Below The Line

Virulent vaastu

There is a new virus spreading rapidly in Telangana — the ‘vaastu’ virus. Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao has moved house twice and is considering another change for his camp office, all thanks to vaastu considerations. He takes vaastu so seriously that he is said to be considering acquiring the Chest Hospital land for the secretariat as he believes the current secretariat, which served more than 10 CMs, has defective vaastu. He also wants to demolish the cultural centre, Ravindra Bharati, and build a new one. Naturally, the Opposition’s fuming.

A cop-out

A cop belonging to the ‘She Team’ specially constituted to nab eve-teasers in Hyderabad, recently ended up a victim herself in full view of the public. The incident occurred when the policewoman was stationed in the course of beat duty, in plain clothes, at a bus stop.

To her shock, she was ragged by none other than a ‘fellow’ policeman and a bus driver who insisted she give them her telephone number. However, the long arm of the law had recorded the incident with secretly placed cameras, and the eve-teasing cop copped it.

Park in a hotel

Earlier this week a peculiar invitation was sent out to the Delhi media. The invitation was for the inauguration of a solar park. Except that the venue was not a park as one would have expected, but a five-star hotel! It was a virtual inauguration alright, but places that guzzle power are hardly appropriate venues to promote renewable energy.

Autographing our currency

For many people the RBI is a mysterious institution. During a lecture at ICFAI, Hyderabad, former governor D Subbarao recalled a surprising question from a student.

In a poor country like ours, the student said, are you (the governor) slow in signing the notes! Can you imagine the scene?

In God’s own country

At the Indian Electronics and Semiconductor Association annual summit in Bengaluru, a delegate asked a question on manpower and labour issues in Kerala.

GC Gopala Pillai, MD of Kinfra, retorted: “Let me tell you a story. When God made Kerala, all the other places like Switzerland were jealous and asked God why are you making such a beautiful place which will compete against us? To which God replied: let me make the people!” Pillai became an instant hit.

Knotty IND-AS issue

It’s now almost certain that the government will bite the IND-AS bullet. Designed as India’s answer to the internationally recognised IFRS, this new set of accounting standards (IND-AS) has been in the works for several years. The notification was kept in abeyance because the Hindi translation had taken its toll on the corporate affairs ministry! That challenge has been overcome.

Elephant in the room

International Accounting Standards Board chairman Hans Hoogervorst mustered up the courage at a KPMG conference on IFRS in Mumbai to talk about the ‘elephant in the room’ — the issue of sovereignty in accounting. However, the last word is yet to be written on whether India will end up losing its sovereignty in accounting.

Hitting the high notes

The 35th National Games under way in Kerala are being contested not so much on terra firma as in the air. No, we’re not talking high jump and pole vault. We’re talking participants of the political kind who are constantly ‘on air’ blowing their own trumpets about so-called achievements in getting the Games going.

Of course, the ‘other side’ spared no efforts to put them down, particularly with respect to how the opening ceremony was conducted. Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, who was also chairman of the Organising Committee, joined those who were targeting actor Mohan Lal’s ‘Lalism’ (Lalisom, as it is officially styled for incomprehensible reasons!), a music band that played woefully out of tune at the ceremony.

A full-scale controversy has been generated in the bargain.

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