must be a commuter’s delight. I don’t want to stand in long queues for transport, I don’t want to be pushed and shoved while travelling. I want to occupy the entire seat on the train and look out of the window at green meadows and peaceful scenes.

When I go shopping, I want to pick up stuff that I will not find in Mumbai (where one can find anything, trust me). I want to pick up things that will adorn my shelves and keep reminding me that I will take another holiday in the coming year. Besides, I want to boast and make those people jealous, who don’t go anywhere for a break but prefer to sit at home in the holiday season.

Most importantly, the place should have no technology, at least, no Internet connectivity. Okay, I want no Internet connectivity for work, but I do want Whatsapp and social networking sites to function because I want to put up pictures of the places I am seeing.

Now to the most crucial element: arranging the money for the trip. Every Mumbaikar has a wish list of this sort, but not the finances for the expensive holiday that it will inevitably become. I propose a special provision for us Mumbaikars: Give us a mandatory tax rebate on our annual holidays. We deserve breaks more than the others do.

(Pictures courtesy www.sparomdee.com, ww.itimes.com)

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Learn

Tata Group to sponsor education of 1 crore children

The State Government of Maharashtra has also pledged its partnership and support for the project aimed at teaching job skills.
by The Editors | editor@themetrognome.in

As far as new initiatives go, this one’s a sure hit.

Today, December 3, 2014, Cyrus Mistry, Chairman of Tata Group met with Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and discussed the company’s proposal to sponsor the education of 1 crore children in the State. The Tata Group is soon launching its ambitious education plan aimed at providing scholarships and job-oriented learning to Maharashtra’s children.

The duo met to discuss the scope of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiatives by companies, and Mistry is said to have appraised the CM about his company’s plans, as also asking the Government to provide support for the same. On his part, the CM is learnt to have shown an interest in the State Government partnering with the Tata Group for the project.

This project is envisioned to include children studying in the primary grades as well. “The idea is to provide skills training, so that children are better equipped to face the job market,” Mistry said during the meeting.

As per a July 2014 report in The Times of India, the Tata Group spent Rs 1,000 crore on CSR initiatives in 2013-14. This was the highest CSR spend by any Indian company. A larger amount of the CSR spend went into skill development, health and education. The Group seems to be extending its plans for the education sector this year as well.

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