Live by Night

Live by Night is a 2016 drama film starring Ben Affleck, Sienna Miller, Zoe Saldana among others. It is a prohibition era movie when gangsters ruled the roost in American cities. Ben (Joseph) is a small time gangster just back from world war I duties but he runs into Robert White who is owning the Irish gang in Boston. Joseph falls into love with his daughter Sienna (Emma) but they fall out with each other and Joseph is in jail for a bank heist and murder of three policemen. Joseph comes out and straight way goes to the Italian boss Maso Pescotore out in Florida, where he establishes their side of operations with his friend Dion. Out there Joseph falls in love with the sister of the Cuban mafia, Joe Saldana and there are some steaming scenes between them. In the meantime, he is supported by the local sheriff but his daughter Loretta (Elle Fanning) who wants to become an actress in Hollywood, instead becomes a prostitute. The sheriff's brother in law meanwhile is a member of the KKK and he starts bombing various premises of Joseph. To extract revenge against the brother in law, Joseph produces some incriminating photographs of Loretta and asks for the head of the brother in law in return for giving details of the address of Loretta. Loretta comes out and promptly becomes a nun declaiming all the gambling activities in the Miami area including a gambling house which Joseph was planning on setting up. As expected things reach a head between the Irish gangs and the Italian gangs in the end. Of the acting only Sienna Miller is praiseworthy, Ben Affleck is wooden throughout the movie. Too much of sub plots in the movie. Overall rating 2/5 

Cruel Intentions

Cruel Intentions is a 1999 movie starring Reese Witherspoon, Ryan Phillippe, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Selma Blair among others. Its an absolutely horrible movie made with bad script, horrible acting and rotten story line. Ryan and Sarah are rich step siblings, but all they think of is to seduce others. Sarah has a drug problem also. Ostensibly their parents are not shown, but like super ultra rich they have their own obsessions. Sarah is all the time plotting others' downfall, while Ryan is equally the same but he writes a journal. His newest exploit is Reese who is the school principal's daughter but he falls in love with her instead. Lots of things happens in between, but in the end I am happy that it got finished. Rating 0.00001/5 

61 Hours

61 Hours is a Jack Reacher story by Lee Child. A few of these Jack Reacher stories have been converted into movies starring Tom Cruise. Jack Reacher is a kind of ex-military but now wandering aimlessly with minimal possession, and wherever he lands he finds some trouble in which his expertise is required. This time he lands in a town called Bolton in South Dakota in a bus of elderly tourists. It has been snowing, the roads are skidding and the bus falls into a gorge, luckily no major injuries, but Jack is stranded in the town for a couple of days, enough for him to find out something amiss there. There is a gang of bikers and some unused depot where strange things are going on. One old lady who has witnessed some horrific crime and is under threat by a gang operating out of Mexico. All that happens fast paced in a reverse countdown basis, so that keeps the reader engaged. It is no doubt a fast paced thriller. Jack talks to his ex-boss in Washington to get a lot of info on the Mexican gang. Goodreads 5/5

Relaxation of last date for filing AOC-4 xbrl

MCA has vide its circular dated 26th October, 2017 extended the last date for filing of AOC-4 XBRL for financial year 2016-17 in accordance with IndAS accounting standards upto 31st March, 2018. The draft taxonomy has been uploaded on the site in order for the stake holders to familiarise themselves with the new requirement. The development tools necessary for deployment of taxonomy for XBRL filing is expected to be completed only by 28th February, 2018. Therefore the last date has been extended upto 31st March, 2018.

MCA circular can be found here

DoT further simplifies the process for linking of Aadhaar with mobile number

PIB press release dated 25th October, 2017

In a bid to expedite compliance of telecom service providers with the Hon. Supreme Court's order dated 6^th February regarding linking of Aadhaar card with mobile number and reverification process of mobile users, the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) issued a comprehensive instruction on Wednesday.

As per the new rules, the DoT has introduced three new methods to link the registered mobile number with Aadhaar i.e. OTP (One Time Password) based, App based and the IVRS facility. These new methods will help subscribers to get their mobile number linked to Aadhaar without visiting the stores of the telcos. For the ease of senior citizens and the people with disability and chronic illness, DoT has also recommended for the re-verification at subscribers’ doorstep. According to the new guidelines, the telecom operators should provide an online mechanism for people to request such service and based on availability schedule the visit and complete the process.

Speaking on the development, Shri Manoj Sinha, Minister of State (Independent Charge), Ministry of Communications, said “The Aadhaar number system was designed to allow all residents of the country access to critical government services and important information that they may need from time to time. Mobile penetration is increasing rapidly in the country and the subscribers need to be provided with the ease of linking of the Aadhaar number with the mobile number. It is the government’s endeavour to improve convenience and reduce time and energy spent by consumers to accessing government information and services that is their right to access.”

Representative of COAI stated, “The latest clarifications from the DoT are aligned with what the industry, and the subscribers need at this time. While, it will take a little time to implement the directions, we are working closely with the government to improve and enhance the convenience of our consumers for undertaking Aadhaar based e-KYC linking of their mobile number. We are implementing all the necessary processes so as to be able to use the additional methods prescribed including OTP, App based and the IVRS facility. We expect it to get much faster and easier for individual mobile subscribers to comply with the e-KYC norms using their Aadhaar Registered Mobile Number (ARMN).” 

In a circular in August, DoT had given instructions to the telecom service providers to provide iris or fingerprint based authentication of Aadhaar. The new regulations have specified that the telecom service providers must deploy iris readers for this purpose within a reasonable geographical area.  

Further, in keeping with privacy rules, the DoT has mandated that telecom service providers’ agent should not have access to the subscribers’ e-KYC data and only the name and address of the subscribers should be visible. Subscribers can verify or re-verify their mobile numbers from anywhere in the country irrespective of which service area their mobile connection belongs to.

The Wish List

The Wish List by Martina Reilly is a nice heart warming, uplifting book about family relationships, grief, love, redemption etc. The book especially dwells nicely on the havoc wrought upon a young family when the man is into drugs. That is the central theme of the book, plus other redemption stories as well. Tony has a drug problem because of which he is in high debt and is forced to sell his house and settle elsewhere. He has a wife and two young kids. Next door to his new house is a grumpy old man who has his own problems in life following the death of his wife, which he has not been able to forget, thereby neglecting his own two sons, who are now grown-up. The elder son of Tony and Ally, looks upon Jeremy the old man as a Santa who will magically solve all his problems. Initially Jeremy looks upon that as a nuisance to keep away the kid, but increasingly becomes aware of his limitations. There is a coming of age with his own sons as well. Rehab of Tony and his relationship with his own young brother also comes up and also Ally's relationship with her father. So there is grief, mis-understanding all around, redemption, love, courage in plenty. Goodreads 3/5 

The Lock Artist

The Lock Artist by Steve Hamilton, is an incredibly beautiful story of a vocally challenged lock artist and his unusual dilemma. The writing by Steve Hamilton is very touching. 18 year old Mike is a mute due to a terrible tragedy that happened 10 years ago. But he is also an expert safe cracker. And that is a talent that many people want, you know, especially of the wrong kind. So he has no choice but to lend his services to the wrong people, he falls in love at one such house. The story is narrated by him so that makes it very surreal, a not speaking person narrating his story. He is also a good at drawing so he sort of explains himself through his drawings. Goodreads 5/5