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EXCLUSIVE: “Neither of us was at fault,” says Subhash Ghai revealing the reason behind the incomplete film with Amitabh Bachchan

Subhash Ghai is one of the celebrated filmmakers of Bollywood. He has films like Taal, Karz, Ram Lakhan and Khalnayak to his credit and has worked with several A-list actors. However, the director has never worked with Amitabh Bachchan. The two had started working on a project but it was called off in its early stage. In an exclusive conversation with Bollywood Hungama, Subhash Ghai revealed why they never completed the film.

Talking about why the film was stalled, Subhash Ghai said, “Both of us tried to make the film, but the situation was such that the film could not be made. Neither of us was at fault. Sometimes situations are such that you feel that films cannot be made and we stop in between. There were several factors. Even I was at fault as I was impatient back then. He is one of the finest actors of India and it is my bad luck that I could not work with him. He does the bad scenes also so well that it puts the writer to shame. I did not write as well as Amitabh Bachchan performed it. I am a great admirer of Amitabh Bachchan and we are family friends. It was not in our fate to work with each other.”


However, Subhash Ghai seems hopeful of working with the veteran actor in the future when the time is right and they get the right script. The incomplete film of Subhash Ghai and Amitabh Bachchan was titled Devaa. In 2013 there were reports of Subhash Ghai collaborating with Bachchan for the biopic of Sarabjit which was ultimately essayed by Randeep Hooda and directed by Omung Kumar.

ALSO READ: EXCLUSIVE: Subhash Ghai reveals the plot of Khalnayak 2 with Sanjay Dutt, Madhuri Dixit, and Jackie Shroff




amit

OECD and the Municipality of Metepec launch tramitesmetepec.mx, the new on-line registry for formalities

The tramitesmetepec.mx website organises formalities by “life events”, facilitating the search of information for citizens and entrepreneurs, and reducing the cost of regulatory compliance.




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Were Jaya - Amitabh unhappy with Abhishek Bachchan's two-year-long break from films?

What was the reaction of the Bachchan family when Abhishek Bachchan decided to take a two-year-long break from films?




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Jal Jungle Jameen Sangarsh Samiti vs Dilip Buildcon 7 Ors on 26 September, 2014

2. We heard the Learned Counsel for the parties. This application was filed by the Applicant in the matter of the grant of the mining lease to the Respondent No.1 for executing the construction work of the road from the Jaora-Piplodha-Jalandharkheda & Piploda - Sailana at the instance of the Respondent No. 8/Madhya Pradesh Road Development Corporation Ltd. (MPRDC). For the aforesaid purpose the Respondent No.1 was granted temporary mining lease in July, 2013 for mining of material i.e. stone/boulder and murrum from the land in Khasra no. 308/1/1/a, village Amba, Tahsil Sailana, District Ratlam. The question raised by the Applicant was looking to the close proximity to the site of the aforesaid mining lease granted to the Respondent No.1, to the Sailana Wildlife Sanctuary famous for the Lesser Floricon bird, commonly known as Kharmour which is reported to be on the verge of near extinction and the aforesaid Sanctuary is one of the few habitats left over for the breeding purpose preferred by this bird, would be extensively disturbed as a result of the mining activity in such close proximity of the Sanctuary as also the fact, as was revealed before the Tribunal during the hearing, that the extent of the area of the Sailana Wildlife Sanctuary was limited to just about 13 sq.km.




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Amit Maru vs Moef Ors on 1 October, 2014

2. The Project Proponent (M/s Windosor Reality Pvt Ltd), has come out with a case that the plans for construction of commercial building were issued by the Planning Authority on 7.7.1993. The project work was started long back. The construction work was going on for about a period almost over and above 8/10 years. The Project Proponent alleges that the building having 28 floors, 3 level podium and 2 voids, in total 33 floors, have been constructed and that by itself must be deemed to be a notice to the Applicant. So, it is not open for the Applicant now to raise such a dispute under false and frivolous allegations that 'cause of action' to file the Application has arisen first on 23rd October, 2013. The Applicant cannot raise such a dispute at a belated stage by giving goby to the specific provisions of Section 14 (3) read with Section 18 of the National Green Tribunal Act, 2010. The Hon'ble Bombay High Court and Hon'ble Supreme Court interpreted the special enactments like the Arbitration Act, 1998, the Electricity Act, 2003 and held that where a statute prescribes shorter period of limitation and different scheme of limitation is provided under such a Statute, the provisions of the Limitation Act, 1963, are excluded and the Tribunal must apply the period of Page 4 (J) M.A. No.65/2014 in Application No.13/2014 (WZ) limitation as prescribed under the special enactment while exercising its powers. So, when the special provision is set out under Section 14(3) of the NGT Act, then time cannot be extended any more by Application of Section 5 of the Limitation Act, 1963, or any such analogues provision.




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Amit Kumar Kamat @ Amit Kumar @ vs Unknown on 28 April, 2020

And In the matter of: Amit Kumar Kamat @ Amit Kumar @ Lala...petitioner Mr. Koustav Bagchi.........for the petitioner Mr. Neguive Ahmed.........................for the State The petitioner undertakes to affirm and stamp the petition as per the Rules within 48 hour of resumption of normal functioning of the court. The petition is taken up through video conference on the basis of such undertaking.

The petitioner claims that since the petitioner has been in custody for a long time and the charges are of dacoity, the petitioner should be given a reprieve temporarily.




amit

TMC Dares Amit Shah to Prove Allegations, BJP Says WB Govt Bothered About One Community

The ruling TMC in West Bengal and opposition BJP on Saturday traded barbs over ferrying migrant labourers, after Union Home Minister Amit Shah flagged the issue of "non-cooperation" by the state government, leaving the Mamata Banerjee-led party fuming, which accused him of spreading lies.




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Amitabh Bachchan's KBC 12 ఎంపిక ప్రక్రియ ప్రారంభం.. రిజిస్ట్రేషన్ ఎలా చేసుకోవాలంటే..

ఆలిండియా సూపర్‌స్టార్ అమితాబ్ బచ్చన్ హోస్ట్‌గా కౌన్ బనేగా కరోడ్‌పతి సందడి బుల్లితెరపై మళ్లీ మొదలైంది. కోట్ల రూపాయల ప్రైజ్ మనీ కలిగిన ఈ షోలో పాల్గొనే ఔత్సాహికులు కోసం నమోదు ప్రక్రియను ప్రారంభించారు. ఈ నమోదు ప్రక్రియ మే 9వ తేదీన రాత్రి 9 గంటలకు ప్రారంభమై మే 22 తేదీ వరకు కొనసాగుతుంది అని నిర్వాహకులు వెల్లడించారు. ఈ ప్రక్రియకు సంబంధించిన వివరాలను వెల్లడిస్తూ..




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KBC 12 Promo Was Shot In Amitabh Bachchan’s House; Nitesh Tiwari Opens Up On Challenges

The Coronavirus crisis has changed work spaces and dynamics for many around the world. The entertainment industry too is slowly adjusting to new realities, and figuring out innovative ways to shoot. One of India's most popular game shows, Kaun Banega Crorepati,




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Amitabh Bachchan Celebrates 12 Years Of Bhoothnath; Shares Mysterious Incident About Film

Amitabh Bachchan took to his Twitter handle to celebrate 12 years of his comedy horror film Bhoothnath. Remembering the movie, Amitabh also treated fans to a mysterious story which has left us scratching our heads! Celebrating 12 years since




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Amitabh Bachchan Celebrates 12 Years Of Bhoothnath; Shares Mysterious Incident About Film

Amitabh Bachchan took to his Twitter handle to celebrate 12 years of his comedy horror film Bhoothnath. Remembering the movie, Amitabh also treated fans to a mysterious story which has left us scratching our heads! Celebrating 12 years since




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4 people detained for circulating fake tweet regarding Amit Shah's health




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I am absolutely well: Amit Shah scotches rumours on health

Union home minister Amit Shah on Monday squelched the speculation that had swirled about his health by saying that he is fine and is free of any disease whatsoever. “I want to make it clear that I am absolutely well and am not suffering from any disease,” Shah said in a tweet, poking fun at those behind the rumours about his medical condition.




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'I am healthy, have no disease,' says Amit Shah dismissing rumours around his health




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Home Minister Amit Shah writes to Mamata Banerjee, says trains with migrants labourers not being allowed into state, "Injustice with West Bengal migrant labourers"




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Pained beyond words at loss of lives due to rail accident in Maharashtra: Amit Shah




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I am absolutely well: Amit Shah on health rumours

I am absolutely well: Amit Shah on health rumours




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Amit Shah, Mamata govt in spat over migrants

Amit Shah, Mamata govt in spat over migrants




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Punjab CM writes to Amit Shah, seeks interim compensation of Rs 3,000 crore




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Punjab CM thanks Amit Shah, Uddhav Thackeray for allowing Sikh pilgrims stuck in Nanded to travel to Punjab





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Namita Gogumalla Celebrated for Dedication to the Field of Project Management, Quality Assurance, Vendor Management & Budget Planning and Management

Ms. Gogumalla channels years of expertise in management to her work with multiple industries; telecommunication, healthcare insurance, electric utility, finance & transportation




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MSME loan losses will rise sharply if economy takes time to revive: Amitabh Chaudhry

MSME loan losses will rise sharply if economy takes time to revive: Amitabh Chaudhry





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Amit Shah dismisses rumours about his health, says he is not suffering from any disease

Amit Shah dismisses rumours about his health, says he is not suffering from any disease





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Ramit Sethi: Money + Other Ways to Live Rich

Ditch the idea of yourself as a starving artist. Throw away the notion that you’re doomed to be another poor creative soul. My long time pal Ramit Sethi is back on the show to remind us we need to get back on track to building and living a rich life. And believe me, that doesn’t have to mean cutting back the lattes. Ramit has been on the show a few times, but if you haven’t caught up yet, let me fill you in. Ramit Sethi is the author of the NYT bestseller “I Will Teach You To Be Rich” and writes for over 500,000 monthly readers on his website, iwillteachyoutoberich.com. It’s one of my favorite go-to finance resources covering psychology, personal finance, careers, and entrepreneurship. No one has single-handedly given me better insight into the business side of art, than Ramit. Ramit has updated & expanded 2nd edition of his book and joined me for a LIVE studio conversation on money confessions. In this episode we get into: A rich life isn’t only about save money, it’s about defining & prioritizing the things you love the most. It’s one thing to manage our own personal finances but navigating that with […]

The post Ramit Sethi: Money + Other Ways to Live Rich appeared first on Chase Jarvis Photography.




amit

Finance Fireside Chat with Ramit Sethi

In this episode I’m chatting with my long time friend and financial guru, Ramit Sethi. Ramit has been on the show a number of times, and this time we’re connecting virtually from our living rooms during the quarantine. Of course we get into finances during these uncertain times, but more importantly: adaptation and resilience. Over the years, no one has single-handedly given me better insight about the business side of art than the New York Times bestselling author, Ramit Sethi. Take a listen and let us know what you think. Enjoy! This episode was part of CreativeLive TV, a brand-new, free, 24/7 variety show, live-streamed from the very casual living rooms, studios, and kitchen tables of our worldwide community of legendary creators. You can expect musical performances, Q&As, cooking, spoken word, drawing, and more – featuring many of our favorite personalities – all in a safe, virtual space full of joy, shared experiences, and connection via live, interactive chat. The schedule and upcoming broadcasts can be seen at http://creativelive.com/tv FOLLOW RAMIT: instagram | twitter | website Listen to the Podcast  Subscribe   Watch the Episode This podcast is brought to you by CreativeLive. CreativeLive is the world’s largest hub […]

The post Finance Fireside Chat with Ramit Sethi appeared first on Chase Jarvis Photography.




amit

Hope in a Sea of Endless Calamity with Mark Manson

Today on the show, I’m chatting with New York Times bestselling author Mark Manson. He is the #1 New York Times Bestselling author of Everything is F*cked and The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck, the mega-bestseller that reached #1 in fourteen different countries. Mark also runs one of the largest personal growth websites in the world, MarkManson.net, a blog with more than two million monthly readers and half a million subscribers, making him one of the largest and most successful independent publishers in the world. In this episode, we take a deep dive into the creative process. How to spend your time when you’re trying get comfortable with being uncomfortable. Mark helps bring into focus the up-side that this moment has created for us while also sharing some of the tactics he while quarantined. Enjoy! FOLLOW MARK: instagram | twitter | website Listen to the Podcast Subscribe   This podcast is brought to you by CreativeLive. CreativeLive is the world’s largest hub for online creative education in photo/video, art/design, music/audio, craft/maker, money/life and the ability to make a living in any of those disciplines. They are high quality, highly curated classes taught by the world’s top experts — Pulitzer, Oscar, […]

The post Hope in a Sea of Endless Calamity with Mark Manson appeared first on Chase Jarvis Photography.




amit

Reliance Entertainment names Amit Khanduja as new CEO of Reliance Games

Reliance Entertainment, an arm of the Anil Ambani-headed Reliance Group, on Thursday named Amit Khanduja as the new CEO of Reliance Games, effective June 1.




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L’Oréal India appoints Amit Jain as new MD

Jain, who will join from August this year, will be L’Oréal India’s first Indian managing director after the French cosmetics giant entered in 1991.




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Election results in Victoria keep status quo; Corangamite and Dunkley change after boundary shifts

Despite Labor's belief in a "mood for change" in Victoria, the only seats in the state likely to switch parties are those where boundaries had been redrawn since the last election.




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Election results: Liberal Sarah Henderson concedes Corangamite to Labor's Libby Coker

Newly-elected Labor MP Libby Coker says ensuring the Government delivers on their expensive election commitments in Corangamite even though they lost the seat will be her first priority after claiming victory in the Victorian electorate.





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Dana Selassie ‘Amitie’ Exhibition On Sunday

This Sunday [Jan 19], at Utopia Restaurant, the public is invited to attend an inaugural exhibition showcasing the photographic talents of Dana ‘Zhyon’ Selassie. The exhibition will feature a series of photographs based on Documentary Portraiture – a form of photography that captures people in their environments. Dr Selassie notes that the style of photography […]

(Click to read the full article)





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Game Review: Dynamite Nurse

Three years ago Japanime released an English version of Dynamite Nurse (originally published in 2011) via Kickstarter. Although we added this take-that deck building game to our collection earlier this year, it took a bit of time to find some friends from our various gaming circles willing to play the game given the boundary pushing artwork. The character illustrations are in the style of anime - colorful and detailed - but bordering on pornographic.

In making a case for the game's merits, I pointed out that Dynamite Nurse is centered on strong female characters (sure, the nurses are barely clothed and poses provocatively but they’re the main focus of the game and hold all the power). Also, the game has an interesting storyline. In Dynamite Nurse, players take on the role of nurses competing to save patients who have been severely wounded while out exploring dungeons. Fun fact: in an odd parenthetical note, the rulebook states the characters are actually doctors that are simply referred to as nurses in the fantasy realm of the game.

Components for Dynamite Nurse include 214 double sided glossy cards, 30 cardboard tokens, and a 34 page rulebook. You’ll definitely want to sleeve the cards for frequent use.

Gameplay is straightforward and easy to learn. In the first phase of each player’s turn, they do the following:

(1) play cards from their hand

(2) decide between treating patients in their hospital or purchasing a new card to add to their discard pile

These two main actions can be done in any order. If a player elects to treat patients, the treatment points on cards in their hand are used to conduct surgery (to fully heal a patient and add them to their victory point pile) or treat with care (to bring a critical care patient about to die to stronger health, while still leaving them in their hospital for further treatment). If electing to buy a card, a player is limited to purchasing a single card from the purchase decks, as is common in a traditional deck builder.

In the next phase of a player’s turn, they draw a patient from the Dungeon Deck and lay them out in the back of the ambulance, ready to be moved to a waiting hospital. When a patient is admitted to the ambulance, they are tagged with the hospital marker of one of the players, signifying they are under the care of that nurse. If there is no room in the ambulance for the patient (the ambulance can hold a number of patients equal to the number of players in the game), instead of drawing a patient from the Dungeon Deck, the patient in the front of the ambulance is flipped over, entering critical condition. This is bad for the player whose hospital tag is on that patient as the patient may eventually die and accrue Kill Mark Cards (also known as penalty points) for the associated player.

To wrap up a player’s turn, they complete hospital admissions (optional) and check for patients in critical condition in their hospital. If a player decides to admit patient(s), they move one or more patients tagged with their hospital token with from the ambulance to their hospital. Admissions must be carefully balanced as a hospital only has 2 beds. If there are more patients than beds available, the player must select a number of patients equal to the bed shortage and put them in critical condition. Patients in critical condition are at risk for death if bed shortages continue over subsequent turns.

The title of Dynamite Nurse is held by the player with the most dead patients. It’s initially acquired by the first player to have a patient die. It’s a traveling status, in that, it will immediately shift to any player whose dead patient count exceeds the player who previously held the title. The designation provides some strategic advantages during the game (perhaps as a catch up mechanism) but earns -2 victory points at the end of the game for the player still holding the title.

The game ends when either the Dungeon Deck or the Kill Mark Card deck runs out. A player wins by amassing the highest victory point total. Victory point formula: healed Patient Card VP total – Kill Mark Card penalty point total. 

Dynamite Nurse is subject to a bit of analysis paralysis, but it’s very limited because the pressing tasks required to keep from losing (treating sick patients) clearly take priority.

I really enjoyed the gameplay here. It was competitive without being too complicated, which is just how I like my card games to be (card games always have a bit more of a casual feel to me and I turn to them when I want a relaxing game). We had a lot of laughter during our games and the take-that actions didn’t upset anyone too much as they were pretty evenly distributed among all players. I love almost everything about Dynamite Nurse. That being said, I’m disappointed Japanime doesn’t publish a family-friendly version of the game so that I can play with a wider audience. I’m not naïve; I understand that racy artwork adds to the appeal for a certain demographic but the sexualization of the characters in Dynamite Nurse isn’t subtle – it’s right in your face on every card and a major turn off for players who are more conservative, have strong feelings about portraying women as sexual objects, or those who want to play the game with the under 18 crowd. There is no way we could play this with our kids and it’s only because of the artwork. During one of our games, we spent four minutes debating what the inanimate object was between one of the nurse’s legs pressed up against her panties (cell phone was the consensus but one of my friends insisted it was a cheese grater). Another minor complaint - we found the included rulebook to be a bit confusing. Multiple times we had questions that the rulebook did not seem to provide a clear answer on and so our group had to come to a agreement on a house rule. For example, under Transport, the rulebook notes to draw a Patient Card from the top of the dungeon and place it in the ambulance in “the furthest location from the dungeon”. As the dungeon is left of the ambulance, this would mean placing the card to the right of any existing patients in the ambulance like so:

D   P1  P2 P3 NewPatientHere

However the drawing two pages later in the rulebook meant to illustrate how to transport shows the new patient being added to the ambulance in the the location closest to the dungeon like so:

D NewPatientHere P3 P2 P1

Aside from the rulebook confusion and the risqué illustrations, Dynamite Nurse is a compelling game that can be played in under an hour.  I’m giving it a OUI rating (take note Japanime – the rating will climb to a OUI OUI should a family friendly version be released).

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Publisher: Japanime Games
Players: 3-5
Actual Playing Time (vs the guideline on the box): About an hour
Game type: deck building, take-that
Rating:

Jenni’s rating scale:
OUI: I would play this game again; this game is ok. I probably would not buy this game myself but I would play it with those who own it and if someone gave it to me I would keep it.
OUI OUI: I would play this game again; this game is good. I would buy this game.
OUI OUI OUI: I LOVE THIS GAME. I MUST HAVE THIS GAME.
NON: I would not play this game again. I would return this game or give it away if it was given to me.




amit

R.D. Hubbard, former part owner of Hollywood Park and Los Alamitos Race Course, dies at 84

R.D. Hubbard, who once owned part of Hollywood Park and Los Alamitos Race Course, died at his home in Palm Desert on Wednesday at age 84.




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Tia Stokes, non-profit Kalamity founder, dancing her way through cancer diagnosis

A GoFundMe page aims to match the nearly $600,000 that Tia Stokes' non-profit dance group Kalamity has raised for people facing real-life calamities.

       





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India Opts Out Of RCEP, Amit Shah Lauds PM For Taking Decision In "National Interest"

Bangkok/New Delhi: Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Monday said India’s decision to not join China-backed mega Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) deal is a result of "PM Narendra Modi's strong leadership & unflinching resolve" to ensure national interest in all circumstances, adding: “it shall ensure support to our




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Amitabh Bachchan Remembers Sridevi And Irrfan Khan In A Throwback Post

"In remembrance of the two that have left us," wrote Amitabh Bachchan




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"I Am Absolutely Healthy": Amit Shah On Rumours About His Health

Home Minister Amit Shah today tweeted to say he is healthy and not suffering from any disease, dismissing recent speculations on social media about his health.




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Coronavirus in India: Delhi, Mumbai, 6 other cities hold key to fight against COVID-19, says NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant

The death toll due to COVID-19 in the country rose to 1,783 while the number of cases climbed to 52,952 on Thursday, registering an increase of 89 deaths and 3,561 cases in the last 24 hours, the Union Health Ministry said.




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Coronavirus lockdown has severely disrupted supply chains, says Niti Aaayog CEO Amitabh Kant

The need of the hour is to promote remote working and expand gig economy, speakers at a Niti Aaayog-organised Webinar said.




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PM Modi holds key meeting with Amit Shah, Nirmala Sitharaman on steps for financial sector

Prime Minister Narendra Modi held a crucial meeting with home minister Amit Shah and finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman to firm up strategies for the financial sector in the aftermath of the Covid-19 outbreak.




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Amit Shah in Bengal: Will not stop till we grant citizenship to all refugees

Shah also launched a state-wide campaign, ‘Ar Noi Annay (No More Injustice)’, to take on Banerjee’s outreach programme, ‘Didi ke Bolo’.




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Amitabh Bachchan’s 77th Birthday: Big B’s big car collection has it all – Mini Cooper S to Rolls Royce Phantom




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Totally healthy: Amit Shah rubbishes rumours on his health, says he is not suffering from any disease

Home Minister Amit Shah has said he is totally healthy and not suffering from any disease.




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Gujarat: Four held for spreading rumour about Amit Shah’s health

Four persons were detained by Ahmedabad police on Saturday for allegedly spreading misinformation about Union Home Minister Amit Shah's health by creating a fake Twitter account in his name.




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Family- Short film of Amitabh Bachchan, Rajnikanth Is Trending

Family, Short Film of Amitabh Bachchan, Rajnikanth, Ranbir Kapoor, Priyanka Chopra, Alia Bhatt




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Can Amit Shah do for India what he did for the BJP?

This is the 20th installment of The Rationalist, my column for the Times of India.

Amit Shah’s induction into the union cabinet is such an interesting moment. Even partisans who oppose the BJP, as I do, would admit that Shah is a political genius. Under his leadership, the BJP has become an electoral behemoth in the most complicated political landscape in the world. The big question that now arises is this: can Shah do for India what he did for the BJP?

This raises a perplexing question: in the last five years, as the BJP has flourished, India has languished. And yet, the leadership of both the party and the nation are more or less the same. Then why hasn’t the ability to manage the party translated to governing the country?

I would argue that there are two reasons for this. One, the skills required in those two tasks are different. Two, so are the incentives in play.

Let’s look at the skills first. Managing a party like the BJP is, in some ways, like managing a large multinational company. Shah is a master at top-down planning and micro-management. How he went about winning the 2014 elections, described in detail in Prashant Jha’s book How the BJP Wins, should be a Harvard Business School case study. The book describes how he fixed the BJP’s ground game in Uttar Pradesh, picking teams for 147,000 booths in Uttar Pradesh, monitoring them, and keeping them accountable.

Shah looked at the market segmentation in UP, and hit upon his now famous “60% formula”. He realised he could not deliver the votes of Muslims, Yadavs and Jatavs, who were 40% of the population. So he focussed on wooing the other 60%, including non-Yadav OBCs and non-Jatav Dalits. He carried out versions of these caste reconfigurations across states, and according to Jha, covered “over 5 lakh kilometres” between 2014 and 2017, consolidating market share in every state in this country. He nurtured “a pool of a thousand new OBC and Dalit leaders”, going well beyond the posturing of other parties.

That so many Dalits and OBCs voted for the BJP in 2019 is astonishing. Shah went past Mandal politics, managing to subsume previously antagonistic castes and sub-castes into a broad Hindutva identity. And as the BJP increased its depth, it expanded its breadth as well. What it has done in West Bengal, wiping out the Left and weakening Mamata Banerjee, is jaw-dropping. With hindsight, it may one day seem inevitable, but only a madman could have conceived it, and only a genius could have executed it.

Good man to be Home Minister then, eh? Not quite. A country is not like a large company or even a political party. It is much too complex to be managed from the top down, and a control freak is bound to flounder. The approach needed is very different.

Some tasks of governance, it is true, are tailor-made for efficient managers. Building infrastructure, taking care of roads and power, building toilets (even without an underlying drainage system) and PR campaigns can all be executed by good managers. But the deeper tasks of making an economy flourish require a different approach. They need a light touch, not a heavy hand.

The 20th century is full of cautionary tales that show that economies cannot be centrally planned from the top down. Examples of that ‘fatal conceit’, to use my hero Friedrich Hayek’s term, include the Soviet Union, Mao’s China, and even the lady Modi most reminds me of, Indira Gandhi.

The task of the state, when it comes to the economy, is to administer a strong rule of law, and to make sure it is applied equally. No special favours to cronies or special interest groups. Just unleash the natural creativity of the people, and don’t try to micro-manage.

Sadly, the BJP’s impulse, like that of most governments of the past, is a statist one. India should have a small state that does a few things well. Instead, we have a large state that does many things badly, and acts as a parasite on its people.

As it happens, the few things that we should do well are all right up Shah’s managerial alley. For example, the rule of law is effectively absent in India today, especially for the poor. As Home Minister, Shah could fix this if he applied the same zeal to governing India as he did to growing the BJP. But will he?

And here we come to the question of incentives. What drives Amit Shah: maximising power, or serving the nation? What is good for the country will often coincide with what is good for the party – but not always. When they diverge, which path will Shah choose? So much rests on that.



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