Nation has strained to provide justice to Kasab - when will it do to the victims ?

Have you heard of  Sir William Blackstone – an eminent English Jurist, Judge and Tory politician of the eighteenth century.

There are some who fear the society and would delay every action of theirs thinking what others would think of thyself ! – India exhibits itself to be a group of such people – it sought to ensure that the perpetrator of the most heinous crime against the Nation was given all the benefits, and arranged for defence who cited his age for leniency – after expending crores of Rupees and excruciatingly slow and painful months, Justice at last seems to have been delivered by the Highest Court – the Supreme Court of India – all after the Govt spent from its coffers, the cost of keeping Ajmal Kasab alive through interrogations, jail terms, sentences, appeals and counter appeals.  Now the legal process has culminated as the Apex Court upheld the death sentence.

Now there is some unnecessary debate on what the next step should be – whether the culprit would file a mercy petition and how long it would take for that to be decided and whether it has to follow the order of the 21 others waiting for decision.  The first question is – Why ?  -  Why should a mercy petition at all be entertained ?  It should be a route whereby some who had committed a murder or crime in a fit of rage and who otherwise deserve to be reviewed be allowed – should that route be made available to all and if so, what is the purpose of Courts and Appeals and the decisions by such bodies.  Has there not been enough evidence and is not the decision of final Appellate authority final and binding……

Before Kasab, those waiting includes Balwant Singh Rajaona, convicted for the murder of former Punjab, Rajiv Gandhi killers and Afzal Guru, the Parliament attacker. Afzal Guru was ordered to be hanged on October 20, 2006, but his wife filed the mercy plea and it has been in abeyance ever since.  Rajiv Gandhi’s gory murder occurred on 21^st May 1991; the Supreme Court affirmed their sentence; President Pratibha Patil rejected the clemency petitions of Murugan, Santhan, Perarivalan - killers of Rajiv Gandhi whose death sentences were confirmed by the Supreme Court in 2000.  The Home Ministry had sent its opinion on June 21, 2005 which was called back for review on February 23, 2011 and was re-submitted to the President on March 8 this year.  When will the President decide ?

Ahead of Thursday’s meeting between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and President Asif Ali Zardari, India today said it was sure that Pakistan would not fail to take note of the Supreme Court verdict upholding the death sentence of Ajmal Kasab, the lone surviving terrorist in the 26/11 attacks.  Asserting that the issue of terrorism was of concern to the international community, External Affairs Minister SM Krishna said the entire gamut of bilateral ties will be discussed during the Indo-Pak talks, implying that terror will be the prime focus during the parleys.  Asserting that India has provided enough evidence to show involvement of not only non-state actors but also of official hierarchy in 26/11 attacks, government sources said Singh will raise the issue of terrorism, which is of prime concern to the country, with Zardari, who is arriving in Tehran on Thursday to participate in the 16th NAM summit.

India recently alleged that the exodus and trouble after Assam riots were created by hate SMSs emanating from Pakistan and quite strangely faltered to provide any concrete evidence. Worser, there are dissenting voices.  Pakistan  expressed disappointment with India's allegation that more than a quarter of the hate SMSs and inflammatory online content against the north-eastern people in the wake of the Assam violence had originated from Pakistan. Pakistan's foreign minister Hina Rabbani Khar sounded condescending: 'We need to find a more mature way to handle all these issues because they will emerge and continue to haunt us.

In a departure from the earlier high pitch, External affairs minister S.M. Krishna, who is also in Tehran to attend the summit, told journalists that while the issue of hate mails had led to a lot of commotion, it would be raised at an 'appropriate level'. Sources in the MEA said the home ministry was yet to share evidence or 'even a single page' with them.

Now after making wild assertions and trying to exhibit the foreign hand behind the internal trouble, the PMO and MEA are trying to soften up as a prelude to a possible visit by Manmohan to the neighbouring country.  While one Ministry accused Pakistan, the Home Secretary is giving a clan chit to the Pak and its agencies – claiming that they never spoke of them as behind posting the morphed pictures… Home minister Sushil Kumar Shinde was also at a loss of words to explain the developments, only saying that there is 'some evidence' which will be shared with Pakistan at an appropriate time.  The Govt falters on every count and puts the Nation to shame…..

Sure you have heard this in many Court scenes in movies – that ‘criminals can be allowed to escape – but not a single innocent person should be punished’.  In criminal law, Blackstone's formulation is the principle: "better that ten guilty persons escape than that one innocent suffer", expressed by the English jurist William Blackstone in his Commentaries on the Laws of England, published in the 1760s.

With regards – S. Sampathkumar.

the Dutch plane incident at Schilpol was no hijack !

I had earlier posted of a Dutch plane possibly hijacked and the busy airport of Schiphol  becoming most searched place in the internet. The plane was immediately surrounded by security forces. Police suspect the aircraft, with 183 people onboard, was hijacked. According to Dutch media, the plane was flying into the Netherlands from Malaga, in Spain.  That post  was based on first reports that were available………

Later it was revealed that the entire episode was on a mistaken belief – simply a miscommunication !!!!  -  Two F-16 fighter jets were scrambled by the Dutch Defence Ministry to intercept the airbus, which was bound for Amsterdam's Schiphol airport from Malaga.  They went supersonic in their efforts to catch up - but when the plane landed, security forces discovered that there was no hijacking, and the confusion was down to miscommunication.  Police said the pilot had failed to make radio contact after entering Dutch airspace, arousing suspicion with air traffic control that the plane had been hijacked.

But more questions would remain on how a major airport used by 45 million people a year could have built over a live bomb.  Builders digging around Terminal C at Schiphol Amsterdam uncovered the device wedged deep underground.   The  authorities evacuated parts of the airport after workers found the unexploded bomb, forcing airlines to delay and cancel some flights.  The German bomb was discovered buried underground near the transport hub's busy Terminal C, which handles flights to most major European destinations, the Dutch Defence Ministry said in a statement.  The bomb is thought to have been dropped by the RAF or American Airforce during raids between 1940 and 1944, when Schiphol was used by the German Luftwaffe.  There were regular day and night raids on the then military airbase, especially because the Nazi airforce could use it to launch raids on nearby countries including Britain.  Allied bombs weighing 550lb were regularly dropped, all containing complicated chemical fuses which could trigger at any time.  The RAF and USAAF dropped huge payloads of bombs on Nazi positions all over the Netherlands, as part of the 2.8million tons used to flatten vast areas of German-occupied Europe.

Even though the war ended 67 years ago, ordnance is still found all over Holland, just as it is in neighbouring countries such as France, and Germany itself.  It is  highly unusual to find a bomb in a heavily populated area like one of the world’s biggest airports.  It is being explored whether the  unexploded bomb found at Schiphol Airport be detonated in a controlled explosion like a similar-sized device was yesterday in Munich, Germany?

With regards – S. Sampathkumar.

With full credits to www.dailymail.co.uk for the inputs and the photos

Amsterdam's Schiphol in news - Dutch plane hijacked ?

Suddenly the busy airport of Schiphol is becoming most searched place in the internet. Schiphol is an important European airport, ranking as Europe’s 4th busiest and the world's 12th busiest by total passenger traffic.  Reportedly, 49.8 million passengers passed through the airport in 2011, a 10% increase compared with 2010.  Schiphol's main competitors in terms of passenger traffic and cargo throughput are London Heathrow Airport, Frankfurt Airport, Paris-Charles de Gaulle Airport and Madrid-Barajas Airport.

Amsterdam Airport Schiphol is the Netherlands' main international airport, located 20 minutes  southwest of Amsterdam, in the municipality of Haarlemmermeer. The airport's official English name, Amsterdam Airport Schiphol, reflects the original Dutch word order.  The airport used to have the IATA code of SPL, which has fallen into disuse and has been replaced by AMS.

It is news because a passenger plane reported to have a hijacker and hostages on board has landed at Amsterdam's Schiphol airport.  Reports  states that Dutch defence ministry suspects a hijacker is on board a plane which has landed at Schiphol airport. Some reports suggest that a unit of the Spanish airline Vueling intercepted by two F-16s of the Air Force and then guided landed at Schiphol.

The plane was immediately surrounded by security forces. Police suspect the aircraft, with 183 people onboard, was hijacked. According to Dutch media, the plane was flying into the Netherlands from Malaga, in Spain.  The F-16s took off from Volkel airbase after no radio contact could be made with the pilots, as confirmed by the Ministry of Defence reports www.nu.nl.  

The plane is reported to be an Airbus flight number VY 8366 with 183 passengers on board.  There are conflicting reports with  Vueling owner denying the  hijacking.   According to a spokesman the fears were fuelled based on a misunderstanding in communication between the pilot and the control tower. The plane, according to the spokesperson or deviated from its course, but that was because the instructions of the Dutch fighter pilots.   There reportedly has been no radio contact was with the pilot which prompted people to think that something is wrong. 

In an unrelated incident reported by BBC – the Schiphol airport  was closed and people evacuated  after a suspected World War II bomb was discovered.  It is reported that the departure hall serving most European destinations has been evacuated as a precautionary measure. Delays and cancellations are now affecting some flights and passengers are advised to check before leaving for the airport.

A bomb disposal team is now dealing with the device. The bomb was uncovered by workers digging near Pier C, which connects the main plaza with Departure Hall One, serving most destinations within Europe's 26-country passport-free Schengen zone.

Schiphol was used as a military airfield by Nazi Germany during the 1939-45 war, and was often attacked by allied bombers, Dutch media said.  Unexploded bombs dating back to the war are still frequently discovered in Europe. A 550lb (250kg) American bomb was detonated by a bomb disposal team in the German city of Munich on Tuesday. A 1.5-tonne mortar bomb probably fired by Nazi forces was also safely removed from the Polish capital, Warsaw.

With regards – S. Sampathkumar.
29th Aug 2012 @ 18.40 hrs

Supreme Court confirms death sentence of Kasab...

The Q rankles – Are we not too soft on terrorism ? Should Govt be so elaborate in protecting the interests in the killer or in trying to exhibit to the World that our Judicial process is untarnished even to a killer who plotted and traumatized the Nation ??

Close to 4 years from the ghastly incident and eighteen months after the Mumbai High Court handed out the death sentence to 24-year-old Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorist Mohammad Ajmal Amir Kasab for the November 26, 2008 attacks in Mumbai, the Supreme Court today has confirmed the sentence.  The Supreme Court  today upheld the death sentence of Pakistani terrorist Ajmal Kasab in the Mumbai terror attacks case. Dismissing Kasab’s plea that he was not given a fair trial in the case, the court said “waging war against the country is the primary and foremost offence committed by Kasab. We are left with no option but to uphold the death sentence of Kasab”.  Kasab and his nine fellow jihadis had attacked CST railway station, Cama Hospital, Vinoli Chaupati junction, Oberoi Hotel, Taj Hotel, Nariman House and Leopold cafe in Mumbai on November 26, 2008 resulting in killing of 166 people and injuring 238 others. A two-judge bench of the apex court pronounced the judgement at 10.30am.

The apex court said the trial court had made repeated attempts o provide him with a lawyer but he had spurned the offer initially and said he did not want to accept Indian lawyers.  Earlier, the Bombay high court had upheld the trial court's verdict to award death sentence to Kasab, the lone surviving gunman who was part of the 10-member fidayeen team that attacked Mumbai.   Kasab was convicted of criminal conspiracy, waging war against the nation, Section 302 of IPC (murder) and terror related provisions of Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act. The HC had agreed with the trial court that the case against Kasab fell in the rarest of rare category and upheld the decision to award death penalty to the Pakistani.

The Govt has incurred crores of expenditure in keeping Kasab alive and there have been so many curious plea made in the trial.  It is reported that the terror convict had pleaded with the Supreme Court to commute his death sentence to life imprisonment.

Senior advocate Raju Ramachandran, who has been appointed amicus curiae to defend Kasab, told a Bench headed by Justice Aftab Alam that he was not part of the larger conspiracy hatched to wage war against India. Stressing Kasab's age, counsel pleaded for a lenient approach as he was drawn into this vortex by exploitation of religious faith and false ideology.  How ridiculous to bring in age criteria for such criminal acts !!!  In his special leave petition challenging the Bombay High Court judgment, Kasab claimed he was brainwashed like a “robot” into committing the heinous crime in the name of “God” and that he did not deserve capital punishment owing to his young age.

Though killing or reprisal or revenge is never the one we cry for – those who do such heinous acts should never be shown any mercy. Every Nation would hold the Country first above everything else and anything done against the Nation must be punished in the strongest manner possible with no leniency at all. 

Recently, in Mumbai there was  an unrelated but another one which brought shame as a symbol which must be respected most was vandalized by a mindless mob in the garb of protesting the happening in Assam.  The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation is all set to recover the cost of the damaged Amar Jyoti Jawan, which was destroyed in the mob violence during the Assam protests. The civic body is likely to put up a bill to the tune of Rs 3 lakh towards the reconstruction of the historical memorial. The cost of the damage is to be  included in the panchnama." The Mumbai Municipal Corporation Act prevents the civic body from directly liasoning with the organizers of the protest. Recovery of the damages is certainly the first priority of the civic body.  It is not the money but restoration of pride and punishment to the mindless persons who dared to vandalise such a structure.  The August 11 violence has once again brought to the fore the culture of vandalism that the city has witnessed in the past.  The memorial, which was unveiled in 2009, was erected in memory of two Indian soldiers --Sayyed Hussein and Mangal Cadiya -- who were martyred during 1857 mutiny. During the revolt, both the sepoys were blown apart by cannon fire near Azad Maidan after they refused to follow orders from their commanding officer.   It was a heinous act whereby the vandals crores  of people from all faiths and parts of India and those within and outside of armed forces who have served and protected the nation in time of war and in time of peace.

At Azad Maidan, it looked  obvious that the violence was pre planned, something that the Mumbai police too have admitted to and yet could not control. A group of mobs indulged in  molestation, unlawful assembly and caused destruction to National property. The rabid mob also went on to destroy our Amar Jawan Jyoti memorial, shameful act against India’s symbolism, her honor, her dignity and pride. The mock-rifle encased in durable plexiglas and the engraved plaque bore the brunt of stone-pelters and destructive rioters and the rifle was stolen in the melee that erupted.   

Now there is news that the crime branch on Tuesday  have arrested one of the two men who vandalised the Amar Jawan memorial during the mob violence at Azad Maidan on August 11. Police arrested Abdul Qadir Mohammed Ansari, 19, from Sitamadi in Bihar. Joint commissioner of police, crime, Himanshu Roy said Ansari was trying to escape to Nepal when he was arrested. Police had put the two accused on top of their list of people to be arrested for the violence, which left two dead and 63 injured. A local court has remanded Ansari in police custody till September 4. A resident of Jogeshwari (East), the 19-year-old escaped from city after newspapers carried photographs that showed him damaging the memorial. Police traced his location and a crime branch team was flown to Bihar. Police sources said Ansari is unemployed and his father teaches at a madarssa in Jogeshwari.  The women constables who were molested and attacked during the August 11 violence at the city’s Azad Maidan here should be given bravery awards and financial compensation, a fact-finding committee of the National Commission for Women (NCW) recommended to Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan here on Tuesday.  The five-member committee, headed by NCW chairperson Mamta Sharma, travelled from Delhi on Tuesday to meet the victims. The commission had taken suo motu note of the incident. During its visit, it went through the CCTV footage of the incident. It met 10 women constables for around 40 minutes for a detailed discussion. The committee recommended that the case be speeded up and the strictest punishment meted out to the perpetrators of the violence.

With regards – S. Sampathkumar

Lankan Navy gets trained TN; keeps attacking fishermen from Tamil Nadu

Not many would have read the news about the  Sri Lankan Naval personnel  attacking fishing boats and arresting 23 Tamil Nadu fishermen when they were fishing near Katchatheevu in the Palk Straits ; nor about the news of Lankan Navy seizing 5 boats recently.  

Strange are the ways of people and stranger still are their priorities in life ! – while the NE problem is deeper than how it is portrayed, people in metropolis were more perturbed by the Govt curbing the use of SMS and Govt also heeded to their voices increasing the number of SMSes to 20 per day with  immediate effect.

With the politicians in power trying to suggest ‘the external hand’ as the cause of all problems, many a times the issue gets watered down to ridiculous levels – the trouble in Assam itself is deplorable; the Govt is tongue-tied to firmly speak off the troubles of illegal immigrants having reaped some electoral benefits thus long – they spoke off Pak hand in SMS – but have nothing to condemn about the Azad maidan incidents at Mumbai where National honour of ‘Amar Jawan Jyoti’ was desecrated by mobs and police personnel themselves were at the receiving end… sad indeed.

The travails of fishermen of Ramnad and nearby places being attacked by Lankan navy never gets condemned and the small tiny dot island Nation is able to play around with India.  China is an aggressor; Pakistan  is a pronounced enemy, Bangladesh foments trouble but Govt tries to do all the benefit to them; Burma is never clearer – Sri Lanka, is considered to be a buddy by the Indian Govt, but many a times gets involved in anti-Indian activities including dangling with Chinese, be it the construction of Hambantota and many other projects.  

The issue of relations with Sri Lanka; the treatment of tamilian fishermen in the  International navigable waters nearer the island; the issue of Sri Lankan refugees; re-settlement in the areas from where the Lankan Native tamils were uprooted – are all different issues, though having some commonality. The issue of tamils in Sri Lanka and the relations with Sri Lankan Tamils issue is spoken of in many political platforms but not many could trace its origins and may not know anything about the Donoughmore Commission which suggested creation of Provincial councils in 1928 much before the Nation became independent.   After the proposals of   S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike, the  stamp of approval by the Tamil parties, came in 1957 when S.V.J.Selvanayagam –Bandaranaike pact was signed. The abandonment of the pact led to tensions between the two communities, resulting in a series of outbreaks of ethnic violence in the country which eventually spiraled  into the 26 year Sri Lankan Civil War.

Following the attack and arrest of fishermen, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa shot off a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, expressing concern over “unrelenting, harsh attitude of the Sri Lankan Navy” towards Indian fishermen. She also sought the Centre’s intervention in securing the release of those arrested by the island republic’s navy.  Lankan Navy’s actions “seem to be making a mockery of the entire diplomatic process,” she said referring to the latest incident, where its personnel allegedly forcibly took away fish netted by fishermen in mid-sea off Arukattuthurai in Tamil Nadu.  Then came another issue, which questions the Federal character of the Nation.

Accusing the Centre of showing “excessive enthusiasm” in training Lankan defence personnel, Chief Minister Jayalalithaa  said it has “mischievously concealed” the training being given to two Lankan officers in Tamil Nadu since May and demanded that they be sent back.  Earlier, nine personnel belonging to the Sri Lankan Air Force, who were undergoing technical training at the Air Force Station at Tambaram were relocated to the Yelahanka Air Force Station at Bangalore after her opposition.  The State Govt expressed strong objection to the training which was regarded as scant regard for the views of my government as well as for the sentiments of the people of Tamil Nadu.  Jayalalithaa’s words are not mere political posturing because every political party in the state is very vocal in its demand that India should take a tough stand against Sri Lanka for its alleged war crimes against thousands of Tamil civilians in 2009. They also want India to ensure that Tamils in the island are treated on par with the Sinhalese.  Except for a couple of small outfits, no mainstream party has been overtly supportive of the LTTE, but they have been clearly united on the Sri Lankan Tamil issue. New Delhi has been dubious in its stand on the Sri Lankan Tamil issue, whether it was before, during or after the 2009 war.

There are times when Tamil Nadu has  reasons to be indignant: the alleged attacks of its fishermen by Sri Lankan navy and the centre’s inaction on the issue.

With regards – S. Sampathkumar.

Tribal students trek 28 km for Education and woman lodges complaint after 40 years.

There are crimes – one needs to lodge a complaint with Police.  Often the Law Enforcing Authorities are blamed and criticized for not concluding the cases in time and for not being responsive – it is easy to criticize.  With the kind of population explosion and increasing crime rate, the Police are outnumbered and out-beaten in technology.  

Understand that Indian Penal Code does not prescribe a time limit for loading complaint against many crimes and that is perhaps a benevolent measure to ensure the victims are able to seek justice immediately they come to know of their hapless position without drawing a reference to the time of the offence committed. – and sometimes people ridicule systems, as read from this news in ‘New Indian Express’ Chennai Edition of date.

Before that there is another news [in TOI] of Tribal kids trekking  28km to demand a teacher.  The newspaper report states that about thirty students of a school in the heart of the Bargur forests met district collector Dr V K Shanmugham on Monday to make a passionate appeal: ‘Ensure teachers attend the school so they could acquire education and hope for a better life. Despite being enrolled in school,the children have remained illiterate as there are no teachers to conduct classes.’.   The teachers posted at the school do not show up because of the difficult travel. The government school at Kathirimalai,about 70km from Erode, has more than 70 students and most of them say they have never seen a teacher in their school. Kathirimalai is a village on the Eastern Ghats, inhabited by the Soliga tribals. Access to the village involves a 28km walk through dense forests. The teachers find the long walk on a daily basis is too difficult and so they refrain from conducting classes altogether. The students trekked 28km before catching a bus to Erode on Monday.

According to Tamil Nadu Pazhamkudi Makkal Sangam leader Kadambur K Ramasamy, who accompanied the children to the collectorate, the village is devoid of even basic facilities, including roads,drinking water, hospital facilities and electricity.  It is stated that  students had seen the headmistress of the school way back in 2006.After she resigned, a new headmistress was appointed but she has never set foot in the school. No academic activity takes place in the school and the cook deputed to prepare the noon meal refuses to turn up. The school gets adequate funds to feed the children thrice a day,but even the funds remain unutilized. A corpus of Rs 13 lakh allotted to upgrade the school also remains unutilized.

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A couple of decades ago, immediately after the news would be ‘the announcement regarding those missing’ – the TV would describe of children, of old persons – missing providing details of those missing including the colour of dress worn and would provide contact details. Slowly, this was replaced with the contact address of Police Station only for obvious reasons.   Police Officials used to state that this was ‘an exercise close to futility – and too difficult’ tantamount to searching the proverbial black cat in dark room.   Have also heard that there is no specific legal provision for registering a case based on a complaint about missing person.  The Police generally would register a First Information Report saying “man/women/girl/boy missing” and  the courts do accept these FIRs.

There are multiple reasons for these ‘missing cases of aged persons’ including walking out due to frustration, depression, anger, forgetting whom they are and more.  There have been instances of such persons being traced after several years at places of religious importance.  Sadly in some instances - missing persons could be found dead under suspicious circumstances or even murdered have come to light.

Express News Agency reports of a  complaint about a woman who went missing 40 years ago was lodged with the City Police by her daughter, in Chenai on Monday – 27^th Aug 2012. Sources said that the complaint was filed so that the daughter could establish the legal heir connection and avail the terminal benefits entitled to the kin of an employee of Chennai Corporation, who died in service.

Quoting Police the report states that  A Arockia Mary (43), daughter of the missing woman, in her complaint, stated that her mother Nagamma was 31 when she went missing on March 21, 1973. Nagamma, who was married to Jesudoss (a Chennai Corporation employee), was said to have been mentally deranged and prone to fits. A week after she went missing, the search operation by the relatives was given up.  Arockia Mary, who was three years old when her mother went missing, wasn’t aware of her mother’s plight. She was brought up by her maternal uncle.  Sources said Arockia Mary, presently working in the Chennai Corporation, had applied for the terminal benefits entitled to the family after Jesudoss’s death. Police said that they would issue a not-traceable certificate which can be used by the family. If Arockia Mary’s efforts are fruitful, she will receive about `4 lakh, which includes the pension arrears and a monthly pension of Rs.3,500. Another woman who had reportedly lived with Jesudoss after Nagamma went missing, has also claimed Jesudoss’s terminal benefits.

With regards – S. Sampathkumar.

Mobile Phone Quote - What is that ?

There have been innovations in Insurance field too – in the way policies are Sought,  Underwritten, drafted and sold – in tune with the expectations of the customers as also keeping abreast with modern technologies.  Recently heard of ‘Mobile Photo Quoting” – this is nothing about photos of a cell phone or quotes giving price list of various mobiles – something totally different from what you can conceive from the Name !

Many  Firms like Kodak, Agfa, Konica  were all household names when people used to buy film rolls, load their Yashica and other cameras, click photos, move either manually or automatic, take another photo, take out the film roll – give it for printing, anxiously wait as to how many would qualify and how much of them would have the intended frame captured !  The no. of Companies manufacturing Cameras and others involved in film making have slowly vanished out of the market – not only by the arrival of digital cameras but more so my the Mobile phones; yes Mobile Phones with built-in cameras have pushed them out of market.

People like us will be surprised to learn of ‘Mobile Imaging and Printing Consortium’  a non-profit industry association formed to promote the usage of mobile devices with digital cameras, particularly camera phones, and the printing of photographs taken with them. The association intends to do this by standardization of the software and hardware used to communicate between mobile devices with cameras and printing devices through collaboration and the implementation of guidelines. It sees direct printing, without the usage of a computer, as highly desirable. It was founded in  2004  - Canon, Epson,  Hewlett-Packard.; Brother Industries, Eastman Kodak, Fujifilm, Konica Minolta, Lexmark, Motorola, NEC, Olympus, Nokia, and more .. are its members. 

‘Mobile Photo Quoting’ is an application which would finally make the quotations for property much easier – most suitable for Insurance and for automobile selling.     San Diego, California -based Mitek Systems Inc.  is a organisation that has introduced this programme.  They have applications for Banking industry and this is a specialized one for Insurance industry.  This application reportedly enables users to take a design of their driver’s license, and their automobile marker series (VIN), and  afterwards fills several pieces of information into a form on a approach to generating an automobile word quote. The VIN indicate prefills a year, make and model, and even underling model, of a car. A indicate of a driver’s permit fills in the  name, address, gender and permit series of a licensee.

In India, also most Insurers profile their customers and try developing a database of their customers so that they know who their customers are, what would be their requirement to try and promote cross selling of insurance products.  Almost every other person today carries a mobile phone;  more than 75% of them perhaps have phones with cameras and perhaps a very high % of the policy holders use smartphones, which is only growing – every day mobiles get sold in vast numbers as could be seen by the mushrooming ‘Cellzones and mobile shops’ in every other Street and the crowds that you invariably see in them.  So in an exponential market, trying to utilize an application which is based on smart phones would do only more good for increasing the premium of the Insurer.   

It is claimed that  Mitek’s mobile insurance solutions allow your mobile applications the ability to leverage the camera on any smartphone or tablet device as a sophisticated document scanner. Consumers can take photos of documents to automate key processes like getting a quote, filing a claim, enrolling in ACH for payment or direct deposit for reimbursement, capturing VIN information, sending documents electronically and much more.   Of course most of what is stated, applied more to US market which already has capability of recorded information of automobiles but this application sure can be tweaked to suit other markets as well and would most likely work elsewhere also !

If it is easy and convenient to handle, sure it would provide a growing market for the Insurers and improve their operational efficiency as lots of tedious data entry could be avoided.  The cost of converting this imaged data to the other form could be cost-prohibitive though, but still it would have the benefit of accurate data.   For the proposer it offers the simplicity of just taking a photo and allow the application to do the rest.    The Company Mitek claims having  patented and sophisticated technology  which would guarantee a superior mobile user experience every time. 

So instead of the hassles of entering an Insurance Company or getting in contact with an agent, one can simply shoot a photo of their DL or Insurance card using their smartphone, and expect everything else to be taken care of by the application running on the same smartphone.  Mitek’s extractive imaging technology would then put the extracted data from the document and puts it into the appropriate fields in the mobile quoting form.  No data entry is required by the user. The user then hits send and is returned an insurance quote   !  Sounds so simple and friendly, not sure whether it works the same way!!

Apart from mobile quoting, Mitek has application known as Mobile Photo Payment enables enrollment in electronic remuneration by checking accounts or approach deposition of cheque by taking a printout of the cheque and mobile imaging it.   

With regards – S. Sampathkumar.

24th Feb 2012

Investing in Shares and market controlled by Stock robots

One reads in news media all the time about the share price movement – typically, it would read - BSE benchmarkSensex declined marginally by over 14 points in early trade today as participants trimmed positions amid a weak trend in Asia.  The 30-share barometer, which had lost 104.40 points yesterday, fell by 14.04 points, or 0.09 per cent, to 17,664.77.  Stocks of realty, auto and consumer durable sectors declined on selective selling.  Similarly, the wide-based National Stock Exchange index Nifty fell by 7.40 points, or 0.14 per cent, to 5,342.85.  To the naïve common man, it would defy logic to think that the traded volume can even outsmart the overall no. of shares of the particular company. 

Sure, you know of shares and many would indulge in investing in Shares…. Read somewhere that in modern times, people no longer invest in shares but simply trade in them !  Decades back people would painstakingly collect loads of information, calculate their P/E and determine the value of the share before trying to buy them in secondary market – which by itself was a tedious process.  Have you ever been to the market of yore or at least seen them on TV – it was chaotic – if you had wanted  to buy 100 shares of  BCD Co – you would place order with a broker [who might insist on keeping a margin of money with him to enable that purchase]; when the market opens, with agents shouting at top of their voices in cacophony, your broker would have to identify another broker trying to sell the same shares at the rates you intended and deal was struck – then the physical scripts would be  handed over, you paid the money and then applied for change of share certificate – another cumbersome process to become eligible for a dividend or a bonus share !!

Life is not all that tough now ! - Stocks today are bought and held for seconds as the operations are computerized and you may not even need the broker intervention, if you the tools and registered yourself.  The deal is also transparent and with the registration, any transaction in your name is completely logged.  There is no physical holding of shares and transfer is no longer the feared process.  

There was a time when there were local exchanges like Madras Stock Exchange, Mumbai Stock Exchange, Hyderabad Stock Exchange et al.,  which ruled the roost.   The setting of National Stock Exchange in 1991 vastly altered the scenario.  NSE,  located in Mumbai is the 16th largest stock exchange in the world by market capitalization and largest in India by daily turnover and number of trades, for both equities and derivative trading.

There are some advanced players who use Stock Robots, automated "robot" that analyzes the best stock by comparing historical performances of certain stocks with the current performance to predict the future trends and potential. The powerful programs have sort of replaced the human brain in market analysis and trading.  There is fear in some circles that Robots have already made the gambit of ruling the World by having the share markets in their crutches.  Elsewhere in Australia, in the Share market, there is no longer – it is man to man communication – not even machine to man – almost it is between machine and, …. Another machine. Self-automated algorithms can generate 150 trades in the blink of an eye and, unlike ordinary investors or even the big funds, have been given the ultimate privilege of plugging straight into the ASX's computer. ASX announcements and news wires such as Bloomberg are fed straight into the algorithms. They can read, digest and act on the information infinitely faster than any human mind can even imagine. 

In any market the insider benefits for he gets to know the valued information much before you and hence can use it to distinct advantage.  The robot trader similarly can do the same damage, even if the information received is only milli-second earlier, getting the few extra seconds to act, or jump ahead of any trades that had been frozen. It is unfair or uneven playing field.  There are reports that the corporate watchdog, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), is having doubts, except, like everybody else, it isn't too sure exactly what the computers are up to.  They can run rampant with a faulty algorithm until somebody pulls the plug, but not before the market has been shaken and confidence drained from it.  The robots can undercut a seller or overbid a buyer being there first beating the rest with its speed.  Worse still is flooding the market with fake bids, suggesting something's happening and there's momentum, only to cancel them a nanosecond before the market opens. Once, that was considered market manipulation.  All that would make  the market much more volatile and unpredictable.  

While it is interesting and can be luring to buy shares, there is no point in putting all your eggs in one basket viz., don’t buy too much of a single share or buy shares of a particular group or industry and small time is not going to yield big time profits !

With regards – S. Sampathkumar.

miraculous escape from a ton of gravel - Concertina

Read this word for the first time in Dictionary.com.  It is the word in its usage as a ‘noun’  – ‘Concertina’ – which refers to a musical musical instrument resembling an accordion but having buttonlike keys, hexagonal bellows and ends, and a more limited range.

A concertina is a free-reed musical instrument, like the various accordions and the harmonica. It has a bellows and buttons typically on both ends of it. When pressed, the buttons travel in the same direction as the bellows, unlike accordion buttons which travel perpendicularly to it. Also, each button produces one note, while accordions typically can produce chords with a single button.  The concertina was developed in England and Germany, most likely independently. The English version was invented in 1829 by Sir Charles Wheatstone and a patent for an improved version was filed by him in 1844. The German version was announced in 1834 by Carl Friedrich Uhlig.

There are words which are used both as Noun and Verb.  The verb ‘Concertaina’ [pronounced - kon-ser-TEE-nuh] means :-

1. To fold, crush together, or collapse in the manner of a concertina: The car concertinaed when it hit the truck.

2. To cause to fold or collapse in the manner of a concertina.

Can you imagine what the above means or what it would look like, if there were to be one such accident..  Now here is what was read in Daily Mail of an accident in China.

A Chinese driver has had an incredible escape after his car was squashed virtually flat after being buried underneath a ton of gravel. The car was crushed when a lorry laden with gravel tipped over and spilled its entire load. This sparked a major rescue operation, with firefighters first on the scene amazed to discover that the driver was still alive.

A witness who saw the accident  in Xiangtan, southern China's Hunan Province, said those at the scene did not hold out much hope for the man inside the vehicle. 'We thought the driver definitely died', he said.

Firefighters called in a crane to help lift the lorry - but it was initially too small, so they had to call for help from a larger machine. Meanwhile, they used shovels and their hands to clear the large mound of gravel away from the top of the vehicle, as they desperately tried to reach the crushed driver.  Once the heavy crane arrived, they managed to successfully lift the lorry.

It then made clearing the gravel easier and they sawed open the car roof to free the casualty.  He was finally pulled free more than an hour after the accident. He was sent to hospital where doctors discovered he had several broken bones.

Incredulous that one can survive such a nasty accident !! [all photos of car accident in this post – courtesy – www.dailymail.co.uk].  Many a times, good brands are priced very high....  -  perhaps they have so good carefully carved out high safety standards that takes care of the occupants and this car -[the brand could not be made out though !] had such a safety system to withstand the impact and yet save its occupant......

With regards – S. Sampathkumar.

25^th August 2012.

IT Minister's twitter account blocked - 'blame it across border' attitude

‘blame it on Pakistan’ is the easy way out for politicians who cannot handle things properly… for the NE exodus from Southern states, the Govt. was quick to speak of the social networking sites, some from across the border fanning panic and rumour.  After some relentless pressure and tough posturing by the Govt, Twitter has finally removed six accounts similar to that of the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) for posting objectionable content even as the microblogging website agreed to hold talks with Indian authorities to break the current impasse on the blocking of web pages having inflammatory material.

The Govt conveyed firmly that it was keen to stop misuse of social media and the Internet in spreading rumours and false propaganda to create communal and social tensions. However, it reiterated that it was against any kind of restrictions on freedom of expression.  The  Twitter perhaps took it too casually and took long time in acting  against six persons impersonating the PMO on the microblogging website,  by which time, the damage was done.

Kapil Sibal went record stating that the  names of the objectionable sites  were provided to the groups and they cooperated in closing them down.  Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde refuted charges that the government was targeting any particular individual.  You might be interested in checking whether your twitter account is valid now and try tweeting to say that you are live and kicking as the Minister of State for Communications and IT Milind Deora found himself at the receiving end.  Milind Deora got a taste of censorship when his Twitter account was blocked. Moments after Mr. Deora wrote on his Twitter handle that “there is absolutely no intent of the government to curb freedom of social media platforms,” his account got blocked. On trying to visit Twitter profile, the message said: “The profile you are trying to view has been suspended.”

Whether censorship or not, there cannot be no two views that there has to be clampdown on “hate speech”.  Often in that name the Govt would try to stifle its opponents, as the reported case of investigation in to the funds of an NGO of Manish Sisodia after his high-profile association with the Anna Hazare-led anti-corruption movement.  At the same time, there has always existed prejudiced coverage of incidents targetting some community and often it is reported that rich countries fund media to ensure that only the view that they want gets presented to the common public and the reality is never known.  You might be surprised to know that Al Jazeera is covering the NE situation in an expanded manner.  While their coverage of Palestinian, Gaza strip etc., are regular, this one on NE India perhaps has a tinge. Reportedly it had a Pakistani columnist for the debate on the crisis.  

There is an interesting newsitem in First Post which mentions that while every one sees the exoneration by the Supreme Court of P Chidambaram in 2C Scam as a relief, there is some trouble as the SC had seemingly suggested that Chidambaram and the PM may have made wrong judgments, or managed the issue poorly.  Worse, the court also noted that even though Raja had communicated to the PM about the changes he was making in the first-come-first-served (FCFS) policy for telecom licences and spectrum, the latter did not get back. This meant the PMO had no objections to Raja’s method of licence allocation. These observations should be more than embarrassing for the PM especially when the Parliament is rocked by ‘coal-gate’.

Getting back to Cricket, the Kiwis are unable to fly and are pinned by the Indians at Hyderabad – whether Indians can take the 10 wickets in the 2^nd winnings faster and beat the climatic rain appears to be the question as follow-on appears to be a certainty.  Playing with NZ, England, Aussie is Ok – but the one with our neighbouring Pakistan – the last bilateral series between the two was in late 2007, when Pakistan toured India.   There has been no games at Pakistan since the March 2009 attack on the Sri Lanka team bus.

The Pak Cricket Board has bee reeling under financial loss though most players are now earning in the Srilankan Premier league now underway.  Last month, the BCCI decided on resuming cricketing ties ;  to a commoner, this looks a move forward – but this is viewed as a grant of largesse by infirm Politicians and Questions have been raised as to whether we are right in bending so much after having criticized US and other countries of mollycoddling Pakistan despite its proven bad behaviour – there is also the Q as how US will react when after the next terror attack, India once raises the same queer pitch of US should take action against Pak when we are entertaining them in posh hotels – when people die out of terrorism.  Does it really make sense when you cry on top that even the present NE exodus is linked to online activism from across the border

Read : why Cricket with Pakistan is not a good idea !! - Cricket with Pak

With regards – S. Sampathkumar.

Proposal form in Insurance and posting personal info on Facebook

A tick or dash would not suffice – all Questions should be answered completely !!.... fortunate that you live in India, not in Europe and not given to too much of socializing in FB and other such media.

Insurance is a contract and the basic ingredients are ‘offer and acceptance’… the one who requires insurance has to propose and the Insurer would accept the proposal based on rate, terms and conditions and the final binding is upon payment of consideration – i.e., insurance premium. 

Proposal form is the basic instrument signifying the evidence of contract between the insured and the insurer. The insurer seeks to elicit all the material information, which is required for underwriting the risk through the use of this instrument.  It is important for the Insurer as their decision of Underwriting hinges on the details provided in the proposal form – all material aspects will have to be made known and the facts stated therein are binding on both the parties - failure to appreciate its contents might lead to adverse consequences from cancellation of the contract to denial of benefits arising under the policy. 

Yet, many a times, there are not proposals, or they are incomplete, or they do not contain all material facts – many a times, they are unsigned and mostly they are filled by somebody else and the proposer does not even care to read or try to understand what is being declared and signed ! – sad state of affairs indeed and Insurers are also party to not collecting fully complete proposal form.  Any overwriting / alteration will have to be authenticated to make it meaningful and reliable. The tenet of ‘utmost goodfaith’ puts the onus that all conditions known to the Insured must be made known to the Insurer and if the Insurer estops their right to ask for additional information based on the proposal, then the proposer is not at fault. 

If you have observed, generally proposals are designed in a manner that the elicit some basic details of the proposer including some personal details,  communication details and then proceeds to the more material side – of collection of details relevant to the particular type of insurance that is being sought to be arranged.  In medical insurance,  it would include basic information of the proposer; name, age, address, education and employment details of the proposer, income; medical history, pre-existing conditions etc.,

Too elementary for people who have been in Insurance field, one is likely to think ! – still we all know that we consistently fail at the basics. 

Daily mail reports that Insurers are  set to clamp down on 'grossly negligent' social media use that give crooks an easy ride.  The report states that Facebook users post an 'alarming' amount of personal information online.  Have you ever cared to think that a  simple 'check-in' at the airport could mean refused claims if your home gets burgled

According to the newsitem that appeared in Dailymail yesterday, Facebook users face losing claims against banks and insurance companies because they are inviting fraudsters to scam them by posting so much personal information online.  Anyone burgled after advertising holiday plans on social networks, or scammed after inadvertently leaving clues about their accounts or passwords online, could find they are left completely out of pocket. The crackdown is said to be ‘inevitable’ after experts warned that hackers are finding it easier than ever to commit identity fraud and predict it will start happening within a year.

It is stated that simply posting a picture of your car, or details about which phone network you use, is now enough for many scammers to be able to hack your computer and steal your bank details within minutes.  One example given included a man who faced losing thousands after a picture of his new car posted online gave scammers enough detail to trick him into opening an email, which appeared to be from the DVLA.(The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency of UK).  With online fraud costing banks and insurance companies billions every year, they are expected to start taking into account the streams of information willingly publicised by people on the websites when analysing claims within the next year.

Though Banks do not check a claimant’s personal social network information, don’t be surprised if this starts happening in near future.  It could be a moot point though whether such posting on social sites online could be construed as ‘grossly negligent’, leaving  the customer completely at their own risk to cover the cost of what they have had stolen. Most time, fraudsters send an official-looking document, which  would appear to be from some authorized Departments and the link when clicked would enable hacking providing easy access to the computer of the victim and thereby opening the gate to loads of personal information stored therein. 

A spokesperson of an Insurer writing Home Insurance is quoted as stating that it is  possible that insurers in future, could seek to access to the personal information posted in social media. Something like ‘places’ and ‘tagging’ on Facebook broadcasts people’s locations on a platform which has millions of users and insurers could easily access such information.

You can take solace that Indian Insurers are not contemplating any such move currently.

With regards – S. Sampathkumar.

24^th August 2012.

nauseating Sahara Q Advt taken off - BCCI directs so !

There are some advertisements nauseating  like that of ‘Domex’ – toilet cleaner – they cannot help but showing how their product cleans – but to watch the advertisement when eating can be excruciating …….  Those behind making the advertisements try to cash in on sentiments, mass appeal, popularity, and more to ensure that the product is much spoken of, and some land up creating a bad one.   Perhaps the recent advertisement of Sahara matches that and without going in to the merits of whether the objection of Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI)  on the recent television commercial asking them to withdraw is right, the advertisement is downright bad.

According to reports, the board expressed its concern over the Advertisement  during a working committee meeting in Chennai on Wednesday.  The advertisement for Sahara 'Q' Shop shows Sachin Tendulkar performing the last rites, shows Yuvraj Singh digging a grave, Virat Kohli putting a wheel chair in a super market  and Virender Sehwag replacing a cradle with a hospital bed. Now it is stated that a shorter 30-second advertisement will run from Thursday onwards and will be viewed by the board to check if certain bits have been edited out.  The board members are believed to have expressed concern regarding the advertisement in a working committee meeting in Chennai on Wednesday with a top Indian player also objecting to the content.

 virat kohli replacing shopping cart with a wheel chair

Everybody tries to make ‘money while the sun shines’ and earns a lot endorsing multiple products. That is the order of the day – never wink your eye for a second when Kohli promotes a particular brand telling a younger player that it will enhance his ‘photograph value’ as more would seek to have photo with him, if he uses that particular brand of sun lotion……..  many a times, it is the advertising that makes product sell more and having famous people promoting the product sure has a great effect.  

The other day, a casual enquiry with a small kirana shop in a rural village revealed that ‘low priced sachets of sun cream’ sell like hot cakes as more village women buy them thinking that it will enhance their looks and make them look much prettier….. perhaps it is not only college girls and boys alone who buy these but their counter-parts in rustic villages as well – a revelation, indeed.  

Sahara India Pariwar is a major business conglomerate in India, with operations in multiple sectors, including financial services, life insurance, mutual funds, housing finance, infrastructure & housing, print and television news media, entertainment channels, cinema production, healthcare, hospitality, manufacturing, sports, and information technology.  Do you remember the drama on  the day of IPL 2012 auction – Feb4, 2012 when Sahara India Parivar announced its severing ties with the Indian Cricket Sports body BCCI – that left the Pune Warriors not participating in the auction.  After some tough posturing, impasse,  BCCI did bend and gave in to the demand of restoration of auction  purse of $1.6 million and the licence to buy players who were not sold at the auction and also foreign players who were not part of the auction.  After the truce, Sahara Chairman announced continuance of patronage for ‘Team India’.  

Recently Sahara announced launching of – Sahara Q shop with the objective of maintaining higher quality and ensuring that the customer receives adulteration-free products.  They claim that Sahara Q Shop, a venture of Sahara India Pariwar, is, for the first time, offering public completely adulteration-free, 100% quality consumer merchandise products in 73 categories, such as staples, processed foods, personal care products, home care products, general merchandise and lifestyle products, at most competitive prices.

And it is the advertisement starring Indian cricket stars promoting Sahara Q Shop that has raised quite many eye-brows and had made the BCCI asking Sahara to pull off the advertisement.   It is no doubt in bad taste.  The advertisement shows Tendulkar performing last rites, Yuvraj digging a grave for a child and Kohli putting a wheelchair for a man in an attempt to portray the ill effects that adulterated food from the market could have.

Terrible and nauseating, to state the least………. There will be arguments on whether BCCI can decide on whether a commercial good or bad,  even if commercials involve cricketers. There’s a watchdog created to go into issues of fair/unfair or obscene advertising – the Advertising Standards Council of India.  Whatever it be, the stopping of the advertisement does the Nation lot good, as it was in bad taste and was hard to digest the idea itself.  

There will never be an answer to the ordinary Q of ‘what was the player  who has complained now, doing.. when he acted in that’ – did he not care to see the script or care to learn what it was about ? Can one object just because some people now state that it to be bad……. Well the only answer could be – away the money issue, should not one voice his distaste, if everyone in the town seemingly disapproves of such advertisement.  

Cricketers have promoted bats and sporting equipments, shoes and apparel, soft drinks, soda and surrogately alcohol brands and the range extends to food, fashion, and even social media as Dhoni did for Aircel having Facebook.  There are laws that ban surrogate advertising, whether the commercial is made in good taste or bad? – not liking an advertisement or the public opinion being against it may not lead to it being banned… there cannot be an outside arbitration on whether it is good or on its evil effects on the society, and sure BCCI can never assume or stake claims to do good for the society ! …….. but this one being withdrawn somehow makes me comfortable..

With regards – S. Sampathkumar.

India through to Finals of U19 World Cup

Perhaps the charm of ODI too is lost with too much of T20 and IPL – for most think the shorter versions to be one of boundaries, mishits and sixers.  There can never be an answer to what is a winning score or whether a score of XXX is good enough to be defended, especially after close of 1^st innings.

Today there are 2 matches involving India and New Zealand.  The 1^st Test gets underway at Hyderabad and the other at Townsville, Australia where India played New Zealand in the Semis of the U19 World Cup.  Batting first India made 209 in their allotted overs, though at one point of time a score of 250+ looked likely.  Their top order made runs -  opener P Chopra made a doughty 52 off 104; Unmukht Chand made 31, Aparajith 44 and Vihari 22.  At one stage they were 130/1 in 31 overs. 

For those with the mindset that scores of 300+ are the norms, the pitches at the Tony Ireland Stadium in Townsville have provided the batsmen with stern tests.  In the earlier 3 matches at the same venue, Indians have not made great totals.   Against West Indies, India were restricted to 166 for 8 and lost; against Zimbabwe they made 261, but at one stage were in danger of scoring much fewer after a strong start; in the quarter-final against Pakistan they chased down 137 with one wicket in hand.  Today they made 209 which was a winning score in the end.  India's Sandeep Sharma has bent it and bowled exceptionally well providing break through at the start.

It will be much tougher test against the Australians in the finals and will India win the U19 WC again ?

Back home, the not so high-profile Test match against the visiting Black Caps got underway this morning at Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium, Hyderaabad.  The earlier venue - the Lal Bahadur Shastri Stadium - was owned by the Sports Authority of Andhra Pradesh, giving the Hyderabad Cricket Association limited control over the ground. This is a new stadium built in 2004, a big one at that stretching over 16 acres of land.  

Now there are talks of the India team without Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman;- not admitting the fact that the retirement was advanced if not forced.   New Zealand are without Daniel Vettori.  India played poorly in England and in Australia and very recently NZ had a dismal series against lowly rated West Indies.  The test provides wonderful  opportunity for younger players like Virat Kohli, Chetewwar Pujara and Suresh Raina   to stake a permanent place in the middle order, instead of only being seen as replacements when the top stars are unavailable.  This  series  would certainly be the  easier part of the challenge,  as we play England and Australia next,  followed by a series in South Africa in 2013.

Though statistics may not alter the result of a match – half of the India – NZ tests have ended in draw. (25/50) and in India 16 of them have ended in draw from 29 with India winning 11 and NZ only 2.  

At lunch Indians batting first had made 97-2 in 25 overs.  A decent session with Pujara and Tendulkar at the crease; sadly the media might write of Sehwag failing again.  For any other player, if he grinds for 3 hours and makes 40, it would be good – not for Viru.  Virender Sehwag made 47 off 41 balls with 9 hits to the fence – he was out to  bracewell at 14.3; still not many players play faster than this even in a T20

With regards – S. Sampathkumar.