WORLD WIDE MIRROR

Tisca Chopra wanted to test her funny bone, only Bollywood had nothing to offer other than dark and dramatic. It didn't help either that some 45 films later, she was being offered roles of "bhabhi" or "beeji". "I'm not ready to be a fringe character floating around supporting what men are doing," says Tisca, whose last feature, The Hungry, an adaptation of Titus Andronicus, released on Amazon Prime. "Where are our stories that resonate?" In 2016, she established the production house, The Eastern Way, and adapted a Bhisham Sahni story into the short film Chutney. Playing the wicked wife who knows how to hold her husband's lover's attention with a morbid tale, the film has amassed over 120 million views since it was uploaded in November 2016. "The medium is very democratising," says Tisca, having recently produced and acted in another short, Chhuri. "You have an idea and you don't need much money [to make it]. Fi...

Vegan Cure Fat? Then Type 2 diabetes may not be far behind. How to escape it? Turn vegan. Recent research says a low-fat vegan diet could prevent diabetes in those overweight. Obese people who switched to a vegan diet for 16 weeks showed improvements in insulin sensitivity and in the functioning of pancreatic beta cells. Not only did they experience a significant reduction in their Body Mass Index, compared with the control group, "the vegan group experienced increases in insulin secretion after eating," says lead study author Dr Hana Kahleova of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine in Washington DC. Writing in the journal Nutrients, she said the findings have "important implications for diabetes prevention". Those who adhered to the vegan diet also experienced reduction in blood sugar levels during meals and while fasting. So fruits, vegetables, legumes and grains in a healthful plant-based diet, without calorie restriction, holds hope in checking ...

The reimposition of long-term capital gains tax (LTCG) on equity investments elicited mixed reactions, but most industry experts believe it will not have a significant impact on domestic equity investment inflows over the long term. There will now be a 10 per cent tax on capital gains exceeding Rs 1 lakh, accrued from equity investments held for over a year. All capital gains accrued up to January 31, 2018, though, are 'grandfathered', meaning they are exempt from the new tax. For example, assume you made an investment on April 15, 2017, and accrued capital gains of Rs 1.2 lakh by January 31, 2018, and that this amount further grew to Rs 1.5 lakh by April 16, 2018, you would have to pay a 10 per cent tax only on Rs 30,000 or the gains exceeding Rs 1 lakh made after January 31. In addition to LTCG, there's also a 10 per cent tax on distributed income from equity-oriented mutual fund (MF) schemes. So, if you have opted for the dividend option of an equity- oriented sche...

Forty-year-old Nikhil Kaushik, who runs Fortcaps Health Care at the Govindpura Industrial Estate in Bhopal, is a worried man. His small drug company, with an annual turnover of Rs 35 crore, makes capsules for big pharma, and the twin disruptions of demonetisation and GST have all but derailed his business. Profits had already slipped 30 per cent after demonetisation, and the imposition of a 28 per cent GST on capsules-compared to the 12.5 per cent excise duty earlier-was a double whammy, badly affecting sales in June and July last year. The story was the same for a large part of the MSME (micro, small and medium enterprises) sector in the country. For Kaushik, a rejig of GST rates later brought the applicable tax rate down to 18 per cent, but any relief on that account will be neutralised by the e-way bill for movement of goods. Financing woes The MSME sector, consisting of around 60 million firms, contributes 30 per cent to India's GDP. The sector also contributes 45 per cent ...

Featuring an adorable blue octopus skating freely on the ice ring, the doodle depicted the eight-armed mollusk named 'Magpie' twirling, jumping and mimicking some of the best ice-skating moves. As athletes continue to fight for the top spot at the 2018 Winter Olympic Games, adorable cartoon animals are busy playing snowy games. And as spectacular performances by the participants mesmerises sports buffs at the PyeongChang 2018, Google has been wowing them with its amazing doodles. For Day 16, the search engine giant decided to focus on free skating. Featuring an adorable blue octopus skating freely on the ice ring, the doodle depicted the eight-armed mollusk twirling, jumping and mimicking some of the best ice-skating moves. The doodle captured the performance of cute blue squid ‘Magpie’ and even showed how it defeated other competitors, including a crocodile and bear. “Giant Squid awards Octopus a perfect eight out of eight, but Gator siphons off a point,” the description o...

The Maharashtra government recently unveiled an incentive policy for the construction of affordable low-cost houses on private lands under the Centre’s ‘housing for all’ initiative. Conceptual Advisory Services LLP, a firm in which Sun Pharmaceuticals executive director Sudhir Valia and his wife Raksha are designated partners, has signed a Rs 25,000-crore memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Maharashtra government for building one lakh affordable houses, on a partnership basis, on private land. Valia is also the brother-in-law of Sun Pharma’s Managing Director Dilip Shanghvi. Records show that the Valias’ firm was incorporated on January 18, 2018, and that the “total obligation of contribution (of the partners) of the LLP is Rs 1 lakh”. The MoU was signed on the sidelines of the recently-held Magnetic Maharashtra business conclave in Mumbai’s Bandra Kurla Complex. The Maharashtra government recently unveiled an incentive policy for the construction of affordable low-cost house...

At first glance, it is impossible to spot it. On the first floor of a rundown two-storey building, sandwiched between the ‘Golden’ bag shop on the ground floor and a carrom parlour on the second level, lies the Yuvraj Saoji Bhojnalaya — the restaurant that is said to have introduced the fiery, oily Saoji cuisine to the world. Well, at least, commercially. The restaurant, which celebrated its diamond jubilee a couple of years ago, is located at the busy corner of Ganjhaket Chowk in Nagpur, and is now run by Hukum Girmaji Umredkar, oldest surviving son of Girmaji, the founder of the restaurant. As we climb the rickety wooden staircase, holding a rope suspended from the upper floor for support, it is evident that business is not as it used to be. “Earlier, we used to have 10-12 staffers, now it’s down to half the number, so we have to run a lot of errands ourselves,” he says. Today, an ‘authentic’ Saoji restaurant stands at multiple corners of the city. “Saoji has become so popular, that...