The Default Option In Reverse Gear

By Sanjay Pinto

A simple poser.  Should you register for something that you want or don’t want?  Logically, the default option must  be set in such a manner that users can tick what they do need.  In reality, it’s the other way around.  And it’s almost like a manufacturers licence. Certain clubs insist that you specifically intimate them in writing about a facility that you are not interested in using. Mobile service providers require subscribers to sign up for the Do Not Disturb registry, as if disturbance is a right. (That it’s a joke is a different matter) And our dear social media has settings that make you vulnerable to invasion of privacy if you don’t turn on certain options or rather turn off  what you can term  ‘factory’ settings.

Let’s be honest. How many of  the average users are entirely clued in about  privacy settings? Facebook gives you the option to review posts friends tag you in. Or tags friends add to your own posts. Or to control who sees tag suggestions  when  photographs  that look like yours are uploaded! There’s no ‘sped arrow’ doctrine here.  Because you can also limit the audience for old posts.  Twitter’s privacy policy operates on the default principle that “ is almost always to make the information you provide public for as long as you do not delete it from Twitter, but we generally give you settings to make the information more private if you want.” So it begs the question: Is your privacy a priority or a legal after thought?

I know of several users who have opened separate facebook accounts; one for their family and close circle of friends and the other for their professional contacts. No matter what precautions you take, there is the inevitable risk factor. Just last week, pictures of one and a half year old twin babies being carried by celebrities were posted on facebook. They were meant only for the friends of the parents. Here’s the catch. Friends of  friends can easily get access to restricted content and either download pictures or share them on their walls – a perfect catalyst for the intended restricted stuff to go viral. What is your safeguard here? Inviting only select friends to view the album is an option seldom exercised. But for that matter, nothing can prevent data thieves from clicking a picture off screen and posting it on their walls for either some wrongful gain or  cheap brownie points. When a stranger enters the fray, sending a message with a request to take off the content may not always work. It’s only a barbarian who will, in the first place, violate the privacy of one year old babies. And barbarians don't reply.

On the subject of what is meant for public consumption and what can be shared by every Amar, Akbar, Antony, I still feel the ‘Reply All’ office communication malaise has percolated down to the social media. There are users who just don’t know what is appropriate for a wall post and what is meant to be sent as a private message. And that for a direct message on twitter, both the sender and recipient need to follow each other is also lost on some users.

Having said that, I must confess that the ‘Joy Of Giving’ is triggered most effectively by the ‘Act Of Sharing’ news links in the social media. Last week I blogged on new born babies greeted by an insensitive medical insurance policy and shared the link on  the walls of friends. The response was touching and overwhelming. It does take all kinds to make a world! 

Presidential Election: Dravidian Juggernauts Win A Free Hit In The Final!

By Sanjay Pinto

First off the block in naming and backing the two candidates, Tamilnadu's dravidian heavyweights have made quite a statement in the race for Rashtrapati Bhavan. But this Presidential election was at best a semi final. The political significance revolves around the final, which is the next general election. Whether that will be in 2014 or earlier will depend om how many UPA allies do a Mamata or Pawar like sulk.

The ruling AIADMK blew the first whistle. Chief Minister Jayalalithaa was the first political leader in the country to name her Presidential nominee. Playing the tribal card, the astute 'Amma' garnered support from not just other Chief Ministers like Naveen Patnaik but also more importantly got the NDA to back her candidate. This was Jayalalithaa's magic wand at work. A party with just 9 Lok Sabha MPs got the entire NDA to fall in line and support her chosen one. Sangma, who drove into Poes Garden to thank the Tamilnadu Chief Minister when his campaign ended, seemed more like an AIADMK sponsored candidate than an NDA nominee! With the net practice over, the stage is now set for the big Parlaimentary match, with Jayalalithaa probably playing a sheet anchor role in Team NDA. With a massive majority in the Tamilnadu Assembly won just last year and 4 more years in office, the AIADMK will obviously be a coveted ally. From that position of strength, comes a bigger bargaining chip. AIADMK insiders predict that if Amma wins 25 or 30 Lok Sabha seats, she could easily play King Maker as well.

Across the divide, Karunanidhi may also be smiling; his mild indisposition and brief hospitalisation yesterday, notwithstanding. The DMK was among the first few allies, the Congress high command took into confidence while zeroing in on Pranab Mukherjee for the top job. And when other allies like Mamata 'Didi' came out with their own lists, the DMK was the first party to throw its weight behind 'Dada'. Not surprisingly, the former Finance Minister chose Chennai as one of his early campaign stops. And while other constituents of the UPA have been throwing tantrums over the pecking order, Karunanidhi is yet to even seek the filing up of Cabinet berths arising out of the resignations of A.Raja and Dayanidhi Maran. The grand old man of the party has cemented his ties with the Congress and has earned considerable goodwill with 10 Janpath. That's if you brush aside the occasional sabre rattling over price hikes and the Congress discomfiture over Karunannidhi's TESO (Tamil Eelam Supporters Organisation) meeting next month.

In the ultimate analysis, both the dravidian rivals seem to have won a free hit for the upcoming big final!

Raindrops And 'Hoses' !

By Sanjay Pinto

As a little boy, I remember carrying plastic pots of water from tankers in Madras, as the city was called in the eighties. The tag line was: 'Think Madras, think water scarcity'. For this very reason, few families ever had relatives visiting them during the vacation! Think Madras,think also floods. That was the cruel irony. India's fourth largest metropolitan city faced a water crisis as well as severe inundation during the monsoon. It took political will - that came from the present Tamilnadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa to change this dubious distinction. The catchphrase - rain water harvesting turned Govt backed initiative turned peoples movement has today ensured that this South Indian city is free from the chronic water scarcity of the past.

Today, in peak summer, Sita Laxminarayana, a senior citizen in Mylapore, South Chennai, has enough water for her terrace garden; where she grows flowers for her pujas and vegetables and spices for her kitchen. The hospitable Aunty in the colony probably remembers her late husband humming an improvised Jim Reeves number: "I Can Promise You A Rose Garden." The water is sourced entirely from her well that even in this sweltering heat, is more than half its capacity. A dry well was not an oxymoron but a reality in the late nineties in Chennai! A city that was synonymous, even notorious, for chronic water scarcity. A story of parched land and throats and fights for that precious commodity, that had to be rationed through water tankers, captured in a Tamil film ‘Thaneer, Thaneer’.

Enter Jayalalithaa. In her second innings as Chief Minister, in 2002, she chanted the Rain Water Harvesting mantra. The logic was simple. Why allow rain water to flood roads and end up into the sea instead of saving it in every home and office? As it was her brainchild, the State machinery went into over drive to make it happen. An Ordinance was promulgated; soon replaced by an Act making rain water harvesting compulsory throughout Tamilnadu. Non compliance meant fines and disconnection of water and sewerage connections. So residents like Sita, installed simple structures; percolation pits and pipes from roof tops in their homes to save rainwater. The cost of about three thousand rupees was well worth it. Not a drop of rain water now leaves her home. Earlier, her family had to buy about 4000 litres from private suppliers every week. Sita's in laws who are from Karnataka used to find it very strange!

And when the monsoon failed Chennai in 2003, and storage in the 4 reservoirs at Red Hills, Poondi, Sholavaram and Chembarambakkam plummeted, the effect of Jayalalithaa’s far sighted rain water harvesting model came to the city’s rescue.

Consider the pattern. Chennai receives an average annual rainfall of 1300 millimetres. Most of this rainfall is from the North East monsoon that is between October & December, that occurs in heavy short spells of a few days or even a few hours.How can I forget the floods on the 26^th October, 2005, when the city received 220 millimetres of rain in 2 hours! As I drove my Gypsy to work that day, the vehicle's high ground clearance came in handy as water came up to my headlights! On an average, the city gets rain spread over 300 hours. Do the math. When 1300 millimetres of rainfall is harvested within the city over an area of 174 sq. kms, a yield of 125 litres per person per day, is possible, that will almost make residents self sufficient.At an individual level, if the entire rainfall is harvested throughout the year on a one ground plot or 2400 sq. ft. a yield of 700 litres of water per day is possible. If there are 5 members in a household, that works out to 140 litres per person per day; enough for bathing & washing clothes and utensils. Dr.Shekhar Raghavan, Director of Rain Centre, an NGO that helped create awareness attributes the success of the scheme to the combined strength of both. "Usually it's a case of activists versus the government. Here it was both joining hands."

Jayalalithaa’s double dose – of enforcement and awareness was one of the factors that helped solve Chennai’s chronic water scarcity. No new construction plan was sanctioned without a rain water harvesting completion certificate. And for a change, the government practised what it preached by installing rain water harvesting structures in all government buildings and flyovers. Today, as the Chennai Corporation is in the process of constructing storm water drains across 560 kms, the Commissioner Dr.D.Karthikeyan claims that a rain water harvesting provision is being made every 30 metres.

What a trickle down effect this had, quite literally, as well! As the experiment became a peoples movement, many big builders like the Ceebros Managing Director Subba Reddy, who today, owns the eco friendly Rain Tree hotels as well, ensured that the rain water harvesting plants in their projects were planned well and effective; and not mere show pieces.

The transformation of the city has not been restricted to the 4 reservoirs that serve as a barometer of the water table but has also brought the 29 temple tanks alive; all over again. If you want tangible proof of the impact of rain water harvesting, just look at temple tanks. The Kapali temple tank used to be bone dry and I remember seeing boys playing cricket on it about 10 or 12 years ago. Today, it is full to the brim.

The proof of rain water harvesting lies in the water table. In some areas, it has risen by about 10 to 15 metres. The quality of ground water has also vastly improved. But not all homes installed proper structures. A study in 2005 revealed that at least 40% of buildings in both commercial and residential areas had done mere window dressing just to escape punitive action. But with a sizeable chunk of harvesting systems working, the results have been encouraging. encouraging. Geo Hydrologists like Saravanan vouch for a drastic reduction in the iron and saline content of water after rainwater harvesting kicked in.

In politically volatile Tamilnadu, regime changes are characterised by reversal of decisions. Rain Water Harvesting has weathered many a political storm. So while the rest of India suffers a double whammy in summer – water scarcity and power shortage, Chennai is sitting pretty, at least on the water front.

Top Law Firms Eye Chennai Market

By Sanjay Pinto

The battle over the entry of foreign law firms may still be on. But Indian law firms are in an aggressive mood, opening branches in new cities. A few years ago, Kochhar & Co founded and managed by Rohit Kochhar opened its base in Chennai. The latest big entrant is Amarchand Mangaldas. This 95 year old award winning law firm with 69 partners and over 550 lawyers, launched its Chennai Office today, as part of its "String Of Pearls" strategy for South India. It's a full service law firm equipped to "provide end to end solutions to both international and domestic clients in the corporate arena, capital markets, mergers & acquisitions and real estate".

Tamilnadu has a strong family business culture. "This is the key driver and the prime booster in the market for us", reveals Dorothy Thomas,the head of the Chennai office. From companies like TTK, TVS, Murugappa Group, Kasturi & Sons (publishers of The Hindu newspaper), Sun TV, Apollo Hospitals, MRF, India Cements, the list of family owned or run enterprises, many of them now public limited companies, is endless. Succession planning, family disputes and mergers & acquisitions present ample scope for law firms in the region.

Billed as the 'Detroit Of Asia', Tamilnadu is also a manufacturing hub. With not just a concentration of IT & ITES companies, the State has a considerable presence in the service sector. The "single window clearance, the vision documents and the GDP growth rate of 9.3 per cent, the highest in the South" have attracted law firms. Cyril Shroff, Managing Partner of Amarchand Mangaldas feels "powerful Chief Ministers  who drive growth" is another draw.

However, law firms need to be wary of their fee structure. "Chennai is a price sensitive market", cautions Bharat Vasani, Chief Legal & Group General Counsel of the Tata Group. But the former Chairman of the Securities & Exchange Board Of India (SEBI) M.Damodaran, who was present at the firm's launch, seemed convinced that with Amarchand Mangaldas's "top quality legal service", the growth trajectory in this space is poised for an upward movement.

The Madras High Court, one of the oldest chartered courts in India, has seen a galaxy of legal luminaries like V.L.Ethiraj,  former Attorney General K.Parasaran and stalwarts like Govind Swaminathan. The  'senior-junior' working relationship may be still quite strong but it has also slowly given rise to the 'firm' culture. There was a time when Chennai hardly had any law firms, King & Patridge, being one of the few in existence. Quite a few bright young lawyers, in their thirties, have started out on their own. Like HSB Partners - started, among others, by Srinath Sridevan, the son of former High Court judge Justice Prabha Sridevan. The firm has a  posh, sprawling office in a commercial complex in the heart of the city with 3 partners and 35 associates. Or BFS Legal, another full service law firm that boasts of over a hundred companies and organisations  as clients and an annual turnover of over one crore.

So while Delhi and Mumbai were earlier seen as the natural habitat of those who want to reach the top echelons in the legal profession, Chennai is emerging as the next hot destination. The entry of Amarchand Mangaldas will just reinforce that status. And with a vibrant film industry here, don't be surprised if, quite like the Boston Legal TV series, we soon have a Chennai equivalent!

Good Samaritans Pitch In To Help New Born Twins In Chennai

By Sanjay Pinto

What insurance companies refused to do, NDTV viewers/readers and the general public have done. The seemingly insensitive, intransigent, commercial face of an insurance company that was perhaps all too eager to escape a claim for coverage of twin infants in the neo natal ICU, by hiding behind the devil in the fine print of the policy  has been offset by the spontaneous generosity of public spirited citizens, including Non Resident Indians. You sometimes don't need the government or its agencies or its toothless regulators to help you when you have so many well meaning, caring individuals.
Barely two hours after my blog:
 http://www.ndtv.com/article/south/blog-newborn-twins-in-hospital-leave-this-family-desperate-for-help-242364
was uploaded, offers and contributions from people moved by the plight of the family, started coming in. The babies' father Bharath started getting text messages from people in other cities like Kolkatta, and even from NRIs in the United States. At the time of writing this piece, Rs.63,250 (Rupees Sixty Three Thousand Two Hundred & Fifty Only) has been contributed by the following good samaritans:
Shailaj Kumar. L  - Rs.20,000. 
Vineet Bhatia - Rs.15,000. 
Deepali & Venky - Rs.10,250. 
Sanvi & Vidan Pinto - Rs.5000. 
Reema Nath  - Rs.3000. 
Amit Kumar Hasmukhlal M - Rs.3000. 
A well wisher - Rs.2000. 
Vijayakumar V.S - Rs.2000. 
Atanu Lodh - Rs.1000. 
Athmagopal Rao - Rs.1000. 
Divya Saxena - Rs.1000. 

This amount raised is almost a reimbursement of all the medical expenses so far.
In this day and age, to put your money where your sympathies lie, is not easy. This act of helping total strangers, expecting nothing in return, not even a mention in this blog, is commendable and warms the cockles of my heart. Thank you, folks. May God bless you all. These gestures remind me of what our NDTV Chairman Dr.Prannoy Roy said during the inauguration of the NDTV Viewers-Helpage India Elders Village in Cuddalore after the tsunami. "Indians are really generous when they know their money will be spent for a good cause." How true.  

An emotional Bharath, the father of the twin babies, says he is "very grateful and happy". The money, he says, will be used to pay the existing hospital bill and also to move them back to the bigger hospital for the best treatment as the insurance company goes through its red tape rigmarole.
The condition of the babies, I am told, is better. The parents exude a new found confidence. Not just because of the Vitamin M but also the prayers, positive thoughts and good wishes of all those who have read about their plight. I have always believed that meaningful journalism is about being an instrument of change, however small it is. Not about TRPs.

Squashing Gender Equality?

By Sanjay Pinto

In a cricket crazy country obsessed with the demand for a Bharat Ratna for Sachin Tendulkar, the spotlight is slowly being thrown on a male chauvinistic mindset in Indian sport. Just recently, Sania Mirza took pot shots at the tennis association for using her as "a bait"  in pairing players for the upcoming Olympics. Joining the chorus is India No.1 and World No.15 squash champion Dipika Pallikal, whose nomination for the Arjuna award seems to have run into rough weather.

For starters, the Squash Federation, which, like all other sports bodies, got the Arjuna award nomination forms in January this year. It chose not to nominate Dipika, although she has broken into the top 15 in the world. Incidentally, squash enthusiasts point out that the federation had nominated a male player - Saurav Goshal for this award in 2007, although he was not among the top 20 and is still aiming to storm into the top 15 league.

Dipika is disappointed but says "Sport has always been male dominated in our country". What seems to rankle most is that she has been in "great form over the last several months having won a slew of tournaments". In May this year, Dipika won the Gold at the Asian Seniors  beating World No.6 Anne Au of Hong Kong. Three months earlier, she bagged the Silver at the World Cup in Chennai. Towards the end of last year, her winning streak with the Orange County WISPA in Los Angeles in September, the Washington Open in October and the Crocodile Cup in Hong Kong in December, was all too obvious to be missed. "The Arjuna award is a recognition of hard work and merit. If there is any time I deserve it, it is now", adds the 20 year old sensation who spurned lucrative film offers to focus on her game.

Dipika's mother Susan Pallikal, a former all rounder in the Indian women's cricket team, who functions as her manager and escort, has been struggling to get the nomination in place. When the Squash Federation didn't forward Dipika's name, Susan knocked at the door of the Sports Development Authority Of Tamilnadu (SDAT). Unfortunately, some officials here seem to have dragged their feet over the nomination and the deadline of the 30th of April was not met. I have a copy of a letter  dated 31st May written by the Member Secretary of SDAT M.Vijayakumar, to the Union Sports Secretary, in which the IAS official admits that "due to administrative delay the applications were sent late to the Government Of India through the Government Of Tamilnadu." The letter goes on to say that "the delay is not on the part of the applicants." (Tamilnadu athlete Renjith Maheshwari is the other nominee).

Officials in the Squash Federation have been evasive. Susan Pallikal has petitioned Sports Minister Ajay Maken. The Sports Ministry has now extended the deadline for nominations to the 20th of this month. The move is being seen as an attempt to accomodate the Board Of Control For Cricket In India (BCCI); a charge the Ministry denies.

As the wait continues, Dipika says she prefers to "let my medals  do the talking". But an Arjuna award for a squash player at this stage can "brighten the game's chances of being included in the Olympics in 2020".

Mediclaim Policies: Devil In The Fine Print?

By Sanjay Pinto

Tamilnadu's Chief Electoral Officer Praveen Kumar made news recently when he chose to bring his father from North India and admit him in a government hospital in Chennai for treatment. That may well be seen as a refreshing departure from those in the corridors of power who would usually prefer corporate hospitals. But the treatment of a close relative of a senior IAS Officer in a government establishment will not be the same as what a common man can expect or even dream of.

This piece is about the common man. And what ordinary people go through when they visit hospitals. A few days ago, my personal driver Narayanan became a grand father. Just like me, his son was blessed with twin babies - a girl and a boy. It was a premature delivery; two full months ahead of the actual due date. And how did the gynaecologist, who refers cases to a hospital run by a trust, treat this case? Quite simply, by not turning up for the delivery! Why? Because, she allegedly prefers to do only caesarian operations, possibly for a fee. This is what the patient heard. The divine hand ensured that it was a normal delivery and the staff nurses managed on their own. But as the premature babies weighed just 1.2 kgs and 1.8 kgs, they had to be rushed to a neo natal ICU to the closest hospital, which happened to be a corporate entity. This is where my babies were also born and I can vouch for dedication of the doctors and nurses here. To keep the 2 babies in an incubator, the estimated cost  was close to twenty thousand rupees a day. That's twice the monthly salary of my driver.  

The young father Bharath is an employee of a software company. I had got him placed here through a friend who owned the company but later sold his stake. The magic mediclaim wand was flashed. Cashless hospitalisation that glib talking agents promise often proves to be a misnomer. The family had to cough up an advance of twenty  thousand rupees for the admission of the two precious twin babies. Under a legitimate belief that the bill would be covered by the mediclaim policy, the parents decided to give the new born babies the best possible treatment. 

Four days on, there is a bombshell. The mediclaim scheme they were under, was valid only for the employee and 3 family members, who at the time of signing up, were his wife and his parents. The option of replacing the parents' names with the children in the womb had not been exercised as it was a two month premature  delivery. My driver tried to seek a clarification from the insurance agent who was downright rude and banged the phone down. I spoke to the Chief Operating Officer of the third party administrator (TPA) and sought her intervention for this deserving case. I had a word with the HR Manager of the employee in question, who advised the young father to mail a request to replace his parents' names with the infants. I had a chat with the paediatrician at the private hospital whose colleague was treating the babies and they were kind enough to reduce their fee. But the ICU bill was close to sixty thousand rupees and counting. The TPA Chief expressed her helplessness as the infants were not covered and they would be eligible only 2 days after the request to include their names was received. That would push up the bill to close to a lakh; money that would not be reimbursed. And there was no indication of how long the hospitalisation would last. The family decided to shift the infants to a smaller hospital and cough up the bill of about sixty thousand. 

I have questions for our insurance companies, for the Insurance Regulatory & Development Authority, for Third Party Administrators, for insurance agents, for hospitals, for doctors, for HR departments, for the government: 

Why are unborn children not automatically covered by default in all mediclaim policies, at least of those holders under 30? Shouldn't unborn children have the right to the best treatment under every existing policy? What do insurance companies mean by cashless hospitalisation? Why is their mindset anti patient, anti claim and pro exclusion clauses? Why do insurance agents think their job is only to collect fat commissions and make themselves scarce when they are really needed? Why do hospitals almost always insist on advance payment? Aren't  stated and brazen preferences for C-Section surgeries against medical ethics? Why do HR departments think their job is only to hire and fire and do assessments and the odd team bonding stuff? What about flagging and anticipating such situations earlier? How did the government allow insurance companies to have a slew of exclusions hemmed into their policies that are clearly detrimental to public interest? And fairplay? And ground realities? Why do VVIPs in other countries prefer government hospitals unlike India, where bigwigs troop to the best private hospitals abroad for treatment? Should the fine print in a medical insurance policy be more important than the bottom line: to bail us out in an emergency?
I'm sure many of you reading this have the same questions in mind. Feel free to add more. For now, I speak for the two 4 day old infants being moved out from one neo natal ICU to another. They would probably like to tell the insurance company: "You Ignored Our Very First Cry."

Chennai’s Legal 'Peg' To Drunken Driving

By Sanjay Pinto

When you drive past Chennai especially on weekends a little before the earlier Cinderella hour of 11 pm, you may end up remembering that song ‘Every Breath You Take…’ by the Police. Seeing is remembering! The sight of motorists asked to blow into breath analysers or right into the faces of traffic cops to detect drunkenness is hard to miss. Those who fail the test are bundled into police vans and taken to the nearest Govt hospital for a blood test. Anyone with more than 30 mg of alcohol in 100 ml of blood is certified to be ‘under the influence of alcohol’ and booked for drunken driving. All along, this meant a fine of two thousand rupees. Not anymore. A mobile court in the city recently sentenced 5 offenders to simple imprisonment for 15 days.  

The punishment has sent Chennaiites into a tizzy and is being seen as a form of judicial activism. The magistrates have merely used a bottled up provision in Section 185 of the Motor Vehicles Act which prescribes imprisonment upto 6 months and/or a fine and if repeated within 3 years, an enhanced penalty of  a 2 year jail term and/or  a  fine of three thousand rupees. 

Is this a deterrent or draconian?  Aasim Shehzad, a criminal lawyer in the Madras High Court, is convinced that “ the trauma that goes with a jail term, whatever be the period, even if it is for 1 day, is far more deterrent than just coughing up a fine of two thousand rupees.” 

Divya, a college student disagrees. “Taking away a person’s liberty is serious. Taking away the driving licence is simpler.” The proposal to suspend or cancel licences of errant motorists ran into rough weather in Chennai. Divya adds “How can we rule out harassment or extortion by cops when the punishment is so severe? And how equipped are they to check drunkenness?” The 67 traffic police stations in the city all have breath analysers. But is that enough to keep pace with the vehicle explosion? 

Interestingly,  this new measure almost coincides with the latest report of the National Crime Records Bureau that flags Chennai as the city with the most unsafe roads and the highest fatal accidents. And there is no sign of last year’s 1513 deaths on the roads coming down. The last 6 months have already seen more than 700 fatalities. 

If that is not alarming enough, consider this. The Tamilnadu Government has decided to allow bars in 5 star hotels in Chennai and Tiruchirapalli, which have international  airports, to remain open round the clock on payment of an annual privilege fee that  now stands at 16 lakh rupees. Similar leeway in 5 star hotels in Madurai and Coimbatore would attract double the privilege fee. Pubs in other places which earlier had to strictly play the last song or serve the last drink at 10 minutes to 11 pm or face the police music, have an extra hour till midnight. On condition of anonymity, a General Manager of a leading 5 star hotel in Chennai says “the extended timing will actually bring down the prevalence of drunken driving as it will obviate binge drinking while looking at the watch!”  

The ‘drink and driver’ service offered by a few star hotels seems to have fizzled out. Dr.Manoj Beno, Medical Director of Billroth Hospitals and a regular face in the city’s party circuit, rues “in other countries, a call taxi or cab service at odd hours is very strong and reliable. Here it isn’t.” 

Just how can we forget the Tamilnadu Government owned and run TASMAC (Tamilnadu State Marketing Corporation) liquor retail shops? The State has a monopoly over the wholesale and retail vending of alcohol, through its 6823 outlets. TASMAC’s net income in 2010-11 is a staggering 14,965 crore; an almost 20 per cent jump every year.

(Source: TASMAC)

An official from the Excise Department reveals that “the revenue from alcohol sales is almost half of the State’s annual tax revenues.” 

Is it any surprise that the brisk sale of booze has led to a corresponding ‘steady’ spike in the incidence of drunken driving in the city? In 2010, 12,335 cases of drunken driving were registered by the traffic police. It went up to 16,538 cases in 2011. In the last 6 months alone, that figure stands at 9718. 

(Source: Chennai City Traffic Police)  

The devil may be in the drink but also in the interpretation. Sanjay Arora, Additional Commissioner Of Police (Traffic) Chennai says “more cases mean stricter enforcement.” 

 8197 people in Chennai were injured in accidents last year; 4027 so far this year. But there are no reports to pin point how many drunken driving cases lead to accidents; even if they are not fatal or result in injuries. Sources also reveal a big factor that results in under reporting of drunken driving cases. As the offence is an exclusion in an insurance claim (as drunken driving is not considered an accident in insurance parlance), in order to help victims and accused persons, some government doctors do not stamp blood samples with the drunken seal and the traffic investigation officials too stop short of registering a drunken driving case.  

Usha, a mother of two young women, feels that “even if it doesn’t have a salutary effect on driving, jail terms will probably make people behave as many often create a scene at TASMAC shops after a swig.” 

Incidentally, in February this year, Justice K.Chandru of the Madras High Court had ordered the closure of quite a few TASMAC shops in the vicinity of schools or places of worship. The judiciary to the rescue again.

First Off The Block But Way Off The Mark

By Sanjay Pinto

When television news took the media industry by storm, there were those initial doubts about the electronic and print media coexisting. There were those cartoons (oops, that’s a bad word today!) and one liners: “Today’s TV bulletin is tomorrow’s newspaper front page.” Time has been the best ‘feeler’! Today, if a TV report is like an FIR, a newspaper or magazine story is like a chargesheet. One, immediate and slightly superficial; and the other, more in depth.

Enter the social media. There is a surfeit of resentment over the mainstream media. Yet, the two end up as rather strange bedfellows. They complement each other. And there is no question of one gobbling up the other. While the television and print media are a convenient and sometimes justifiable whipping post, facebook and twitter are an instantaneous source of raw information, not always entirely accurate.

As someone who is active in both worlds; riding as I do, a horse and a pony, let me give you a classic example. The bus falling off the flyover in Chennai. The story broke first on twitter. News desks were franctically copying, pasting and mailing tweets from eyewitnesses. And before camera teams and outdoor broadcast vans could weave through the traffic jam and reach the spot, there were a few twitter savvy passers by who managed to click pictures of the accident site and upload them. But just how accurate were the tweets? This is where perception is so easily allowed to cloud reality. The sight of an almost overturned bus and ten ambulances with blaring sirens is alarming but need not necessarily mean twenty five deaths. A smashed parapet wall need not leave a question mark over the structural stability of the flyover. An onlooker’s version about the bus driver clutching a mobile phone need not imply that he was talking on the mobile phone while driving over the flyover. There were tweets that suggested all the above. First off the block can also mean way off the mark! The only casualty here was accuracy. The twitterati are accountable to no one. The mainstream media is accountable to readers, viewers, regulatory bodies and the law of the land.

While the reliability of information in a breaking or evolving news story may be an issue, we just cannot afford to brush aside the collective intelligence of the social media. I’ve come across some of the wittiest comments, the most novel ideas and great perspective on this platform. Not long ago, when I was like a Ranji team skipper of a metro television channel, calling the shots and playing my own innings; as opposed to a twelfth man carrying drinks to the field in a national side (!) I had introduced a small segment ‘Writing On The Wall’, exclusively on facebook wallposts and tweets. The ratings were quite encouraging. An indication of the quality of content in this space.

Good stuff spreads fast, with either ‘likes’ (yes, the demand for the ‘dislike’ button on facebook is still alive) or tweets being ‘favourited’ or ‘retweeted’.

A few years ago, a television channel had a show called ‘My News’, where viewers played ‘News Editor’ by ranking stories of their choice. Today, there are programmes based on what is ‘trending’ online. Why, there is even a show called ‘Trending’! Not only has the social media crept into the media mindset, it is now also an inevitable part of news jargon.

If at all there is any part of the mainstream media that must be feeling the heat, it would be the news wires, which incidentally, are now hyperactive on twitter.

Where the social media scores over the mainstream media is in prioritising news. There is no ‘Republic Of South India’ here! No Delhi or Mumbai centric slant. All regions are even Stevens. So on the day of the bus accident, when national channels  dropped live reports due to a Rehman Malik press conference and went overboard with discussions on Pakistan and Sania Mirza’s outburst, the only saving grace was facebook and twitter. Now you know why I prefaced 'whipping post' with 'justifiable' ?

Public Sympathy Through Inconvenience?

By Sanjay Pinto

Metro rail work, plus 'One Way' changes, plus  a DMK agitation plus sudden traffic diversions. That's a deadly cocktail and prescription for a nightmare in daylight for commuters in Chennai. On normal days, traffic crawls at places like the Kodambakkam bridge. You can imagine the plight of motorists today. At least a thousand party workers gathered to court arrest at twenty places across the city, including arterial stretches like Mount Road, Beach Road and Saidapet, during a peak hour. Has anyone spared a thought for the inconvenience caused to the common man struggling to get to work to earn his daily bread and wage a losing battle against inflation? 

Political parties will argue that in a democracy, everyone has a right to protest, within the framework of the law. Quite. But what do they hope to achieve by this very public busy traffic intersection angst? The common man affected today is the potential 'employer' of people who block roads! If the goal of political parties is to garner public support, create public sympathy and build public opinion for a particular cause, how can you possibly hope to achieve anything remotely close to that, by causing inconvenience to this very section? Rallying resentment is like a fox trot in any quest to win people over.  

Now if the average office goers had a harrowing time reaching their work places, they may need to brace themselves for an action replay this evening. This is when those who courted arrest are likely to be released. Painfully enough, again during rush hour traffic. When that happens, you will probably hear victory chants. But don't miss the curses of the average motorist stuck again in a jam after a tiring day.

A Controversy Over Pranab’s Chennai Visit

By Sanjay Pinto

Away from the almost mutual admiration society between Pranab da and Karunanidhi and the colourful welcome and grand feast hosted in the UPA Presidential nominee’s honour on Saturday, a controversy has erupted over the start of the former Union Finance Minister’s campaign in Chennai.   

Cut to the mutual animosity between the ruling AIADMK and the UPA ally, the DMK. As both sides, are quite expectedly, backing different Presidential candidates, the sparks are already flying.  

Now, there could be a reason why Karunanidhi chose his C.I.T Colony residence over his Gopalapuram home, to meet Defence Minister A.K. Antony, who was the emissary for the initial talks between the UPA and its allies down South and the reception for Pranab Mukherjee. C.I.T Colony is his daughter Kanimozhi’s home. And the doting father probably wanted her to be present and inevitably bask in the national limelight. 

The AIADMK was quick to cry foul. “How can a Presidential candidate who should be above politics visit the home of a 2G accused?” This prompted the DMK to hit back, citing the disproportionate assets case against the Chief Minister and how P.A.Sangma met her and sought her support for his Presidential race.  

To be fair to both sides, no one has been convicted and the trial is still on. Even under the Representation Of People Act, a disqualification to contest arises only after a conviction and a sentence to imprisonment for more than 2 years. And if you can rub shoulders in Parliament, you can’t do an encore at home?! 

 Jayalalithaa has been acquitted in 11 cases already and this is the last legal hurdle. By that presumption of innocence, meeting persons accused of offences is not out of line, as long as the visitor is not in a position to influence the outcome of that trial. Pranab Mukherjee has already resigned from his post as  Finance Minister and is still a nominee for the top job at Rashrapati Bhavan. Sangma too is on the same pedestal. It’s not the same as being the President! But then politics is not always about logic!