Cars honk as they make their way through Bandra-Kurla Complex to get to offices or to the newest eatery that has set up shop in the swanky financial district, the people in them all but oblivious to a small park in the back lanes that acts as a haven for the city's youth.

Annul Pale from the Meteoric crew trains at City Park, BKC

You will find them all here - collegians skipping classes, teens on their skateboards, and a group of young men performing exhilarating tricks on their bicycles. These are the city's BMX riders, for whom cycles are not simply modes of transport, but a way to express themselves.

The Sharptune crew at the Cycling Festival of India, held last weekend at Nehru Centre, Worli. Pics/Ashish Raje

"There is a community of approximately 45 BMX riders in Mumbai. Many of us prac-tise here at City Park daily," says 22-year-old Manoj Jaiswal, a Sion resident who was introduced to the sport by his neighbour in 2011. "We used to train along Carter Road promenade and the streets of BKC, but cops would arrive and shoo us away. And no public park allowed us entry with our bicycles. We ran out of places, but eventually, this park's management allowed us to use it."

This struggle is not new to the BMXers, who often end up travelling to far-flung - and thus less crowded - locations like Kalyan and Navi Mumbai. After all, in a city starved of space for even pedestrians, it's hard to imagine people giving up their precious streets to a sport they view as - in Jaiswal's words - a circus act.

Dipak Panchal

The beginnings
BMX racing took off in California back in the 1970s, inspired by motocross. It didn't take time for its popularity to rise among the youth, and soon, you could find them trying tricks on their own cycles across the world.

Rahul Mulani

Bandra resident Rahul Mulani was among the first few to bring the BMX movement to Mumbai three decades ago. "When we started out around 1987, we used to practise at a parking lot near Scandal Point in Breach Candy. There were fewer cars in the city back then, so there was plenty of space for us," he says.

Manoj Jaiswal

Not just empty parking lots; the seafront promenades used to be fair game, too. Thirty-year-old Dipak Panchal, who dropped out of college to pursue his passion for BMX and now runs a bicycle store in south Mumbai, shares that even as late as 2005, he could be found practising his moves at Marine Drive.

"Lately, whenever I have tried to practise there, policemen passing by have come and stopped me. They have even deflated my bicycle's tires, and there have been times they've threatened to throw me in the back of their van," he says, adding, "If there is a rule preventing people from cycling on promenades, they can tell us that without being rude. They allow elderly gentlemen to cycle peacefully, and even though we're not causing any damage to people or property, we are treated like criminals."

So, to avoid such conflicts, his crew, Sharptune, practises at a space they have rented out in Bandra. Last week, at the city's first cycling festival, amidst panel discussions and stores exhibiting the latest gear, they got a chance to show off their skills, but such events are few and far between. Though Panchal and Mulani try and organise jams and competitions, sponsors are hard to come by.

Need of the hour
Today, Mulani and Panchal, as well as the rest of the community, stick to a handful of spaces, including their own building compounds, that they know won't draw any unwanted attention.

"Even skateboarders are now getting recognition. In 2015, Khar Social set up a ramp, but it is too small for us to practise on, even though our requirements are not too different from a skateboarder's," says Jaiswal, whose crew, Meteoric, comprises skateboarders too. And because BMX is hidden away from the spotlight, the community is growing slower than it would have, had its members been given the chance to showcase their skills in public without any fear of repercussions.

The problem in India, Panchal believes, is that cricket overshadows every other sport. This leads to other sports, especially extreme sports like BMX, being ridiculed and even neglected by the public and the authorities. "The country's first pump track came up in Hyderabad this year, and it was built by a private body. We don't see the Cycling Federation of India [CFI] taking any interest in the BMX community," says Mulani.

VN Singh, assistant secretary, CFI, which is based in New Delhi, says they can't do anything for the sport until it is officially recognised. "I know it's an Olympic sport, but until there are enough practitioners of BMX in the country, we can't provide any support," he says. He follows this up by saying that a pump track in Delhi is in the offing, but quickly adds that he doesn't know how long it will take. "You see, we don't have the funds for it."

A man has been arrested killing a senior citizen for scolding him and his partner after finding them in compromising position. The accused, identified as Karan Singh Yadav (30), was nabbed by cops from the Shanti Nagar Police in Bhiwandi from a quarantine facility in Parbhani whereas his partner is absconding.

The deceased, Krushna Joshi (72) owned a room in a chawl at Temghar pada. He had rented the room to Yadav’s partner, identified as Lata alias Jyoti Rathod (35). Yadav would often visit Rathod in her home. In April, when Joshi had gone to collect rent, he found the Yadav and Rathod in compromising position. Joshi then scolded the couple and warned Rathod to stop bringing her friends to the room.

According to the police, Rathod and Yadav, enraged by Joshi’s comments, decided to kill him. “On the night of April 11, the couple found Joshi alone at his house and hit him with a stone," said an officer, adding that the duo fled the city the same night.

On  April 12, when Joshi’s son, who stays closeby, tried to contact him, he didn’t respond.  He then rushed to Shanti Nagar Police station and filed a missing person report against his father. The police launched a search for Joshi and found that Rathod also went missing the same night. Senior Inspector Mamta D'Souza formed a team under the leadership of Assistant Police Inspector Amol More and Shailesh Mhatre and started the investigation.

The officer said that they found Rathod’s address in which it was mentioned that she is a native of Parbhani. We didn't have any other details such as her mobile number or the CCTV footage of the spot of the incident, so we decided to go to Parbhani to find her" told API Shailesh Mhatre. "When our team went to Parbhani, we visited the place mentioned in address but there was no one stay there of this name," he added.

The cops then decided to check quarantine centres in the district made for people coming from other districts. "We found a name similar to that of Rathod’s partner, Yadav. We then immediately interrogated him and he confessed to committing the crime, but Rathod is still absconding,” said API Mhatre.

During interrogation, Karan told the police that, he dumped Joshi’s body in a well near the chawl. The police team came back to the city and recovered Joshi’s body, which was found to be completely decomposed. An offence has been registered against Yadav and Rathod under IPC section 302 (murder), 201 (disappearance of evidence) and 34 (common intention of committing the crime).

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Canadian tennis ace Eugenie Bouchard's tendency to pick dates online is set to become the theme of an upcoming Hollywood romantic comedy.

According to report in The Canadian Press, a script based on Eugenie's date with one of her Twitter followers, John Goehrke, who won a bet on the 2017 Super Bowl, is already being worked upon.

The couple continued to meet thereafter for more dates. However, this story has an update with Eugenie, 26, recently deciding to go on another random date with an online fan.

During an Instagram chat last week, Eugenie, agreed to go on a date with a fan named Bob, who donated GBP 3,210 (Rs 2.7 lakh) to help feed hospital staff battling the Coronavirus pandemic.

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Google has rewarded an Uruguayan teenager a "bug bounty" of more than $36,000 for disclosing a severe security flaw. Ezequiel Pereira's sporadic poking around has finally paid off in a big way: Google just awarded the Uruguayan teenager $36,337 for finding a vulnerability that would have allowed him to make changes to internal company systems, CNBC reported on Saturday.

"I found something almost immediately that was worth $500 and it just felt so amazing. So I decided to just keep trying ever since then," Pereira was quoted as saying by CNBC.

"It feels really good - I'm glad that I found something that was so important," he added.

Although, Pereira found the bug earlier this year, he only just got permission to write about how he discovered it this week, after Google confirmed that it had fixed the issue, the report said.

It marks Pereira's fifth accepted bug, but it's by far his most lucrative.

Pereira was about a month shy of 17 when he first got paid for exposing a Google security flaw through its bug bounty programme.

Pereira got his first computer when he was 10, took an initial programming class when he was 11 and then spent years teaching himself different coding languages and techniques.

In 2016, Google flew him to its California headquarters after he won a coding contest.

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Coronavirus vaccine: World leaders and organisations, except the United States, have already pledged $8 billion to research, manufacture and distribute a possible vaccine and treatments for COVID-19 apart from the individual efforts taken by the countries and its pharmaceutical firms

A deficiency in the brains of people with schizophrenia that could lead to the development of new drug therapies has been discovered by researchers at

In rare and aggressive uterine cancer called uterine serous carcinoma, gene signature found for poor response to standard chemotherapy, said researchers.

Human embryonic stem cells (ESCs) and induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) were found to display unlimited proliferative potential in culture, which

Many hearts are reported unfit for donation due to stress-induced heart failure. But a new study finds that this condition has no significance on the

In Pakistan, HIV was mostly transmitted to children as a result of health care providers using contaminated needles and blood products, revealed results

Patients with glomerular disease and their caregivers were found to give the highest priority to the health outcomes of kidney function, mortality, and need for dialysis or transplant.

Only around five percent of the babies born to mothers with hepatitis C are themselves infected by the disease. A possible reason for this low figure

This country note explains how Sweden taxes energy use. The note shows the distribution of effective energy tax rates across all domestic energy use. It also details the country-specific assumptions made when calculating effective energy tax rates and matching tax rates to the corresponding energy base.

The tax-to-GDP ratio in Sweden decreased by 0.5 percentage points from 44.4% in 2017 to 43.9% in 2018. The corresponding figure for the OECD average was a slight increase of 0.1 percentage point from 34.2% to 34.3% over the same period.

The tax wedge for the average single worker in Sweden decreased by 0.3 percentage points from 43.0 in 2018 to 42.7 in 2019. The OECD average tax wedge in 2019 was 36.0 (2018, 36.1). In 2019 Sweden had the 9th highest tax wedge among the 36 OECD member countries, occupying the same position in 2018.

Over half the adult population in Spain is overweight, and this has a significant impact The Spanish live on average 2.6 years less due to overweight. The impact on the economy is large: overweight accounts for 9.7% of health expenditure; and lowers labour market outputs by the equivalent of 479 thousand full time workers per year. Combined, this means that overweight reduces Spain’s GDP by 2.9%.

Más de la mitad de la población adulta en España padece sobrepeso, lo que tiene unos efectos importantes. Los españoles viven en promedio 2,6 años menos debido al sobrepeso. Las repercusiones sobre la economía son destacables: el sobrepeso representa el 9,7 % del gasto en salud; y reduce la producción del mercado de trabajo en una cuantía equivalente a 479 000 trabajadores a tiempo completo por año.

This country note explains how Spain taxes energy use. The note shows the distribution of effective energy tax rates across all domestic energy use. It also details the country-specific assumptions made when calculating effective energy tax rates and matching tax rates to the corresponding energy base.

Key findings for Spain from the report "Pensions at a Glance 2019"

The tax-to-GDP ratio in Spain increased by 0.7 percentage points from 33.7% in 2017 to 34.4% in 2018. The corresponding figure for the OECD average was a slight increase of 0.1 percentage point from 34.2% to 34.3% over the same period.

The tax wedge for the average single worker in Spain increased by 0.1 percentage points from 39.4 in 2018 to 39.5 in 2019. The OECD average tax wedge in 2019 was 36.0 (2018, 36.1). In 2019 Spain had the 15th highest tax wedge among the 36 OECD member countries, compared with the 16th in 2018.

This one-pager note presents key findings for Switzerland from Society at a Glance 2011 - OECD Social indicators. This 2011 publication also provides a special chapter on unpaid work across the OECD.

This note presents key findings for Switzerland from Society at a Glance 2014 - OECD Social indicators. This 2014 publication also provides a special chapter on: the crisis and its aftermath: a “stress test” for societies and for social policies.

Switzerland has high employment rates and low unemployment. The overall employment rate remained stable since the start of the crisis and stands at 79% (first quarter of 2014), the second highest in the OECD after Iceland, well above the OECD average of 65.6%. As for unemployment, among OECD countries only Japan, Korea, and Norway have lower unemployment rates.

The tax burden in Switzerland increased by 0.2 percentage points from 26.9% to 27.1% in 2013. The OECD average was an increase of 0.4 percentage points from 33.7% to 34.1%. The Swiss standard VAT rate is 8%, which is one of the lowest standard VAT rates in the OECD and considerably below the OECD average. The average VAT/GST standard rate in the OECD was 19.1% on 1 January 2014

Going for Growth 2015: Key findings for Switzerland

Die Gesundheitsausgaben in der Schweiz sind hoch und der Ausgabenanstieg hat sich in den letzten Jahren beschleunigt. Der Marktanteil von Generika in der Schweiz ist relativ gering; die verstärkte Förderung bei Verschreibung und Abgabe von Generika könnte den Anstieg bei den Arzneimittelausgaben verlangsamen.

This country note provides an environmental tax and carbon pricing profile for Switzerland. It shows environmentally related tax revenues, taxes on energy use and effective carbon rates.

This country note presents student performance in science, reading and mathematics, and measures equity in education in Switzerland. The interactive charts allow you to compare results with other countries participating in the OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA).

Switzerland enjoys the joint second highest life expectancy at birth among OECD countries, achieved through a generously funded health system. Smoking and alcohol rates are slightly above the OECD average, but obesity rates are very low, with rates among adults only lower in Japan and Korea. While mandatory insurance is in place, high out-of-pocket spending impedes access to care.

Key findings for Switzerland from the report "Pensions at a Glance 2017"

This note presents marginal effective tax rates (METRs) that summarise the tax system’s impact on the incentives to make an additional investment in a particular type of savings. By comparing METRs on different types of household savings, we can gain insights into which assets or savings types receive the most favourable treatment from the tax system.

This country note for Switzerland provides detail on the proportion of CO2 emissions from energy use subject to different effective carbon rates (ECR), as well as on the level and components of average ECRs in each of the six economic sectors (road transport, off-road transport, industry, agriculture and fishing, residential & commercial, and electricity).

The digital revolution, globalisation and demographic changes are transforming labour markets at a time when policy makers are also struggling with slow productivity and wage growth and high levels of income inequality. The new OECD Jobs Strategy provides a comprehensive framework and policy recommendations to help countries address these challenges.

This country note explains how Switzerland taxes energy use. The note shows the distribution of effective energy tax rates across all domestic energy use. It also details the country-specific assumptions made when calculating effective energy tax rates and matching tax rates to the corresponding energy base.

Key findings for Switzerland from the report "Pensions at a Glance 2019"

The tax-to-GDP ratio in Switzerland decreased by 0.5 percentage points from 28.4% in 2017 to 27.9% in 2018. The corresponding figure for the OECD average was a slight increase of 0.1 percentage point from 34.2% to 34.3% over the same period.

The tax wedge for the average single worker in Switzerland increased by 0.1 percentage points from 22.2 in 2018 to 22.3 in 2019. The OECD average tax wedge in 2019 was 36.0 (2018, 36.1). In 2019 Switzerland had the 33rd lowest tax wedge among the 36 OECD member countries, occupying the same position in 2018.

The South African labour market continues to perform poorly compared to OECD and other G20 countries, and the global financial crisis appears to have worsened the situation.

Going for Growth 2015: Key findings for Spain

Growth in South Africa remains subdued but is projected to pick up modestly in 2017. This is expected to lead to some improvement in both the employment and unemployment figures.

This country note provides an environmental tax and carbon pricing profile for South Africa. It shows environmentally related tax revenues, taxes on energy use and effective carbon rates.

This note describes the taxation of energy use in South Africa. It contains the country’s energy tax profiles, followed by country-specific information to complement the general discussion in Taxing Energy Use 2018 (OECD, 2018).

This note presents marginal effective tax rates (METRs) that summarise the tax system’s impact on the incentives to make an additional investment in a particular type of savings. By comparing METRs on different types of household savings, we can gain insights into which assets or savings types receive the most favourable treatment from the tax system.

This country note for South Africa provides detail on the proportion of CO2 emissions from energy use subject to different effective carbon rates (ECR), as well as on the level and components of average ECRs in each of the six economic sectors (road transport, off-road transport, industry, agriculture and fishing, residential & commercial, and electricity).

The digital revolution, globalisation and demographic changes are transforming labour markets at a time when policy makers are also struggling with slow productivity and wage growth and high levels of income inequality. The new OECD Jobs Strategy provides a comprehensive framework and policy recommendations to help countries address these challenges.

This country note explains how South Africa taxes energy use. The note shows the distribution of effective energy tax rates across all domestic energy use. It also details the country-specific assumptions made when calculating effective energy tax rates and matching tax rates to the corresponding energy base.

This country note for South Africa provides detailed information on the evolution of the tax-to-GDP ratio since 2000, the structure of tax and non-tax revenues in 2017, and a comparison of the tax-to-GDP ratio as well as non-tax revenues as percentage of GDP with 26 African countries. Main results are also compared with the three regional averages (African (26), LAC and OECD).

This one-pager note presents key findings for Slovenia from Society at a Glance 2011 - OECD Social indicators. This 2011 publication also provides a special chapter on unpaid work across the OECD.

This note presents key findings for Slovenia from Society at a Glance 2014 - OECD Social indicators. This 2014 publication also provides a special chapter on: the crisis and its aftermath: a “stress test” for societies and for social policies.