Have Diabetes? Get Married

Meet your match here: A screenshot of the website diabeticmatrimony.com

An NGO has come up with a website that aims to provide matrimonial services and awareness to people affected by the disease

Even a chronic disease like diabetes needn't stop you from spending a normal life. But most impaired persons know that discrimination is almost inevitable.

Kavita Sharma faced it twice while looking for her soulmate. Kavita, a 27-year-old management graduate who is working with a reputed firm has been a diabetic for the past five years. Just a year ago, her family started looking for a perfect groom for their daughter. They went to various matrimonial websites to find a match for her.

"In 2008, my parents visited various matrimonial websites. The family members of the boy were very apprehensive when they came to know that I am suffering from diabetes. They asked me weird questions like whether I will be able to produce children or not. I was really shattered by such queries," said a sad and emotional Kavita.

Right click

But still she did not lose hope. One day, she came to know about a website called www.diabeticmatrimony.com that has been created with the idea to provide services of matrimony, awareness about diabetes and a lot of other things for people who suffer from the disease.

"First, even I was scared of all these matrimonial sites. I used to think how would judge a person on the Net? But when I applied on the site, it proved to be useful. Luckily I found someone special," said Kavita who is now happily married. The website has been started by Delhi Diabetic Research Centre (DDRC), an NGO, for providing services to diabetes patients. It was started three years ago but only now people have started becoming more aware about it.
"Diabetic Matrimony is a unique website which helps people suffering from Diabetes Type 1 and 2 find a suitable match for them. More than 500 people have been registered on the website," said Dr AK Jhingan, Chairperson, DDRC and founder of the website.

Unhappily married

A survey conducted on marriage-related problems among diabetics carried out by DDRC among 2,000 people in age group 19 to 31 revealed that finding a suitable life partner is among the most common concerns for a diabetic. Not only does a Type I diabetic patient find it difficult to be accepted as a life partner but more than 90 per cent of those who were married faced problems in their marital life. Confrontation, separation and divorce were common among them.

"It was shocking to see that the survey revealed that of the married women who were Type I diabetic, nearly 50 per cent were sent back to their parental home within a year of marriage. Nearly, 25 per cent of the diabetic married women lost interest in taking care of themselves due to lack of financial assistance from their husbands," added Dr Jhingan.

Fears unfounded
"There is a fear that diabetes-affected persons cannot have normal and healthy children. In fact, more often than not, diabetic men chose to remain silent about their disease before entering matrimony," said Dr Jhingan.

The problem exists with the males too who are suffering from diabetes. But many of them have mentally prepared themselves before looking for their perfect match. 

"Before looking for my life partner, I was mentally prepared to get rejections. But, when I get to know about the website, I thought of giving it a last try. And finally I got my life partner," said Dhiraj Arora, a 29-year-old businessman.

Know this ?

There are three main types of diabetes:

* Type 1 diabetes: results from the body's failure to produce insulin, and presently requires the person to inject insulin. (Also referred to as insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus, IDDM for short, and juvenile diabetes.)

* Type 2 diabetes: results from insulin resistance, a condition in which cells fail to use insulin properly, sometimes combined with an absolute insulin deficiency. (Formerly referred to as non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus, NIDDM for short, and adult-onset diabetes.)

* Gestational diabetes: is when pregnant women, who have never had diabetes before, have a high blood glucose level during pregnancy. It may precede development of type 2 DM. 

Why Do People Pay So Much For Celebrity Items?

Washington, Feb 16 : Why would someone pay a fortune for an item that had belonged to Jackie Kennedy or for a celebrity's footstool?

Study authors from Yale and Bar-llan Universities, seeking to find an explanation, researched the concept of "contagion" -- the belief that a person's essence can be transferred onto an object through contact.

"We were curious to examine the degree to which contagion beliefs may account for the valuation of celebrity items," study authors George E. Newman and Gil Diesendruck were quoted as saying in the Journal of Consumer Research.

The objects themselves tend to be relatively common artefacts (clothing, furniture), indistinguishable from a number of seemingly identical products in the marketplace, according to a Yale statement.

"For well-liked celebrities, (George Clooney for instance) the primary explanation seemed to be contagion-participants expressed a desire to own some of the individual's actual physical remnants," the authors write.

Conversely, when the items had belonged to a despised individual (say Saddam Hussein), it devalued the item.

In a second experiment, participants reported their willingness to purchase a sweater owned by someone famous (well-liked or despised).

But sterilizing the item in case of the despised individual downgraded its worth in the participant's eye and prevented its resale. In case of well-liked celebrities, the pattern was the opposite, sterilizing increased the sweater's value, the study authors concluded.

This Special Child Is A Special Police Informer

By Vivek Sabnis

Young Samaritan: Sonu Gaikwad, who has learning difficulties, has also saved an injured person's life in a hit-and-run case. Pic/Vivek Sabnis


Pune, Feb 16 : 12-yr-old boy who attends school for special kids helps cops catch criminals by reporting people whose behaviour he finds suspicious.

Three days ago, 12-year-old Sonu Balu Gaikwad tipped off policemen at Laxmi Nagar police chowky, Dattawadi, about two men lurking near the Bank of Baroda in Sahakarnagar.

After the police nabbed the duo near the bank, it was learnt that they were members of the Ghayval gang and were planning a heist that night.

"They were later externed from the area for a year," said Police Havaldar B R Dagade of Laxmi Nagar police chowky.

And this is not the first time that Gaikwad helped the police nab criminals.

The boy, who has learning difficulties and attends a special school, spends most of his hours after school inside the police chowky. "Gaikwad has saved an injured person lying on the road in a hit-and-run case. Because of him we managed to take the injured man to a private hospital and got him immediate medical aid," said Dagade.

Gaikwad has been spending time at the Laxmi Nagar police for the past six months and has changed the life of the entire staff.

"We have skeleton staff in the office and many times we have to attend crime or accident (spot) in our jurisdiction. We depend on Gaikwad to attend to the people visiting the chowky," said Police Constable R D Karle.

PSI Saurabhi Mane, who heads the chowky, said that Gaikwad has made the atmosphere in the police chowky tension-free.

Gaikwad's father Balu said the boy did not like to go home after school. "He is happy in the company of police," Balu said with a chuckle. "Surprisingly, policemen respect me because I am Sonu's father."

Gaikwad was rewarded by the Laxmi Nagar police yesterday. Dagade gifted him a pair of jeans and a T-shirt.

"We are investing some money for his LIC policy to ensure his safe and secure future," said Mane. "We are contributing the money and working on a policy that will most suit him."

Realty Check

Chronicling Shahid Balwa's astounding rise to one of the richest men in the country

DB Group managing director Shahid Usman Balwa came into the limelight when Forbes magazine named him in its November 2009 issue, as the 50th richest man in India, estimating his net worth at $ 1.2 billion.

Ever since, his net worth has continued to be a topic of constant discussion by the financial community, and with good reason. "Even the CBI will find it difficult to calculate his personal net worth accurately at this point.

If you remember the case of Ramalinga Raju, you would have noticed how difficult it is to do so immediately.

The CBI will get its answer only after toiling for six months, that too with active support from forensic accountants.

At this juncture, we do not know how many unlisted front companies he has, how many such front companies are incorporated in tax havens such as Isle of Man or Mauritius, whether he has pledged his shares for any loan, or made unaccounted money through insider trading," a prominent financial analyst told MiD DAY, requesting anonymity.

Going strictly by Shahid Balwa's personal shareholding in DB Realty Ltd, it would seem that he holds only a paltry 74,340 shares, which comes to merely 0.03 per cent of locked-in shares. But nothing could he more misleading, because hardly anything is known about his stakes in unlisted subsidiary companies.

However, going by the figures indicated by the shareholding pattern, analysts have estimated his personal wealth to be a little more than Rs 1,978 crore, after his company's share price crashed due to his arrest.

"His net worth must have been Rs 2,423 crore before the stock price crashed, which means he lost around Rs 450 crore," a financial analyst said.

But clearly, it's much more complicated than that. Balwa has a fleet of four odd aircrafts ” two business jets and two choppers which he rents out through an air charter company called Eon Air Pvt Ltd when he does not use them for personal trips.

A look at the balance sheets and annual reports of DB Group and its subsidiary companies show unsecured loans borrowed by a subsidiary from another.

"We must keep in mind how Kusegaon Realty Ltd loaned the Morani brothers owned Cineyug Films Pvt Ltd, the money which was allegedly passed on to Kalaignar TV, owned by Tamil Nadu CM Karunanidhi's family members. We can expect several such deals channelised and hidden through a maze of companies, both in India and in tax havens abroad.

We must also expect several crossholdings between unlisted front companies as well as other entities, which will be extremely hard to unravel easily. If we consider how easily money can be hidden in land holdings, the task becomes all the more difficult," the analyst observed.
It is easier to understand the complexity of the task if merely one factor is taken into account - the number of companies over which Shahid Balwa and the promoter group exercises influence. The DB Group's draft red herring prospectus itself declares that at least 62 subsidiary and group companies!

"Some subsidiary companies' documents say that Shahid, his promoter group and relatives control other companies and entities. Of course, we have not taken into account investments made by companies as well as individuals.

Nor have we attempted to find out how much money has been siphoned off and salted away abroad.

But if we take all these factors into account and also the fact that the real estate sector itself is notorious for its lack of transparency, then we may be looking at merely the tip of the proverbial iceberg," the analyst concluded.

Other analysts who spoke to MiD DAY also said that as Morani brothers' stake holdings in DB Realty as well as other stake holding companies with interesting names such as Bollywood Mauritius Holdings and Walkinson Investments come under scrutiny, there are much more that will come to light.

"The Mauritius factor has complicated things further. It is possible for any dubious firm to channel money to Mauritius through the hawala route or round tripping it across several tax havens.

Such players are known to purchase what are known as participatory notes or P-Notes, which enable them to play the Indian stock markets from Mauritius, without revealing even their identities.

The Indian government allows such dubious investments and this policy has now come back to haunt them.

When CBI pursues the money trail, it should be least surprising when it runs into a smokescreen of difficult to track identities of such players as well as the opaque rules of tax havens where such money is usually parked," revealed another prominent analyst. --Bobby Anthony

Never say die

It is never say die for Hamid Khan, the Right To Information activist from Mumbai Central who will not rest till the guilty are punished. Hamid's target is the Balwa clan, including Shahid and their business partners, who fraudulently grabbed a 13, 800 sq mts prime plot in Mumbai Central.
The complaint sa
ys that Shahid Balwa's company; DB Realty is allegedly illegally constructing high-rise residential towers using forged documents and arm-twisting tactics. When the discrepancies came to light in 2009, Hamid approached the Nagpada police station to report the matter.

They did not entertain him, saying it was a civil matter.   Hamid approached the Mazagaon court with his grievance and relevant documentation. Taking cognizance of the complaint, the court directed the police to register an FIR.

According to documents available with MiD DAY, on October 1, 2009, the Nagpada police finally registered an FIR under Sections 406, 420, 468, 504, 506 and 120 (B) of the IPC against Shahid Balwa, his father Usman Balwa, Isak Balwa, Salim Balwa, Abdulla Patel, Adil Patel, Nabil Patel (the trio are sons of don Yusuf Patel and also stake holders in his businesses) and 12 others.

Hamid recalled two stark incidents that unnerved him which involved Shahid. The RTI activist recalled that one day when he bumped into Shahid, he allegedly said mockingly, "Mein police, politicians aur judiciary ko apni jooti ke barabar samjhata hoon (I consider the police, politicians and judiciary no better than my shoes)."

When Hamid did not flinch, the  disgraced DB Group manager said that he would not give him even an inch of land, he could do whatever he wanted.

Now says a disappointed Hamid, "17 months have passed, but the Nagpada police has not even recorded my statement. Will Shahid Balwa be arrested?" asks Hamid. Sanjay Kadam, senior police inspector, Nagpada said that the enquiry is underway. "The case investigation papers will soon be submitted in court," said Kadam.

Hamid has also registered a case in the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) against Balwa, Charity Commissioner, Wakf Board, MBR and R Board, MHADA, BMC, UDD Housing department and the NPCB. -- Inputs by Sayed Roshan and Akela

Tower trouble

A high-rise residential tower project by Neelkamal Realtors and Erector Pvt Ltd in Mumbai Central is mired in controversy.

The prime plot, measuring around 13,837.06 sq mts has the Orchid City Centre Mall and the Orchid Enclave building which is being constructed, actually belongs to the Wakf Board, documents procured through the Right to Information (RTI) have revealed.

Currently, as per the plan three multi-storey towers consisting flats worth hundreds of crores of rupees and a three-storey shopping mall worth around Rs 300 crore are standing on Wakf property of Haji Zakariya Ahmed Patel Mohammadan Orphanage and Asylum Trust in Mumbai Central.

According to Hamid Khan, the RTI activist who sought information on the project after the Wakf Board was intimated about the illegal construction, officials sent a letter to the MGCM regarding the same. Despite two orders to immediately stop all construction work on the towers, a visit by MiD DAY revealed that work was in progress.

According to government regulations, only religious activities such as a mosque or a madrassa or educational institutions such as a university or school can be built on a Wakf land. 

When contacted, Wakf assistant chief executive officer Aziz Ahmed said that the construction being carried out is entirely illegal. "We approached the authorities regarding the same. Despite repeated orders, the construction is still on," said Aziz.

He said that the company had approached the Bombay High Court.

He added that under Section 40 of Wakf Act 1995, even the government or court could not decide. The authority lies solely with the Wakf board. -- Sayed Roshan

Intelligence Eye

The Intelligence Bureau (IB) has been keeping a clandestine check on Shahid Balwa's companies and business interests for the past three years.

Alarmed by his rapid rise, the agency has been keeping tabs on his activities. According to intelligence officials, a team of experts is probing Shahid Balwa's role in manipulating stocks, characterised by his 'hand pump'(create an artificial scarcity of shares) operations.

The IB investigation report, now with this newspaper, reveals the modus operandi of a group of high-profile stock brokers who, through their front companies were active in various stocks. The dealings are to the tune of a few hundred crore.

The modus operandi of the cartel was to push the share prices of these companies to a new high and then unload the shares. The agency is probing Shahid Balwa's dealing in the stock exchange.

In Custody

Shahid Balwa has been extremely well mannered and soft-spoken, say CBI officials, which may be quite surprising because this Bandra (W) resident is actually known to be aggressive and has an attitude bordering on arrogance. Sources say he is keeping his cool with investigators.

He gets home cooked food everyday while in custody. Officials add he does not eat too much as he is quite careful about both quantity and quality -- what and how much he eats.
Insiders confirm what has been reported earlier, that he is a fitness freak and works out regularly. CBI officials interrogate him almost all through the day, with the sessions wrapping up at around 8 pm.

It's business as usual, says DB
The familiar catchline goes: Whenever you think of colour, think of us. Put a twist into that and say, whenever you think of realty, think of DB, and you would not be stretching things.

DB Realty is one of the most prominent names in Mumbai's real estate industry and one could safely conclude that it ranks amongst the top three in the industry.

The company has a plethora of projects from Mumbai Central (the area where Shahid Balwa grew up) to others spanning South Mumbai and Western Suburbs.

Some major ongoing projects include those at the Mahalaxmi Race Course and in Mira Road, Mankhurd, Mumbai Central, Byculla, Jacob Circle, Goregaon, Dahisar, Malad, Kandivali, Prabhadevi and Andheri. DB also has major projects in Pune, home turf and bastion of Maratha strongman, Sharad Pawar.

With the arrest of Shahid Balwa, DB Realty suffered a major setback share prices tumbled, coming down by 20 per cent on the first day of the arrest itself.  DB's share price plunged to Rs 109 on February 9 from Rs 136 on February 8, the night when he was arrested.

A real estate broker
said about flat prices, "Flat prices are primarily dependent on the location and secondly on the builder's reputation. With Shahid Balwa's name embroiled in the 2G scam, there is a lot of uncertainty in the real estate market."

DB went into damage control mode immediately after the arrest of Shahid Balwa. It issued a statement to quell fears amongst customers and stakeholders.

The statement read: 'Shahid Balwa, the Managing Director of DB Realty Limited has been wrongly implicated in the investigations pertaining to the grant of 2G licenses and has been arrested by the CBI in that context.

We reiterate that neither Balwa nor any person forming part of the DB Group has done anything inappropriate or illegal. Balwa will be strongly contesting the proceedings. He has immense faith in our judiciary and judicial system and is confident that ultimately the truth will prevail and Balwa will stand vindicated.

'We would also like to state that these developments wouldn't affect the functioning of DB Realty Limited in any manner whatsoever. DB Realty Limited will continue its business in the normal course under Managing Director, Vinod Goenka along with the top tier team under the guidance of its Board.

We assure all our stakeholders that their interest in the Company will be protected. DB Realty is a strongly capitalized company with a net worth of Rs 3,210 crore as of December 31, 2010. DB Realty Limited has sufficient resources to continue with all its projects under construction." -- Varun Singh

Rs 3,210 cr- This was DB Realty's worth as of December 31, 2010.

Flying High-

These are representational pictures of similar aircraft owned by Shahid Balwa.

A Bombardier Global Express which falls into the heavy jet category. It has 14 seats.

BD-700-1A10- A Bombardier Challenger 604 that falls into the heavy jet category. It has 9 seats.
CL-604- A Eurocopter Colibri helicopter with 5 seats

EC-120-B- A Sikorsky helicopter with 6 seats SK-76C

source: MIDDAY

2 Mizoram Districts Declared 'Gender Critical' For Census

Aizawl, Feb 16 : Women population in Mizoram will be given extra attention during population enumeration beginning February 9 with two of the eight districts being been classified as 'gender critical.

Based on certain indicators in the Census 2011, Lawngtlai district and Mamit district in the male-dominated state of Mizoram have been identified as gender critical among 262 districts and cities in the country.

''Lawngtlai and Mamit districts have been declared gender critical with sex ratio in the two districts less than 900,'' said Dr Chiranjeeb Kakoty, regional co-coordinator (North East), Alliance, with which the Government of India has tied up to carry out the gigantic task, for the first time in the history of the Indian Census.

While the sex ratio in Lawngtlai (rural) is 899, it is 889 in Mamit (rural), Dr Kakoty said.

The other two conditions to determine gender critical districts are female work participation and female literacy rate.

While female literacy rate in Lawngtlai district is 57.8 per cent, female work participation stands at 41.2 per cent. In Mamit district, 74.8 per cent of female population is literate while its female work participation is 53.1 per cent.

The rates of female literary and female work participation in the two districts are not at all low compared to the other 24 gender critical districts in the NE region.

''Since the two districts fail in the single criteria, they are declared as gender critical districts,'' Dr Kakoty said.

It was also pointed out that the eight per cent of the households in Lawngtlai district and 10 per cent of households in Mamit district are female-headed households.

High Court Admits PIL On Kau-Tlabung Scam

Aizawl, Feb 16 : Gauhati High Court admitted a petition filed by Mizoram-based anti-corruption watchdog Prism, seeking restoration of a corruption case involving Kau-Tlabung mini hydro projects in Mizoram.

Prism (Peoples Right to Information and Development Implementing Society (PRISM) had last year filed a restoration PIL against the state government’s alleged withdrawal of a criminal case in this connection.

A Prism statement said here today the high court’s divisional bench comprising Justice T Vaiphei leh, Justice Hrishikesh Roy admitted the restoration petition.

Prism’s PIL had been rejected in October last year by Justice M Lokur of the high court.

Prism had lodged an FIR with the state anti-corruption bureau in 2008 to investigate the alleged misappropriation of funds in the construction of two micro hydro projects--Kau-Tlabung and Tuipanglui--in southern Mizoram.

''After a thorough investigation, vigilance department ordered ACB to register a criminal case against the concerned engineers on May 13, 2010,'' the PIL stated.

The State Vigilance Department, however, ordered the bureau to withdraw the case on July 2 without stating any reason.

''We termed the government’s order to withdraw the case as an attempt to cover up a misdeed, which we felt was a clear indication that influential people were involved in the corruption,'' Prism said in the statement.

Sources said the government, in a confidential notification on July 2 last year, had decided to constitute a departmental inquiry into the case, instead of a criminal As a result, the special court (anti-corruption) on July 3 last year allowed the 13 engineers (of power and works departments), whose names had appeared in the ACB investigation, to withdraw their anticipatory bail petitions, Prism sources stated.

Mizoram Elderly Excited To Be On India Tour

Aizawl, Feb 16 : Fifteen senior citizens from remote places of Mizoram will have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to visit some important historical places in India, thanks to the country's oldest para-military force.

''I am really excited. This will be the first time in my life that I am travelling out of the state of Mizoram,'' exclaimed 70-year-old Dorema, who is part of an Assam Rifles-sponsored national integration tour.

The touring members, flagged off by state tourism minister S Hiato from the Assam Rifles Ground here today, included four from Serchhip district and from Lunglei districts each and three each from Champhai and Aizawl districts.

''The 18-day tour will include visits to important historical places at Delhi, Jodhpur and Agra. They will also be given the opportunity to call on President Pratibha Patil, a source from the 4 Assam Rifles, which organised the tour,'' said.

Another touring member remarked, ''I have often been told of the splendor and magnificence of the Taj Mahal, which I have also seen it from pictures. Now, I am about to see it with my own eyes.'' The minister, at the flagging-off ceremony, said he hoped that the tour would promote an atmosphere of brotherhood and unity among people of different states.

He commended the Assam Rifles' efforts in organising such tours and many other social services under its civic action programme for the people of Mizoram.

The Assam Rifles had organised several tours for Mizo students in the year 2008, 2009 and 2010. Most of the touring members were drawn from remote areas and backward families who could not afford such expensive tour on their own.

Displaced Persons From India- Bangladesh Border Stage a Protest Rally in Agartala

Agartala, Feb 16 : Hundreds of displaced persons from the India-Bangladesh border region in northeastern state of Tripura staged a rally at Agartala, the capital of Tripura to pressurise the state government to consider and implement their demands for apt rehabilitation.

The people were displaced due to the erection of barbed wire fencing along the Indo-Bangladesh border.

Subal Bhowmick, President of Simanta Bhumi Suraksha Committee (Committee for Protection of Soil in Border), said on Monday that the state government is least bothered about the problems of the displaced families.

"We are on hunger strike for past 13 days but no one from the state government has bothered to contact us. We have always run to the government but they have ignored us and tried to divert the angle of our problem by saying that it is a central (federal) government's concern." said Bhowmik.

Due to the India-Bangladesh barbed wire fencing, 8500 families lost their land, farms, ponds including places of worship like temple, mosques.heir entire belongings have gone to the other part of the barbed fence, said Bhowmik.

Further he noted that if the government continues to ignore their problems, then their agitation would take up a much unpleasant turn.

"Several people are joining in this protest in support of this for the 19th time of our demands. I strongly believe that all those who have been affected by the displacement at the border should be rehabilitated or else our agitation would take a more adverse turn," added Bhowmik.

Earlier on February 3, the protestors had launched a hunger strike to draw the attention of the state government.

The major demands of Simanta Bhumi Suraksha Committee (Committee for Protection of Soil in Border) include publication of names of the 8,500 displaced families, fencing along zero-Point to save the Indian soil, government employment for each affected family and allotment of alternative land for them.

Tripura shares 856 km long border with Bangladesh of which 675 km had been fenced to check illegal migrants, keep an eye on Indian insurgents fleeing to Bangladesh and also to keep a vigil over illegal trade and trans-border crime.

Similar fencing is also being erected all along the 4,095-km India-Bangladesh border in West Bengal, Assam, Meghalaya and Mizoram.