TACKLING THE MALLYAS OF THE FUTURE : by Rhythm Aggarwal

The government is pondering to make amendments to the Passport Act to prevent economic offenders who pose a serious Financial Risk to the country from fleeing. A committee headed by Financial Services Secretary Rajiv Kumar was formed recently to tighten laws to prevent loan defaulters from fleeing the country. The committee panel also comprised members from Ministry of Home Affairs and External Affairs, Enforcement Directorate, Central Bureau of Investigation, Intelligence Bureau and Reserve Bank of India.

The shift is of great importance as India is trying to bring back loan defaulters like Vijay Mallya, Mehul Choksi, Nirav Modi who fled the country before the law enforcement agencies could act against them.

The recent amendments would ensure that whenever there is a financial risk to the banking sector, defaulters get asked to participate in the resolution of the loan. The amendments would prevent an offender from leaving the country by issuing a look-out notice. Passport details of those people who have borrowed over Rs. 50 crore would be mandatory from now on-wards.

The Flames of Influence : by Riya Pandya

It so happens, that all of us, especially at the age of adolescence when everything is more bright or dull, face the evils of Influence. It happens unconsciously, everywhere all the time without our realization. We catch up on phrases or slang that our friends use, we start to mimic the way they speak, we start abusing often or maybe start biting our nails just because our best friend does it. It’s all very usual and mostly goes unnoticed. But then comes the evil that creeps in along with all these: the vices. You learn to smoke cigarettes that you once used to despise, you smoke weed and drink all kinds of alcohol that your favorite actor/actress does or maybe you get involved in drugs or rackets. You do it because you re influenced so much by everything around you and rightfully said, the things you read and company you live with has the power to practically shape you. You do it because your friends force you for one sip or one puff, they laugh and joke on you when you deny. You feel like you don’t fit in. It’s normal to want to fit in; everyone desires to feel a sense of belonging. So you follow them but what you know and still choose to ignore is that all of this consumes you, not just physically, but emotionally and mentally on a whole higher level than you believe.

We ubiquitously assimilate everything that is around us, which means, we as humans tend to absorb everything that is around us all the time. How are you to imagine anything if the images are always provided to you? We double-think, which means, having two opposing beliefs and believing that both are true. We deliberately believe in lies while knowing that they are false. For example, we need to smoke to relieve from stress, or that getting high will help escaping the world, or being famous and fashionable and thin, or that doing what the crowd does will make us look cool and we will be accepted. We are feeded that women are whores, things to be screwed, shamed. This is a marketing holocaust and so to defend ourselves from assimilating this dullness into our minds, we must learn to read, to stimulate our own imagination, to cultivate our own consciousness our own ethics and beliefs.

1% of young women are “completely” happy with their body. Each day 6000 children under the age of 18 start smoking. 1 suicide occurs every 40seconds. 1 in 4 women and 1 in 10 men suffer from depression. All of these because of the flames of influence of the things that are shown and beliefs feeded.

No one can be transformed magically into a ‘good’ person; ethical practice is a deliberate effort. Those who accept this must reflect dispassionately upon their conduct; against the grain, they must develop those positive skills through which mind’s humane possibilities may be realized. Be assertive, be an individual, be a rebel. Because if you don’t control your mind, someone else will.

 

Riya Pandya

IELTS Faculty at Success Overseas, Anand, Gujarat

Drug Menace : by Dikshant Pathak

‘Drugs’ which symbolizes medicine to many, can now be seen as weed, cocaine, heroin, brown sugar, and many other specifications by others. So “What is drug addiction?” As per Wikipedia a drug addiction is “substance dependence or dependence syndrome, a condition where a person feels a strong need to take a drug”. A drug addict has the uncontrollable desire to consume drugs, as it transforms from just pleasure to necessity for carrying out their day to day activities. An addict is always inclined towards consuming higher dosage of drugs, which has a direct impact on the demand for drugs.

And to our shock consuming rate of drugs consumption is highest among the youth. This is due to ease of availability of the drugs in and around colleges and its consumers glorify its evil effects. India has seen an increase of 300% in drugs consumption and a rise of up to 2 million of drug addicts over the last five years as per the data provided by the government to Parliament. Narcotics Control Bureau is the nodal drug law enforcement and intelligence agency of India responsible for fighting drug trafficking and the abuse of illegal substances. Majority of the drugs that is seized by the bureau is from the border states of India. The states of maximum drug seizures are Punjab, UP, Kerala, West Bengal and MP. The all time drug seized by the Narcotics bureau is 3,60,000 Kg. In majority of the cases the smuggling is backed by a person having a good reputation with the political parties. So escaping from the eyes of the law is easy for these individuals.

 

Now, let us discuss how to control this menace. Firstly, rehabilitation of the drug addict should be done. This could be ensured by the government as well as society. We must not see drug consumption as a taboo subject rather, we should report the drug related incidents to the concerned authorities. Talking to individuals can also help in counseling and encouraging them to turn to rehab. Secondly, we must build a network which can help addicts to get proper counseling post rehabilitation thereby ensuring that they don’t engage themselves again in drug consumption. Thirdly, the drug distribution network must be trapped. A proactive police with better coordination of Border Security Forces and the states police can help in curbing this menace. Proper checkpoints at the state border crossing needs to be ensured to keep check on smuggling. Lastly, we as a responsible individual should not get influenced by any drug addict or peddler who tries to persuade us by offering a single puff or injection.

 

PAYMENTS BANKS IN INDIA : by Rhythm Aggarwal

India’s payments banking ecosystem, launched in 2015, is in a survival dilemma today as Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has halted payments bank from enrolling new customers.
There have been concerns over KYC policies and the limit of 1,00,000 bucks was also mismanaged. These two events had a major impact and prompted RBI to put processes on hold and also prevented Paytm to bring on board new customers.

As per the reports, the nodal agency has been conducting an audit over the last two months, and factors like non-compliance have halted the growth of payments bank. Concerns over the digital process of KYC and non-maintenance of proper paper trails has forced RBI to stop new enrolling processes. RBI is conducting audits to check if the banks have deposits of more than 1,00,000 rupees. As per RBI’s operating guidelines for payments bank, the limit for a customer account shall not exceed 1,00,000. However, this limit is not followed in many rural areas where bank correspondents deposit more money intentionally.

Fino had started with a base of 410 branches across 14 states, 25000 banking points across the country, and has more than 15 million monthly transactions.
Airtel’s Payment Bank just restarted its customer on-board services, after the services were put to halt by RBI as the company was violating operating guidelines around KYC norms.

The Story of a Warrior – by Srinavya

A hero, if gone by the definition that a person who is admired for their courage and noble qualities. But, what if they have little to no recognition they are called unsung heroes. One such unsung hero is Yogendra Singh Yadav. He is the Youngest Param Vir Chakra Awardee which is the highest Indian military honour. He was awarded for his action on 4 July 1999 at the age of 19. Hailing from Aurangabad Ahir village of Bulandshahr in Uttar Pradesh, Yadav had joined the Indian Army when he was only 16 years and 5 months old. His commando platoon Ghatak was given the responsibility to capture three strategic bunkers on Tiger Hill. In the dead of night on 4th July 1999, twenty-one Indian soldiers began a trek to the Tiger Hill, one of the highest peaks in the Drass-Kargil area of J&K. A group of 7 soldiers got ahead of the rest and reached the top. When his battalion, reached the top in the wee hours they were faced with three attacks by enemy soldiers. Fighting without enough arms and ammunition, 6 soldiers out of the five that went up the hill have died except for Yadav. He took 17 bullets. Severely wounded, lying on the ground, Yadav pretended to be dead while listening to the conversation of the Pakistani soldiers.

He heard that the Pakistani army was planning to attack the medium machine gun post of India, located 500 meters downhill. Yadav was immediately alerted as he doesn’t want his companions to die. Despite bleeding profusely, he wanted to keep himself alive just, so he could give a tip-off to his platoon. In the meanwhile, the Pakistani soldiers wanted to capture the arms of the soldiers who were died. So, two Pakistani soldiers came and began shooting the already dead soldiers again to make sure that everyone was dead of which one bullet hit Yadav in the chest. Even in the extreme pain, the brave men found a hope to serve his country. During this as he was a part of the grenadier regiment he took very quietly took out a hand grenade and threw it at the Pakistani soldier who was just a few feet away from him. The grenade landed inside the hood of his jacket and before he could figure out what had happened, the explosion blew him off. Yadav then crawled, took hold of one of the rifles and began firing at the enemies while shifting his positions so as to give an impression that there were more than one soldiers. Soon, there was a situation of confusion and panic among the Pakistani soldiers. Assuming that the Indian army reinforcement had arrived, they fled. Yadav had crawled only for a few meters when he saw the Pakistani army’s base, their tanks and their motor position. He wanted to give this information to his unit as soon as he could to avoid any casualty to the other Indian soldiers who were already on their way to Tiger Hill. But before moving ahead, he crawled back up to the spot where the 6 soldiers were lying dead and checked if anyone was alive. Instead, he saw their body parts lying here and there. He broke down and cried his heart.

He heard that the Pakistani army was planning to attack the medium machine gun post of India, located 500 meters downhill. Yadav was immediately alerted as he doesn’t want his companions to die. Despite bleeding profusely, he wanted to keep himself alive just, so he could give a tip-off to his platoon. In the meanwhile, the Pakistani soldiers wanted to capture the arms of the soldiers who were died. So, two Pakistani soldiers came and began shooting the already dead soldiers again to make sure that everyone was dead of which one bullet hit Yadav in the chest. Even in the extreme pain, the brave men found a hope to serve his country. During this as he was a part of the grenadier regiment he took very quietly took out a hand grenade and threw it at the Pakistani soldier who was just a few feet away from him. The grenade landed inside the hood of his jacket and before he could figure out what had happened, the explosion blew him off. Yadav then crawled, took hold of one of the rifles and began firing at the enemies while shifting his positions so as to give an impression that there were more than one soldiers. Soon, there was a situation of confusion and panic among the Pakistani soldiers. Assuming that the Indian army reinforcement had arrived, they fled. Yadav had crawled only for a few meters when he saw the Pakistani army’s base, their tanks and their motor position. He wanted to give this information to his unit as soon as he could to avoid any casualty to the other Indian soldiers who were already on their way to Tiger Hill. But before moving ahead, he crawled back up to the spot where the 6 soldiers were lying dead and checked if anyone was alive. Instead, he saw their body parts lying here and there. He broke down and cried his heart.