Body of Evidence

My first one of Patricia Cornwell. Dr. Kay Scarpetta is a Chief Medical Examiner in Richmond, Virginia called upon to examine the body of one Beryl Madison, a gruesome murder victim. As a forensic pathologist her job is only to examine the bodies for various clues. But she goes beyond that and delves into the reason for the murder of the writer Beryl. One murder leads to another that of Cary Harper the mentor of Beryl, followed soon by the death of Cary's sister. Patricia's throws clues here and there and finally manages to connect all of them together. There is edge of seat suspense in the book, probably because Patricia brings in a lot of events and incidents not within the original realm of thought but brings them together spectacularly. There is sleaze lawyer Sparacino out for his two cents worth of glory and a suspense. There is Al Hunt a young kid with clairvoyant thoughts and his own story. Nice racy read. Goodreads 4/5

travails of a professional - Ep 2

Today I will narrate a story about another client of the friend of mine. This client did not have any big business, he had a couple of buses which he had leased out to projects in Kalamboli and that was also in "not so good" financial situation. He had his residence in santacruz. So he was basically a failed businessman which is surprising considering the fact that he belonged to the predominantly business community from the western part of India. He had his accountant, a non descript guy who incidentally had an extra finger dangling from one of his thumbs, don't know left or right. Anyways, as the story goes, my friend had a long relationship with these guys and the payments were generally late only and after much persuasion and follow up. So around 2016 the failed businessman's mother expired. His wife had divorced him taking her kid(s) with her. So the bugger was basically loner and failed marriage keeper as well. So on the expiry of his mother he had something compliance to be done with the regulatory authorities which was duly done. But the faggot was refusing to pay for the services rendered to him. Professional's knowledge and time is what is important which unfortunately many business persons in India fail to comprehend. The measly accountant was dilly dallying with some silly excuses which the friend understood what their game plan was. So the matters came to such an ugly pass that it ended in a heated exchange of words and the relationship ended then and there. I hope for my friend's sake that both these faggots suffer all the ills of nature for the fraud and deception they have played on my friend.  

Save Aarey Forest

Mumbai, this is your chance to stand up for Aarey forest. Come with your objections and submit them , take individual letters, take individual acknowledgement for your submission. No point in online anger, express your views and opposition in person. Stand up and be counted on 10 th October at 2_30 PM at the Garden superintendent office at Byculla Zoo. It's now or never. Please SHARE WIDELY

UDIN for CAs

Press release from ICAI.

https://www.icai.org/new_post.html?post_id=15131&c_id=240

It has been noticed that financial documents/ certificates attested by third person misrepresenting themselves as CA Members are misleading the Authorities and stakeholder. ICAI is also receiving number of complaints of forged signatures. To curb the malpractices, the Professional Development Committee of ICAI has implemented an innovative concept of UDIN i.e. Unique Document Identification Number to secure the certificates/documents attested/certified by practicing Chartered Accountants which will be made mandatory with effect from 1st January, 2019.

Full time Practicing CAs can register them by visiting at https://udin.icai.org/ and generate UDIN by registering the certificates/documents attested/certified by them. 

To generate UDIN, Members are required to provide only 3-5 key fields of the certificate/ document which is being attested and there is no need to upload it.

Through UDIN and the key fields as mentioned by CAs, the Regulators/Banks/third parties will be able to check the authenticity of the documents/reports/certificate. Further, this portal would help in tracing forged/wrong documents prepared by any third person misrepresenting himself as a Chartered Accountant, as any person other than Chartered Accountant will not be able to upload the documents. 

For Process and related Frequently-Asked Questions, please visit https://udin.icai.org/ . For any other further assistance/clarification, you may reach us at 011–30110411/444 or email at udin@icai.in . 

MEMBERS ARE ADVISED TO REGISTER THE DOCUMENTS CERTIFIED BY THEM & GET THESE SECURED. 

national digital communications policy 2018

The Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has  approved the National Digital Communications Policy-2018 (NDCP-2018) and re-designation of the Telecom Commission as the "Digital Communications Commission”.

Impact:

The NDCP-2018 envisions supporting India's transition to a digitally empowered economy and society by fulfilling the information and communications needs of citizens and enterprises by establishment of a ubiquitous, resilient and affordable digital communications infrastructure and services. 

The ‘Customer focused’ and ‘application driven’ NDCP-2018 shall lead to new ideas and innovations, after the launch of advanced technology such as 5G, IOT, M2M, etc. which shall govern the telecom sector of India.

Objectives:

The key objectives of the policy are:

1. Broadband for all;
2. Creating four million additional jobs in the Digital Communications sector;
3. Enhancing the contribution of the Digital Communications sector to 8% of India's GDP from ~ 6% in 2017;
4. Propelling India to the Top 50 Nations in the ICT Development Index of ITU from 134 in 2017;
5. Enhancing India's contribution to Global Value Chains; and
6. Ensuring Digital Sovereignty.

 These objectives are to be achieved by 2022.

Features:

The policy aims to

·         Provide universal broadband connectivity at 50 Mbps to every citizen;

·         Provide 1 Gbps connectivity to all Gram Panchayats by 2020 and 10 Gbps by 2022;

·         Ensure connectivity to all uncovered areas;

·         Attract investments of USD 100 billion in the Digital Communications Sector;

·         Train one million manpower for building New Age Skill;

·         Expand IoT ecosystem to 5 billion connected devices;

·         Establish a comprehensive data protection regime for digital communications that safeguards the privacy, autonomy and choice of individuals

·         Facilitate India's effective participation in the global digital economy;

·         Enforce accountability through appropriate institutional mechanisms to assure citizens of safe and

·         Secure digital communications infrastructure and services.

 Strategy:

The policy advocates:-

1. Establishment of a National Digital Grid by creating a National Fibre Authority;
2. Establishing Common Service Ducts and utility corridors in all new city and highway road projects;
3. Creating a collaborative institutional mechanism between Centre, States and Local Bodies for Common Rights of Way, standardization of costs and timelines;
4. Removal of barriers to approvals; and
5. Facilitating development of Open Access Next Generation Networks.

Background:

As the present world has entered the era of modern technological advancements in the Telecom Sector such as 5G, loT, M2M etc., a need was being felt to introduce a 'customer focused' and 'application driven' policy for the Indian Telecom Sector, which can form the main pillar of Digital India by addressing emerging opportunities for expanding not only the availability of telecom services but also telecom based services.

 Accordingly, the new National Digital Communications Policy - 2018 has been formulated, in place of the existing National Telecom Policy-2012, to cater to the modern needs of the digital communications sector of India.

vile clients

This is a post regarding a friend of mine, who has a vile client. The friend does all the good work in all bonafide honesty and on time and the work is also good. The project is complete, but the client now does not want to pay. Bills have been mailed to the client by e-mail and sent by courier also. Now the courier comes back from the post with the remark "unclaimed". Now the funny thing is that the envelope has been opened. So the bloody idiot of a client has opened the envelope and seen the bills deemed it fit to return it to the friend. Is'nt that a low vile thing to do. And the beauty is the post has allowed the envelope to be opened and returned to the friend. Too bad for the post office to do allow such unscrupulous things to happen right before its eyes. That's how deranged the world is.  

Save Aarey Forest

For those who came in late

Mumbai’s lush green Aarey Forest is under threat due to various development projects – the foremost being the cutting of 3,500 trees for the construction of a car shed for the upcoming Mumbai Metro 3. Activists along with actors and artists and many others have been petitioning CM Devendra Fadnavis to relocate the car shed to another area and help Mumbai retain its green space.

However, a lot of people are misunderstanding that we are against the Mumbai metro and the government. What we are against is a lack of conversation and transparency from the government. Here is a quick fact check.

1. Are we against the metro?

NO. We are against the cutting of 3,500 trees for the metro car shed. This is where the parking of the trains will be done. It’s alarming why the trains will be parked in the middle of a forest at the cost of thousands of trees. Also, the idea of a Metro Station at Aarey is purely ridiculous, because there are hardly any people living there! The government added this station so that it can build commercial activities around it in the future. To put this in perspective, have you ever imagined trains being parked in New York’s Central Park or a train station inside the park built after cutting its trees? It’s the green lung of New York and the government does every bit to save it. So why can’t we?�� In fact, Mumbai might need 10 lines of metro in the future, but if we don’t stand up to the cutting of trees right now, there wont be any green patch left for Mumbaikars in the future. It’s not development, it’s suicide.

2. We all need a Metro. Trees jaaye bhaad mein. (To hell with the trees.) They will grow again.

There are seven options of land available to the government where there is Barren land to build this parking shed and station WITHOUT cutting trees. Still, it has chosen Aarey Forest – the only remaining lungs of Mumbai! The reason? Shh… Shhh… Smelling a rat here?

The 3,500 trees will not grow again, but there is a chance the government will cut more trees again. It already has a lot of commercial projects lined up after the trees are cut, including a zoo. Yes, a fuckin’ zoo in the middle of a forest. Not just a zoo, about 100 hectares of land for a rehabilitation township is reserved in Aarey. So, it does not stop at the metro shed! Remember the full-page ads run by the MMRCL in every leading newspaper in Mumbai and Gujarat some months ago for the metro? It claimed no commercial activity will be planned in Aarey, then why make a metro station in Aarey? Daal mein kuch kaala hai? (Is there something fishy?) Has the Indian population ever held any politician to his word? Fadnavis knows like every other politician that public memory is short and people don't care if they are swindled.

3. But the government is replanting trees, what’s your problem buddy?

So, it basically wants to cut what is 100 years old and then replant a sapling, which might give enough oxygen to save a dying Mumbai after 100 years. Excellent! It’s like removing all the old politicians from this country overnight, and putting toddlers in charge of the country. (I believe they will govern better though.)

4. Are we anti-BJP? Is there any political party involved in this?

NO. We are a volunteer group of students, artists, painters, actors, musicians, CEOs, Dalits, Adivasis, Dabbawalas, farmers – trying to make sense of this horrible idea of destroying a forest for a parking shed for a train. Whether the ruling party was BJP, Congress, AAP or any other, we would have still done this protest as we need air to breathe. PM Narendra Modi gave a speech on World Environment Day, that destruction of nature at the cost of development is dangerous and the citizens should stand against it. We are just doing that. We believe anybody who is not following this should be held accountable. Looking at what’s happening in Delhi with the toxic air (the city does not have a forest to save itself), it’s important to raise our voice NOW to save Aarey.

5 Aarey is not a forest, it’s a milk colony.

Have you been to Aarey and explored it? Dont get fooled by its area. It works, thrives and survives as a forest. It has more than 5 lakh trees, an active ecosystem, rare birds, animals, its own lakes, farms, and its own community of people. Also, have you ever seen leopards and snakes in other parks before? The forest department is deliberately concealing information and altering the facts since some time now. Almost 30% of this space has already been given for commercial projects that we know of, like for Film City, Royal Palms etc. The metro is a step towards allocating more and more land for profit.

6. If it has 5 lakh trees, cutting of 3,500 trees will make no difference. Its only 1%!

What happens if you lose an eye? Or a finger? It was easy for Dronacharya to screw Eklavya’s life by taking his shooting thumb. These 3,500 trees are that thumb. The epicentre of the earthquake in Gujarat was in Kutch, but buildings collapsed in Ahmedabad, 500 km away. Do you need more metaphors? It’s not only trees that are cut – it’s the birds, animals, surroundings, and the total ecosystem. It will be a chain reaction so horrible for this already struggling city. This will surely be the tipping point.

7. Is the government ready for a conversation? It must have valid reasons to cut Aarey, right?

NOT YET. All we are asking for is a conversation with the government, BMC, MMRCL, CM and ask them WHY Aarey?? Till now even after almost 500 days of asking the question and inviting the CM to have a conversation with us, we have heard no answers from the authorities. We understand why, as they do not have a justified answer! Why would they choose Aarey over 7 other places? WE DONT KNOW YET.

8 Are we funded by political parties opposing the BJP?
On the contrary every political party which said it stood with the citizens in their fight has deserted the cause. Citizens have contributed in every small way to raise money to save Mumbai's last remaining green space. We can barely afford the litigations cost and the lawyers who are fighting it are doing so because they too feel it is a noble cause unlike MMRCL and the Govt which engage high profile lawyers who are known to charge 11 (Eleven ) Lakhs per appearance . We do not have access to unlimited public funds to squander away to cover up illegalities.
If you cannot align with the selfless battle the citizens are engaged in, the least you can do is not malign them.
PLEASE SHARE WIDELY
#SaveAareyForest #weneedaarey #mumbaineedsAarey #AareyforMumbai#greenlungofmumbai