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mostlysignssomeportents · 1 year ago

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The real problem with anonymity

I'm on tour with my new, nationally bestselling novel The Bezzle! Catch me in TUCSON (Mar 9-10), then San Francisco (Mar 13), Anaheim, and more!

According to "the greater internet fuckwad theory," the ills of the internet can be traced to anonymity:

Normal Person + Anonymity + Audience = Total Fuckwad

https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/greater-internet-fuckwad-theory

This isn't merely wrong, it's dangerously wrong. The idea that forcing people to identify themselves online will improve discourse is demonstrably untrue. Facebook famously adopted its "real names" policy because Mark Zuckerberg claimed to believe that "Having two identities for yourself is an example of a lack of integrity":

https://www.zephoria.org/thoughts/archives/2010/05/14/facebook-and-radical-transparency-a-rant.html

In service to this claimed belief, Zuckerberg kicked off the "nym wars," turning himself into the sole arbiter of what each person's true name was, with predictably tragicomic consequences:

https://www.kalzumeus.com/2010/06/17/falsehoods-programmers-believe-about-names/

Facebook is, famously, one of the internet's most polluted reservoirs of toxic interpersonal conduct. That's not despite the fact that people have to use their "real" names to participate there, but because of it. After all, the people who are most vulnerable to bullying and harassment are the ones who choose pseudonyms or anonymity so that they can speak freely. Forcing people to use their "real names" means that the most powerful bullies speak with impunity, and their victims are faced with the choice of retreat or being targeted offline.

This can be a matter of life and death. Cambodian dictator Hun Sen uses Facebook's real names policy to force dissidents to unmask themselves, which exposes them to arbitrary detention, torture, and extrajudicial killing. For members of the Cambodian diaspora, the choice is to unmask themselves or expose their family back home to retaliation:

https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/meghara/facebook-cambodia-democracy

Some of the biggest internet fuckwads I've ever met – and I've met some big ones! – were utterly unashamed about using their real names. Some of the nicest people I know online have never told me their offline names. Greater internet fuckwad theory is just plain wrong.

But that doesn't mean that anonymity is totally harmless. There is a category of person who reliably uses a certain, specific kind of anonymity to do vicious things that inflicts serious harm on whole swathes of people: corporate bullies.

Take Tinyletter. Tinyletter is a beloved newsletter app that was created to help people who just wanted to talk to others, without a thought to going viral or getting rich. It was sold to Mailchimp, which was sold to Intuit, who killed it:

https://www.theverge.com/24085737/tinyletter-mailchimp-shut-down-email-newsletters

Tinyletter was a perfect little gem of a service. It cost almost nothing to run, and made an enormous number of peoples' lives better every day. Shutting it down was an act of corporate depravity by some faceless Intuit manager who woke up one day and said "Fuck all those people. Just fuck them."

No one knows who that person was. That person will never have to look those people in the eyes – those people whose lives were made poorer for that Intuit executive's indifference. That person is the greater fuckwad, and that fuckwaddery depends on their anonymity.

Or take @Pixsy, a corporate shakedown outfit that helps copyleft trolls trick people into making tiny errors in Creative Commons attributions and then intimidates them into handing over thousands of dollars:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/01/24/a-bug-in-early-creative-commons-licenses-has-enabled-a-new-breed-of-superpredator/

Copyleft trolling is an absolutely depraved practice, a petty grift practiced by greedy fuckwads who are completely indifferent to the harm they cause – even if it means bankrupting volunteer-run nonprofits for a buck:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/04/02/commafuckers-versus-the-commons/

Pixsy claims that it is proud of its work "defending artists' rights," but when I named the personnel who signed their names to these profoundly unethical legal threats, Pixsy CEO Kain Jones threatened to sue me:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/02/13/an-open-letter-to-pixsy-ceo-kain-jones-who-keeps-sending-me-legal-threats/

The expectation of corporate anonymity runs deep and the press is surprisingly complicit. I once spent weeks working on an investigative story about a multinational corporation's practices. I spent hours on the phone with the company's VP of communications, over the course of many calls. When we were done, they said, "Now, of course, you can't name me in the article. All of that has to be attributed to 'a spokesperson.'"

I was baffled. Nothing this person said was a secret. They weren't blowing the whistle. They weren't leaking secrets. They were a corporate official, telling me the official corporate line. But they wouldn't sign their name to it.

I wrote an article about for the Guardian. It was the only Guardian column any of my editors there ever rejected, in more than a decade of writing for them:

https://memex.craphound.com/2012/05/14/anodyne-anonymity/

Given the press's deference to this anodyne anonymity, it's no wonder that official spokespeople expect this kind of anonymity. I routinely receive emails from corporate spokespeople disputing my characterization of their employer's conduct, but insisting that I not attribute their dubious – and often blatantly false – statements to them by name.

These are the greater corporate fuckwads, who commit their sins from behind a veil of anonymity. That brand of bloodless viciousness, depravity and fraud absolutely depends on anonymity.

Mark Zuckerberg claimed that "multiple identities" enabled bad behavior – as though it was somehow healthy for people to relate to their bosses, lovers, parents, toddlers and barbers in exactly the same way. Zuckerberg's motivation was utterly transparent: having "multiple identities" doesn't mean you "lack integrity" – it just makes it harder to target you for ads.

But Zuckerberg couldn't enshittify Facebook on his own. For that, he relies on a legion of anonymous Facebook managers. Some of these people undoubtably speak up for Facebook users' interests when their colleagues propose putting them in harm's way for the sake of some arbitrary KPI. But the ones who are making those mean little decisions? They absolutely rely on anonymity to do their dirty work.

Name your price for 18 of my DRM-free ebooks and support the Electronic Frontier Foundation with the Humble Cory Doctorow Bundle.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/03/04/greater-corporate-fuckward-theory/#counterintuit-ive

#pluralistic #tinyletter #enshittification #greater internet fuckwad theory #real names #nymwars #intuit #mailchimp

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abandonwave · 4 years ago

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The Shadows of Mordor (Commodore 64), 1987.

#abandonware #gaming #video games #retro games #80s #lord of the rings #lotr #the two towers #vaporwave #retrowave #aesthetic #pixel art #melbourne house #faceless programmers' corporation

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astromechs · 4 years ago

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keep whatever it is (that's compelling you on)

HERE IT IS, my matrix resurrections spec fic, completed and in under the wire before the trailer! i think i'm ready to quit fussing over this, and i'm really excited to get it out into the world!

also here on ao3!

01.

Every single morning, Thomas A. Anderson is jolted awake at approximately 8:15 AM by the shrill of the same alarm, shovels in the same shitty cereal before stumbling into one of the same five shitty suits that he has to remember to get dry-cleaned, takes the same seat on the subway on the way to work — where he sits in the same chair for eight hours straight with minimal breaks, staring at his computer screen (or, more often, out into nothing) until it’s time to take the same subway back to his shitty apartment, order from the same rotation of shitty takeout, and find some mindless, banal distraction while he ignores texts that don’t even matter anyway before he falls asleep to eventually wake up and do it all over again.

It’s nothing special — just the average life of an average mid-grade programmer at the average tech conglomerate. Comfortable, sure, and a dream many would kill to achieve; he knows this, knows this every time he passes the poor old woman who’s feeding pigeons in her ratty coat from the battered metal bench on the sidewalk in front of his apartment building. He slips her whatever spare change he has on him — a $20 bill, on the days he’s lucky, but often less than that — and, without fail, she always accepts, with a warm smile and kind eyes that seem to stare right into his soul, seeing the deepest parts of it.

Like she knows him. And that’s what’s weird.

He tries not to put too much thought into it, because, honestly, he tries not to put too much thought into anything at all; he’s found that to be the most effective way to navigate the machine that systematically runs his rhythmic, mundane life.

But even so, there are things that he knows he can’t shake.

One afternoon in late February, when the cut of the wind had not remotely suggested that spring would just be a month away, he’d passed the woman on the bench as always, but he could’ve sworn that the whole flock of pigeons scattered on the sidewalk at her feet had frozen for a split second. Like they’d been… glitching. In a blink, everything had returned to normal, and he’d spent about three days (and three sleepless nights) trying to convince himself he’d been seeing things, that he’d just been spending too much time actually working on his assigned program for once and that maybe he should take some of his accumulated vacation days? And the following week, he had, but….

No time off to try to clear his head would ever change the fact that this hadn’t been an isolated incident.

Because sometimes — he swears he sees pieces of code fall through his field of vision; a blink and then they’re gone, but it happens too often not to be a pattern, and no matter how much he might want to for the sake of his own sanity, he can’t just brush that aside. Sometimes, flashes come to his mind like barely-remembered dreams, in idle moments and just on the edge of the line that separates sleep from waking consciousness, so real that he knows they’re memories. Dark tunnels that haven’t seen the sun for centuries. Cold, so cold that no amount of warmth, human or otherwise, can really combat. Running, desperately bounding up the fire escape to the third floor of a rundown motel, three men in sunglasses and perfectly-tailored suits in close pursuit, his heart pounding in his ears so loudly he can barely hear the phone ring from Room 303, the place he has to get to, because everything depends on it. A barrage of bullets in his chest, one right after the other, back slumping against the wall as his heart gives out, vision fading to grey and then to black, but a voice, reaching through it all to call him, tether him….

Neo.

There are things that he knows he can’t shake, and sometimes, he thinks he had another life. Another name.

Another purpose.

He’s haunted by the ghost of it.

It’s the second of April — at least, that’s what the screen of his phone tells him, because otherwise he wouldn’t know, or care to know. A Friday, and all the faceless commuters are packed like sardines into this subway car, headed home for weekends that are sure to be as inconsequential as his own. Today, he has to stand holding the rail for the ride home; a woman trying to juggle both a baby and two bags of groceries had just barely managed to stumble onto the train before the doors had closed, and he’d sprung up, more than glad to give up his seat to someone in greater need.

She tries to thank him, profusely and repeatedly, but with where he’s standing, he would have to twist to keep facing her, so, with a nod and the barest hint of a smile, he turns away to spend the trip the way he always does: in solitude.

The route back to the station just down the block from his apartment building is never smooth, by any stretch of the imagination, but today, it’s bumpier than usual; the train car jerks and jostles, until, eventually, it sends him colliding into back of the passenger standing next to him.

He’s just about to stammer out some automatic, awkward apology, but then —

Blue eyes meet his, clear, crisp blue, and a jolt strikes him right to the core.

He thinks — no, he knows, he knows — he’s seen these eyes.

Neo. In the darkest corners of his mind, the voice whispers again.

Time freezes, glitches, around him, around him and this stranger with familiar blue eyes. He sees the light leave them, and then come right back. He sees warmth, what something is telling him had once been the only thing able to keep the cold of the real away; that warmth spreads through now, to the tips of him, and he has a sense, one he doesn’t entirely understand, that something has just clicked into place.

Behind sunglasses, another pair of eyes watches them from across the car.

“You all right?” Neo.

He sees brows knit in concern, and for the first time, he pays attention to the face that the eyes belong to. Probably the most beautiful woman he’s ever seen in… more than one life, he’d have to guess, is now in front of him; he isn’t so detached and disconnected that he doesn’t notice that. Her short dark hair is cut into a severe bob, and she’s dressed in black from head to toe — from her coat and gloves, to her boots. It suits her, somehow.

After a beat, he finally remembers to speak. “Yeah. I — sorry.” The subway jerks to a halt; he glances up, and adds quickly, after clearing his throat, “This is… my stop. Excuse me. Sorry.”

Pushing past her, pushing past everyone in his way, he disembarks to the station, and when his feet touch solid pavement, he takes off at a sprint. Up the stairs (third floor… Room 303….), down the sidewalk (agents, just behind… he can beat them, if he just runs faster than he ever has…), not stopping until the mundane certainty of his shitty apartment building is within his sights.

Just before he makes it safely inside, he catches a glimpse of the old woman on the bench watching him, her smile wider than he’s ever seen it. Maybe, even, almost inhumanly wide.

10.

Her name is Natalie.

That’s what he learns about a week later, when he bumps into her again in front of the grocery store on the corner down from the subway station, the one he always chooses out of convenience. Quite literally; he’s distracted, disconnected, and before he even knows what’s happening, he’s collided with another body, contents of the two bags under his arms spilling out onto the sidewalk. His apologies are hurried and stammered, but her hands are gentle as she moves to help, brushing his more than once. Her smile is soft when their eyes meet.

Over the next several months, he learns a lot of other things, too.

He learns that she takes her coffee with cream and no sugar, and that she always leaves the barista a generous tip. He learns that she’s a genius with tech, better than him and his two computer science degrees and half-cushy corporate job could ever hope to be, and has his whole apartment practically rewired in an hour one day. He learns that if he’s quiet and still, her black cat has no qualms with being his friend. He learns that her lips curve up in just a certain way and her eyes crinkle when she’s just about to laugh.

And he learns that kissing her feels like coming home, as familiar and peaceful as it is new and strange. He learns that with her, coming together, becoming one with another person, is like nothing else.

For the first time in what he can remember, he knows what it feels like to be alive.

(Only it isn’t… is it? The first time. Somehow, just like he knows that he sees the same person walk past him twice, like he knows that those glitches start happening on a near-daily basis, like he knows that the old woman on the bench is smiling at him more broadly than ever….

Their lives have collided, and given each other meaning, purpose, before.)

11.

In his dreams, he sees a city entirely built from light. Spires touch the sky like fireworks, blindingly bright, and with every step, flames ripple out from his feet, making the next one all too clear.

Inevitable.

This is where his path had always led.

In his dreams, he can’t see her face. He can only hear struggling gasps for breath, and a voice that only grows shakier. He can only feel the metal that pierces her stomach, the blood that pools on her shirt. The faint heartbeat he can do nothing to restart.

Inevitable.

(You were right, Smith. You are always right.)

He wakes with a start, drenched in a cold sweat (as cold as their last kiss), gasping for breath. Next to him on the bed, Natalie stirs and shifts closer; when he reaches out a tentative hand, lets his fingers graze over her stomach, she’s warm.

His eyes scrunch tightly shut. Code falls behind his lids like the rain that patters against the windows outside.

100.

There’s nothing out of the ordinary on this day in early fall. A breeze rustles the trees as they walk hand in hand through the park, and provides the first hint that cooler weather is on the way. Children’s laughter from the nearby playground fills the air. Dogs chase each other on the grass. Natalie sips her coffee, cream with no sugar; they enjoy the contented silence that falls between them, only punctuated by her soft smile.

There’s nothing out of the ordinary — except for everything that is.

They meet each other’s eyes, her blue to his brown, and in an instant, everything changes.

It’s hard to tell who sees it first, but — the flash of recognition envelops both of them. Vague memories, the ones that have floated over him like a constant cloud, just out of reach, are in his hands, in his brain, in his heart. He’d had another life once, another name. And it’d been —

“Neo.”

She whispers it on an awed breath, tears forming in her eyes. The coffee cup slips from her grasp, long since forgotten; she lifts that hand to his face, fingers tracing the rise of his cheekbone.

Tears swim in his vision, too, tears and strands of code, falling. Falling. Nothing makes sense and yet everything makes sense, no more so than when the name falls out of his mouth, the last piece of a particularly jumbled puzzle: “Trinity.”

But a thousand words he doesn’t know how to say don’t even begin to get a chance to form. He feels the eyes watching them more than he sees them; both hands drop to his sides, and he tenses, ready to fight.

He’s barely aware that the old woman who’s usually on the bench near his apartment building approaches on the sidewalk. She looks between them, nods, and:

“They’re coming, kiddo,” she tells him, voice severe, with none of her usual warmth, as she grips his arm. “You need to run.”

101.

At sunset, a man in a white suit, tall and imposing, joins the old woman on a park bench near the playground, but says nothing; from all appearances, it looks as though he barely acknowledges her at all. They remain, just like this, as people filter out one by one under the steadily darkening sky, returning to their lives.

They always remain through every iteration, the Mother and Father of the Matrix.

Preoccupied with purpose and the inefficiency of wasting time, as is his programming, the Father is the first to break the silence.

"I informed you it was a dangerous game.”

The Oracle says nothing in response.

She merely smiles.

#neo x trinity #the matrix #the matrix resurrections #neo #trinity #* fic #song title is from cascades by metric #which for some reason just feels like a ship song for them #anyway i'm so hyped for tomorrow!

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maddygingerfmp · 4 years ago

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Tate's modern picture of success marred by staff losses and financial shortfall: [FOREIGN Edition] full text

IT WAS the anti-Dome, the glittering triumph of Britain's millennial year. Tate Modern gave world-class art a new home and lured millions of visitors.

But as the gallery prepares to celebrate its second birthday, the Tate is facing an unprecedented financial crisis. Only the blockbuster Andy Warhol exhibition saved the Tate empire - which encompasses galleries in Liverpool and St Ives, Cornwall, as well as the two in London - from sliding into the red in 2001.

Now, with the announcement that its long-serving director of collections, Jeremy Lewison, is the latest top-level member of staff to quit, questions are being asked of the leadership of Tate's cerebral director, Sir Nicholas Serota.

"Perhaps some of the trouble lies at the very top," Louisa Buck said yesterday in the normally restrained academic publication The Art Newspaper. "While no one doubts the achievement of Sir Nicholas Serota in the masterminding and delivery of Tate Modern, as well as his adept handling of the relaunch and rebranding of Tate as a cultural monolith, there are many rumbles that his powers of delegation often leave a great deal to be desired."

Mr Lewison, who is leaving for a freelance curating career, is among a clutch of senior departures in the last 18 months.

He follows Iwona Blazwick, who was made director of the Whitechapel Gallery last year, Lewis Biggs, who left Tate Liverpool to organise the Liverpool Biennial, and Lars Nittve, who left Tate Modern to run the national gallery in his native Sweden. Insiders claimed that Sir Nicholas allowed none to thrive because of his fierce controlling instincts.

A Tate spokeswoman said yesterday that change was normal in an organisation of more than 600 staff. Mr Lewison had worked with Sir Nicholas for nearly 20 years and Mr Biggs in Liverpool for 13. Most of the departures were to prestigious career-building appointments, she added.

More serious is the Tate's acknowledgement that even with its phenomenally popular new gallery, its finances are perilous. Sandy Nairne, the director of national programmes, has admitted privately that it is "operating at an unacceptable level of risk".

Jane Morris, editor of the magazine Museums Journal, said: "It certainly looks as if the Tate will be in for a difficult time next year."

The key to the crisis lies in funding. Although the Government coughed up an extra pounds 8m a year rather than see Tate Modern charge visitors, the extra cash comes nowhere near the estimated pounds 17m a year it costs to run the gallery.

The last projected budgets given to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport showed that trading profit from the Tate's restaurants, shops and publishing must rise from pounds 1.5m in 1999- 2000 - the year before Tate Modern opened - to pounds 5m in 2003-04 to balance the books. Ticket sales, sponsorship and other income must rise from pounds 6.4m to almost pounds 13m for the same period. Now that the gallery is up and running, these targets look possible, but they have not been achieved.

The Tate spokeswoman said Tate Modern was already achieving a pounds 4.5m-a- year trading profit and almost pounds 12m in ticket sales. But she added: "Grant- in-aid is not forecast to increase and our high level of self-generated income makes us vulnerable to economic downturn."

The Tate will be helped this year by its enormous show on Picasso and Matisse, which is likely to rival the Warhol exhibition. Warhol brought in pounds 300,000 more than expected and saved the day financially. But the gallery is yet to secure a blockbuster for 2003- 04. Up to 12,000 people a day pass through Tate Modern, with 25,000 on bank holidays, but only a third, at best, visit the paying exhibitions.

The Tate is not alone in feeling the squeeze. The British Museum has announced cuts of 15 per cent and galleries including the National Portrait Gallery and the Wallace Collection are having to tighten their belts.

Ms Morris said: "The trouble is that politicians like the prestige of these big lottery projects, but seem unwilling to fund them properly. The core grants of museums up and down the country are slowly being whittled away."

DEPARTURES ART EXECUTIVES WHO WANTED A DIFFERENT VIEW

Iwona Blazwick

Ms Blazwick took over as director of the Whitechapel Gallery in London last year after four years as head of exhibitions and display at the Tate, helping to prepare for the launch of Tate Modern. She had worked at the Institute of Contemporary Arts for six years and as an editor for the Phaidon Press, where she devised two acclaimed series on contemporary artists and themes and movements.

l Jeremy Lewison

Mr Lewison has spent nearly 20 years at the Tate. Since 1998 he has been responsible for the gallery's acquisitions. He has also set up groups to involve private collectors, and worked with Patrons of New Art, the Tate's contemporary art support group. He is an expert on Ben Nicholson and has written books on Jackson Pollock and Sol Le Witt. He becomes a freelance curator and writer in June.

l Lars Nittve

Mr Nittve was the director of the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Copenhagen until he joined Tate Modern as its first director in April 1998, two years before launch. He had previously been a judge for the Tate's Turner Prize, and curated exhibitions on Warhol and Andreas Gursky at the Louisiana. He left Tate Modern last year to run the Moderna Museet in his native Sweden.

Illustration

Thought I would save this piece of text on my blog as it’s a very interesting look into the characters who run Tate and departures of executives. Sometimes a big corporation like Tate feels faceless, but there are people. at the top. Considering the hierarchy of my company with real company’s hierarchies in mind.

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riichardwilson · 5 years ago

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5 Honest Truths About Starting A Business

September 12, 2020 7 min read

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

After graduating from college, I’d wake up at six in the morning with one question in mind: Should I go all-in and focus exclusively on entrepreneurship — consequences be damned? Or look for a full-time job that gave me a sense of stability (and allowed me to make rent).

Let me rewind a bit. Back in 1999, while still studying computer science, I came up with my very first software product idea, a free open source membership program for a student website. Needless to say, I was beyond thrilled when this turned out to be an unexpected success.

After receiving positive feedback from users, I decided to release a paid version that soon became lucrative. Just like that, I was an entrepreneur in the making.

Related: 8 Things You Need to Know Before Starting a Business

Friends insisted I follow my dream after graduating and jump in with both feet (a tempting choice for a twenty-something-year-old).

But after all of the back and forth, I ended up deciding against the most seductive choice and listened to my gut instead.

Overnight success stories are overrated

This is not the story you were probably expecting. In the tech industry, you’ve likely read about fearless dreamers who launched their startups against all odds: Those who opted for building businesses from scratch rather than pursue the security of a nine to five job.

I get the allure of these stories. Overnight success isn’t impossible. But this narrative can be misleading when it makes people believe they should start a business before they’re ready.

I’m a fairly risk-averse person. Meaning, I think moderation is king when it comes to most things. So, what did I end up doing all those years ago? (It’s not as exciting as all those founders who went straight to the top of TechCrunch after graduating).

I found a full-time job as a programmer for a New York media company.

Related: How to Conquer Your Fear of Starting a Business

But here’s the thing: I didn’t give up on my dream. Instead, I used my day job to fuel my passion and learned valuable lessons about business and managing teams in the process. Five years later, I felt more prepared and confident to quit my job and to start my own company, JotForm.

Of course, during that time, I had the privilege of finding a job in the first place.

Because of the current crisis, many of us are re-examining different aspects of our lives.

You may be questioning whether you should turn your skills into a business, or maybe you are one of the tens of millions of Americans who have lost their jobs due to the coronavirus recession and were forced to make this decision.

While new opportunities are always exciting, whatever your situation — more than anything, I’d like to advocate for following a grounded approach.

Some real talk about entrepreneurship

In her fascinating article for Harvard Business Review, author Emily Heyward points out that there are a few things to consider before taking that blind leap with your business idea.

“As a founder who works alongside many other founders, I’ve seen firsthand what leads to success, as well as what can go wrong,” Heyward writes. “It’s also never been more competitive. The barriers to entry for starting a new business keep getting lower, as technology becomes more accessible and user friendly.”

Related: Starting a Business Isn’t What You Think. Here’s What to Expect Instead.

This is in no way to discourage you from trying. While Heyward describes the excitement of starting a new venture, she also offers a few guiding principles aspiring entrepreneurs should take to heart.

“However you come to your idea, you should feel like you have no choice but to start this particular business at this moment in time,” she says. In other words, a genuine connection to your idea is key to success.

I couldn’t agree more. As CEO of JotForm, I’d love to share the expert-backed tips and lessons I’ve learned over the years while bootstrapping my company to over seven million users.

Surround yourself with trusted mentors and colleagues

Unlike other entrepreneurs, I ended up deciding against having a co-founder to build my business with. However, this doesn’t mean I didn’t rely on incredibly smart people to help me along the way.

Before you dive headfirst into your idea, make sure you’re surrounding yourself with the right people like mentors and colleagues who are a few steps ahead of where you want to be.

Writing for Entrepreneur, Sheila Eugenio argues that in hard times, having a mentor can help us keep our head high: “The valuable connections, timely advice, occasional checks — together with the spiritual and moral guidance you will gain from having a mentor — will literally leapfrog you to success.”

Focus on value over competition

JotForm is bootstrapped, and we’ve never taken a dime from outside investments. Which is to say, we’re not necessarily the “cool kids” of the startup world.

Here’s my point: There are always going to be competitors more popular than you. Hitting the front page of TechCrunch or playing the comparison game will get you nowhere.

So, what does move the needle forward?

Focus on building value for your customers instead of chasing trends. As Heyward puts it: “It’s not about who’s first, it’s about who does it best, and best these days is the business that delivers the most value to the consumer.”

Keep asking yourself: How can I make the best product possible? How can I keep improving my services?

The bottom line: We reached over seven million users because we chose to listen instead of compare.

Do it with passion or not at all

While there’s no way to know how long this recession will last, considering your role as a founder from the very beginning will go a long way in ensuring where your business ends up.

“People care deeply about who’s behind the companies they’re purchasing from,” Heyward notes. “It’s hard to feel a personal connection to a nameless, faceless corporation, and far more rewarding to support brands that are built by individuals with a compelling story.”

Whatever you do, don’t be generic. Be willing to communicate with your consumers, share your purpose with them, and what’s driving your efforts. Developing an authentic voice and relationship with the people buying your products doesn’t just help you gain traction, it gives your work more meaning.

Perhaps Heyward put it best: “Recognize that the very long, exhilarating, terrifying, exhausting, but oh-so-rewarding journey ahead of you only begins when you fully commit to your vision and take control of your outcome.”

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source http://www.scpie.org/5-honest-truths-about-starting-a-business/ source https://scpie.tumblr.com/post/629050651405598720

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scpie · 5 years ago

Text

5 Honest Truths About Starting A Business

September 12, 2020 7 min read

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

After receiving positive feedback from users, I decided to release a paid version that soon became lucrative. Just like that, I was an entrepreneur in the making.

Related: 8 Things You Need to Know Before Starting a Business

Friends insisted I follow my dream after graduating and jump in with both feet (a tempting choice for a twenty-something-year-old).

But after all of the back and forth, I ended up deciding against the most seductive choice and listened to my gut instead.

Overnight success stories are overrated

I get the allure of these stories. Overnight success isn’t impossible. But this narrative can be misleading when it makes people believe they should start a business before they’re ready.

I found a full-time job as a programmer for a New York media company.

Related: How to Conquer Your Fear of Starting a Business

Of course, during that time, I had the privilege of finding a job in the first place.

Because of the current crisis, many of us are re-examining different aspects of our lives.

While new opportunities are always exciting, whatever your situation — more than anything, I’d like to advocate for following a grounded approach.

Some real talk about entrepreneurship

In her fascinating article for Harvard Business Review, author Emily Heyward points out that there are a few things to consider before taking that blind leap with your business idea.

Related: Starting a Business Isn’t What You Think. Here’s What to Expect Instead.

I couldn’t agree more. As CEO of JotForm, I’d love to share the expert-backed tips and lessons I’ve learned over the years while bootstrapping my company to over seven million users.

Surround yourself with trusted mentors and colleagues

Before you dive headfirst into your idea, make sure you’re surrounding yourself with the right people like mentors and colleagues who are a few steps ahead of where you want to be.

Focus on value over competition

JotForm is bootstrapped, and we’ve never taken a dime from outside investments. Which is to say, we’re not necessarily the “cool kids” of the startup world.

Here’s my point: There are always going to be competitors more popular than you. Hitting the front page of TechCrunch or playing the comparison game will get you nowhere.

So, what does move the needle forward?

Keep asking yourself: How can I make the best product possible? How can I keep improving my services?

The bottom line: We reached over seven million users because we chose to listen instead of compare.

Do it with passion or not at all

While there’s no way to know how long this recession will last, considering your role as a founder from the very beginning will go a long way in ensuring where your business ends up.

Website Design & SEO Delray Beach by DBL07.co

Delray Beach SEO

source http://www.scpie.org/5-honest-truths-about-starting-a-business/

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laurelkrugerr · 5 years ago

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5 Honest Truths About Starting A Business

September 12, 2020 7 min read

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

After receiving positive feedback from users, I decided to release a paid version that soon became lucrative. Just like that, I was an entrepreneur in the making.

Related: 8 Things You Need to Know Before Starting a Business

Friends insisted I follow my dream after graduating and jump in with both feet (a tempting choice for a twenty-something-year-old).

But after all of the back and forth, I ended up deciding against the most seductive choice and listened to my gut instead.

Overnight success stories are overrated

I get the allure of these stories. Overnight success isn’t impossible. But this narrative can be misleading when it makes people believe they should start a business before they’re ready.

I found a full-time job as a programmer for a New York media company.

Related: How to Conquer Your Fear of Starting a Business

Of course, during that time, I had the privilege of finding a job in the first place.

Because of the current crisis, many of us are re-examining different aspects of our lives.

While new opportunities are always exciting, whatever your situation — more than anything, I’d like to advocate for following a grounded approach.

Some real talk about entrepreneurship

In her fascinating article for Harvard Business Review, author Emily Heyward points out that there are a few things to consider before taking that blind leap with your business idea.

Related: Starting a Business Isn’t What You Think. Here’s What to Expect Instead.

I couldn’t agree more. As CEO of JotForm, I’d love to share the expert-backed tips and lessons I’ve learned over the years while bootstrapping my company to over seven million users.

Surround yourself with trusted mentors and colleagues

Before you dive headfirst into your idea, make sure you’re surrounding yourself with the right people like mentors and colleagues who are a few steps ahead of where you want to be.

Focus on value over competition

JotForm is bootstrapped, and we’ve never taken a dime from outside investments. Which is to say, we’re not necessarily the “cool kids” of the startup world.

Here’s my point: There are always going to be competitors more popular than you. Hitting the front page of TechCrunch or playing the comparison game will get you nowhere.

So, what does move the needle forward?

Keep asking yourself: How can I make the best product possible? How can I keep improving my services?

The bottom line: We reached over seven million users because we chose to listen instead of compare.

Do it with passion or not at all

While there’s no way to know how long this recession will last, considering your role as a founder from the very beginning will go a long way in ensuring where your business ends up.

Website Design & SEO Delray Beach by DBL07.co

Delray Beach SEO

source http://www.scpie.org/5-honest-truths-about-starting-a-business/ source https://scpie1.blogspot.com/2020/09/5-honest-truths-about-starting-business.html

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bigyack-com · 5 years ago

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The multi-pronged reforms in Union Budget 2020, writes Kumar Mangalam Birla - analysis

The finance minister, Nirmala Sitharaman, had to present this year’s Union Budget in a very challenging context. Slowing economy, falling aggregate demand, and lacklustre credit flows and exports, were all pointing to the need for a sharp fiscal stimulus. But fiscal space is limited since tax collection was not growing handsomely. It is further constrained by a strict fiscal responsibility law passed by Parliament. Thankfully, that law has an exemption in case of special circumstances. Hence taking recourse to that allowable deviation, the FM presented a budget which has a higher fiscal deficit. The stimulus helps address the growth needs of various stakeholders, such as farmers, urban middle class, corporates and bank depositors.For instance, there is a significant capital outlay earmarked for agriculture. There is also a detailed 16-point plan to invigorate the agriculture sector. These steps include economic reforms and deregulation, connecting the farm to fork through supply chains, addressing water stress, and reducing price distortions. Similarly, there is also a boost to the corporate sector by abolition of the dividend distribution tax. Already, corporate taxes had been reduced to 22%, and in fact 15% for new manufacturing companies. This will help make India’s industry competitive. The budget also points to certain anomalies in our free trade agreements with partner nations, which have led to a surge in imports, to the detriment of domestic industry. Hence some much-needed protectionist measures have been put in place. The mainly urban middle class gets a boost through a cut in income tax. And bank depositors too can feel assured about their deposits, since the insured amount ceiling has been raised to Rs 5 lakh per depositor. The budget also makes significant provisions to the ambitious National Infrastructure Pipeline initiative announced recently. In the medium-term, infrastructure spending will be a crucial driver of economic growth for the Indian economy. Beyond fiscal boost, one of the very significant announcements in the budget was the part sale of shares in the Life Insurance Corporation of India. This is in line with an ambitious disinvestment programme which aims to raise more than Rs 2 lakh crore next year. This helps bridge the fiscal deficit, but more importantly, signals the government’s determination to let private sector have a greater play in the economy. The Union Cabinet has already cleared the disinvestment in a slew of public sector companies. This was a theme discussed in the Economic Survey as well. The budget also helps address the issue of tax harassment. An important signal in the budget was the enshrinement of the “taxpayer charter” in the statutes of the tax laws. It will lead to less coercive recovery of taxes. This will enhance the element of trust between the taxpayer and the government, Faceless appeals and the introduction of the settlement scheme for direct tax disputes are welcome too. In order to attain fiscal sustainability, the tax net needs to be wider, and tax rates modest. The reduction in corporate income tax announced earlier, and now extended to the power sector, is greatly welcome.Budget 2020 also has a clear eye on the future and signals a willingness to embrace the new economy. The talk of disruptive tech and the announcement of a National mission for Quantum Technology, with an outlay of Rs 8000 crore over five years, is a modest first step and indicates a desire to compete with economic superpowers on the frontiers that matter. India’s emergence into a higher growth orbit is something that the world awaits.Kumar Mangalam Birla is chairman, Aditya Birla GroupThe views expressed are personal Read the full article

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retrocgads · 1 year ago

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UK 1987

#UK1987 #MELBOURNE HOUSE #BEAM SOFTWARE #FACELESS PROGRAMMERS CORPORATION #ADVENTURE #LICENSED #APPLE #IBM #MACINTOSH #C64 #AMSTRAD #SPECTRUM #THE LORD OF THE RINGS #SHADOWS OF MORDOR

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mostlysignssomeportents · 5 years ago

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Unauthorized Bread: Real rebellions involve jailbreaking IoT toasters

"Unauthorized Bread"—a tale of jailbreaking refugees versus IoT appliances—is the lead novella in author Cory Doctorow's Radicalized, which has just been named a finalist for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's national book award, the Canada Reads prize. "Unauthorized Bread" is also in development for television with Topic, parent company of The Intercept; and for a graphic novel adaptation by Firstsecond, in collaboration with the artist and comics creator Jennifer Doyle. It appears below with permission from the author.

The way Salima found out that Boulangism had gone bankrupt: her toaster wouldn’t accept her bread. She held the slice in front of it and waited for the screen to show her a thumbs-up emoji, but instead, it showed her the head-scratching face and made a soft brrt. She waved the bread again. Brrt.

“Come on.” Brrt.

She turned the toaster off and on. Then she unplugged it, counted to ten, and plugged it in. Then she menued through the screens until she found RESET TO FACTORY DEFAULT, waited three minutes, and punched her Wi-Fi password in again.

Brrt.

Long before she got to that point, she’d grown certain that it was a lost cause. But these were the steps that you took when the electronics stopped working, so you could call the 800 number and say, “I’ve turned it off and on, I’ve unplugged it, I’ve reset it to factory defaults and…”

There was a touchscreen option on the toaster to call support, but that wasn’t working, so she used the fridge to look up the number and call it. It rang seventeen times and disconnected. She heaved a sigh. Another one bites the dust.

The toaster wasn’t the first appliance to go (that honor went to the dishwasher, which stopped being able to validate third-party dishes the week before when Disher went under), but it was the last straw. She could wash dishes in the sink but how the hell was she supposed to make toast—over a candle?

Just to be sure, she asked the fridge for headlines about Boulangism, and there it was, their cloud had burst in the night. Socials crawling with people furious about their daily bread. She prodded a headline and learned that Boulangism had been a ghost ship for at least six months because that’s how long security researchers had been contacting the company to tell it that all its user data—passwords, log-ins, ordering and billing details—had been hanging out there on the public internet with no password or encryption. There were ransom notes in the database, records inserted by hackers demanding cryptocurrency payouts in exchange for keeping the dirty secret of Boulangism’s shitty data handling. No one had even seen them.

Boulangism’s share price had declined by 98 percent over the past year. There might not even be a Boulangism anymore. When Salima had pictured Boulangism, she’d imagined the French bakery that was on the toaster’s idle-screen, dusted with flour, woodblock tables with serried ranks of crusty loaves. She’d pictured a rickety staircase leading up from the bakery to a suite of cramped offices overlooking a cobbled road. She’d pictured gas lamps.

The article had a street-view shot of Boulangism’s headquarters, a four-story office block in Pune, near Mumbai, walled in with an unattended guard booth at the street entrance.

The Boulangism cloud had burst and that meant that there was no one answering Salima’s toaster when it asked if the bread she was about to toast had come from an authorized Boulangism baker, which it had. In the absence of a reply, the paranoid little gadget would assume that Salima was in that class of nefarious fraudsters who bought a discounted Boulangism toaster and then tried to renege on her end of the bargain by inserting unauthorized bread, which had consequences ranging from kitchen fires to suboptimal toast (Boulangism was able to adjust its toasting routine in realtime to adjust for relative kitchen humidity and the age of the bread, and of course it would refuse to toast bread that had become unsalvageably stale), to say nothing of the loss of profits for the company and its shareholders. Without those profits, there’d be no surplus capital to divert to R&D, creating the continuous improvement that meant that hardly a day went by without Salima and millions of other Boulangism stakeholders (never just “customers”) waking up with exciting new firmware for their beloved toasters.

And what of the Boulangism baker-partners? They’d done the right thing, signing up for a Boulangism license, subjecting their process to inspections and quality assurance that meant that their bread had exactly the right composition to toast perfectly in Boulangism’s precision-engineered appliances, with crumb and porosity in perfect balance to absorb butter and other spreads. These valued partners deserved to have their commitment to excellence honored, not cast aside by bargain-hunting cheaters who wanted to recklessly toast any old bread.

Salima knew these arguments, even before her stupid toaster played her the video explaining them, which it did after three unsuccessful bread-authorization attempts, playing without a pause or mute button as a combination of punishment and reeducation campaign.

She tried to search her fridge for “boulangism hacks” and “boulangism unlock codes” but appliances stuck together. KitchenAid’s network filters gobbled up her queries and spat back snarky “no results” screens even though Salima knew perfectly well that there was a whole underground economy devoted to unauthorized bread.

She had to leave for work in half an hour, and she hadn’t even showered yet, but goddamnit, first the dishwasher and now the toaster. She found her laptop, used when she’d gotten it, now barely functional. Its battery was long dead and she had to unplug her toothbrush to free up a charger cable, but after she had booted it and let it run its dozens of software updates, she was able to run the darknet browser she still had kicking around and do some judicious googling.

She was forty-five minutes late to work that day, but she had toast for breakfast. Goddamnit.

The dishwasher was next. Once Salima had found the right forum, it would have been crazy not to unlock the thing. After all, she had to use it and now it was effectively bricked. She wasn’t the only one who had the Disher/Boulangism double whammy, either. Some poor suckers also had the poor fortune to own one of the constellation of devices made by HP-NewsCorp—fridges, toothbrushes, even sex toys—all of which had gone down thanks to a failure of the company’s cloud provider, Tata. While this failure was unrelated to the Disher/Boulangism doubleheader, it was pretty unfortunate timing, everyone agreed.

The twin collapse of Disher and Boulangism did have a shared cause, Salima discovered. Both companies were publicly traded and both had seen more than 20 percent of their shares acquired by Summerstream Funds Management, the largest hedge fund on earth, with $184 billion under management. Summerstream was an “activist shareholder” and it was very big on stock buybacks. Once it had a seat on each company’s board—both occupied by Galt Baumgardner, a junior partner at the firm, but from a very good Kansas family—they both hired the same expert consultant from Deloitte to examine the company’s accounts and recommend a buyback program that would see the shareholders getting their due return from the firms, without gouging so deep into the companies’ operating capital as to endanger them.

It was all mathematically provable, of course. The companies could easily afford to divert billions from their balance sheets to the shareholders. Once this was determined, it was the board’s fiduciary duty to vote in favor of it (which was handy, since they all owned fat wads of company shares) and a few billion dollars later, the companies were lean, mean, and battle ready, and didn’t even miss all that money.

Oops.

Summerstream issued a press release (often quoted in the forums Salima was now obsessively haunting) blaming the whole thing on “volatility” and “alpha” and calling it “unfortunate” and “disappointing.” They were confident that both companies would restructure in bankruptcy, perhaps after a quick sale to a competitor, and everyone could start toasting bread and washing dishes within a month or two.

Salima wasn’t going to wait. Her Boulangism didn’t go easily. After downloading the new firmware from the darknet, she had to remove the case (slicing through three separate tamper-evident seals and a large warning sticker that threatened electrocution and prosecution, perhaps simultaneously, for anyone foolish enough to ignore it) and locate a specific component and then short out two of its pins with a pair of tweezers while booting it. This dropped the toaster into a test mode that the developers had deactivated, but not removed. The instant the test screen came up, she had to jam in her USB stick (removing the toaster’s hood had revealed a set of USB ports, a monitor port, and even a little Ethernet jack, all stock on the commodity single-board PC that controlled it) at exactly the right instant, then use the on-screen keyboard to tap in the log-in and password, which were “admin” and “admin” (of course).

It took her three tries to get the timing right, but on the third try, the spare log-in screen was replaced with the pirate firmware’s cheesy text-art animation of a 3-D skull, which she smiled at—and then she burst into laughter as a piece of text-art toast floated into the frame and was merrily chomped to crumbs by the text-art skull, the crumbs cascading to the bottom of the screen and forming shifting little piles. Someone had put a lot of effort into the physics simulation for that ridiculous animation. It made Salima feel good, like she was entrusting her toaster to deep, serious craftspeople and not just randos who liked to pit their wits against faceless programmers from big, stupid companies.

The crumbs piled up as the skull chomped and the progress indicator counted up from 12 percent to 26 percent then to 34 percent (where it stuck for a full ten minutes, until she was ready to risk really bricking the damned thing by unplugging it, but then—) 58 percent, and so on, to an agonizing wait at 99 percent, and then all the crumbs rushed up from the bottom of the screen and went back out through the skull’s mouth, turning back into toast, each reassembled piece forming up in ranks that quickly blotted out the skull, and the words ALL DONE burned themselves into the toast’s surface, glistening with butter that ran down in rivulets. She was just grabbing for her phone to get a picture of this awesome pirate load-screen when the toaster oven blinked and rebooted itself.

A few seconds later, she held a slice of bread to the toaster’s sensor and watched as its light turned green and its door yawned open. Halfway through munching the toast, she was struck by an odd curiosity. She held her hand up to the toaster, palm out, as though it, too, were a slice of bread. The toaster’s light turned green and the door opened. She was momentarily tempted to try and toast a fork or a paper towel or a slice of apple, just to see if the toaster would do it, but of course it would.

This was a new kind of toaster, a toaster that took orders, rather than giving them. A toaster that would give her enough rope to hang herself, let her toast a lithium battery or a can of hairspray, or anything else she wanted to toast: unauthorized bread. Even homemade bread. The idea made her feel a little queasy and a little tremorous. Homemade bread was something she’d read about in books, seen in old dramas, but she didn’t know anyone who actually baked bread. That was like gnawing your own furniture out of whole logs or something.

The ingredients turned out to be incredibly simple, and while her first loaf came out looking like a poop emoji, it tasted amazing, still warm from the little toaster, and if anything, the slice (OK, the lump) she saved and toasted the next morning was even better, especially with butter on it. She left for work that day with a magical, warm, toasty feeling in her stomach.

Read the rest:

https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2020/01/unauthorized-bread-a-near-future-tale-of-refugees-and-sinister-iot-appliances/

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vocabmeme · 6 years ago

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New Post has been published on http://dailyvocab.com/photos/regime/

Regime

(noun) a government, especially an authoritarian one. “ideological opponents of the regime”

(noun) a system or ordered way of doing things. “detention centres with a very tough physical regime”

(noun) a coordinated programme for the promotion or restoration of health; a regimen. “a low-calorie, low-fat regime”

(noun) the conditions under which a scientific or industrial process occurs.

Regime meaning in Hindi (English to Hindi meaning)

शासन पद्वति, पथ्यापथ्य नियम, दौर, शासन, शासन पध्दति या व्यवस्था, शासन-पद्धति, व्यवस्था, प्रशासन, राज्य-काल, व्यवस्था, शासन, शासन-काल, शासन-पद्धति

Regime origin

late 15th century (in the sense ‘regimen’): French régime, from Latin regimen ‘rule’ (see regimen). Sense 1 dates from the late 18th century (with original reference to the Ancien Régime).

Regime in a sentence (word usage in recent Hindu newspaper)

India starting faceless tax assessment regime to forestall …, In August, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman conveyed to India Inc. they will not face any harassment as a new system was being put in …

US treasury secretary asks India to build steady tax regime, MUMBAI: India has to move quickly to capitalise on the global trend of large corporations wanting to diversify manufacturing away from China, …

India introduces concessional tax regimes for domestic …, India has traditionally been a high corporate tax jurisdiction. Up until September 2019, the effective corporate tax rates (including surcharge …

India proposes free natural gas pricing regime, KOLKATA (miningweekly.com) – The Indian government has started work on implementing a free pricing regime for domestically produced …

Opinion | India’s export woes, India’s October trade figures deepen concerns about the health of our … in the refunds due to them under the goods and services tax regime.

Mnemonic trick to remember the meaning of Regime

reg(king or ruler)+aim (method) i,e method of government

Regime sounds like regiment….military regiment which is a method of system…..or government

Regime pronunciation

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dyzziiii · 8 years ago

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capitalism is trash (rant)

my team at work gives me mad shit because I come in super late and leave fairly early (approved by my boss... or at least he doesn’t really care), but they refuse to acknowledge that even though I’m on-site for like half the time as them, I still consistently churn out a bit over twice their workload (we use software to track tasks so this is super obvious)

In regard to actual time spent working, I’m probably not terribly far off from them since they do the whole water-cooler-chat thing a few times a day in the kitchen while they make tea, go on midday walks, take long lunch / dinner breaks, etc. while I pretty much crank it to 11 at my desk from the second I sit down to when I leave, minus grabbing a meal to eat at my desk. I do this because I value my time outside of work, and with a long commute, I have very little of it. I have a family and a fiance who I want to enjoy, and being a fast and efficient worker allows me to do so.

It’s ridiculous that instead of selling skills and task completion, we sell our actual time (if you’re an hourly employee). This makes no sense in industries that are task-based and performed on a large, predictable schedule, where real-time incidents (like a customer walking in) don’t really exist. The boomer ideals of “an honest day’s work” are so fucking harmful for the tech industry tbh. Especially if you’re salaried, which is (on-paper) a direct counter to all this bullshit, but in actuality a way for companies to tell you to work 15 hour days with no overtime pay.

The worst is that some companies sell themselves based on this “work hard play hard” lifestyle. I have coworkers who will proudly tell me they haven’t seen their SO in 3-4 days, or they slept on the office couch, or giving me a high-five if I share that I was online until 4am to meet a deadline. We’ve been conditioned to almost fetishize this really stressful lifestyle and i’ve had bosses tell me straight up that the intention is to hire you by enticing you with crazy perks, work you as hard as possible until you burn out, then churn you and recruit another faceless programmer / designer / writer / artist / marketer from the masses of people trying to break into tech. So the gold medal (sometimes literally... I got a trophy...) is awarded when you are the ‘perfect’ employee who can work 16+ hour days consistently and not burn out in under a year.

I’ve seen people put under so much stress that they’ve had fist-fights in the office, skipped work-sponsored parties just to do more work, be hospitalized for ulcers and other stress-aggravated conditions, etc. I know ppl who worked while on maternity leave, sick leave, paid time off, and while at hospitals. And this is applauded. Those are the heroes, and no one pities them because what the fuck, corporations are evil.

And the second someone finds a ‘hack’ - LIKE ME, where they can effectively provide the same output (or better) as someone doing 8-10 hours a day but still maintain some sanity and work-life balance so they don’t burn out - they get harassed and targeted for not being committed enough to live at the office. And if you take this complaint up to your boomer bosses or someone were to publish an article about this, we’d get slammed with “Entitled Millenials want to get paid the same amount to leave early!!” headlines and snarky quips about how if we spent less time on our facebook tabs, we’d get more work done in a day.

/rant

#rant #personal #but also not that personal #im just tired #hire me

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vitalityandfitness · 6 years ago

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The Benefits of Training at a Local Gym

Since getting fit and in shape escalated as a trend in the 1980’s, more and more large, corporate gyms started to pop up all over the UK. But these days, as the corporate venues become more and more faceless and price driven, then people are switching to local health and fitness centres. The reason? When someone chooses a local gym they generally find that they have a far more rewarding training experience.

With this in mind, at Vitality Health & Fitness, we actively strive to ensure that we have the best equipment, the most popular and effective classes and fully qualified, professional staff – all designed to make membership as best as it can be.

Here are some of the factors that are important to us as part of our members’ Vitality experience:

A Better work out

Like many local gyms, our focus on maintaining specific training areas where members can work out easily and conveniently, rather than creating an intimidating or daunting environment. By avoiding the showiness the most large chains seem to prefer, our members get a better work out in the dedicated areas that they prefer without the distractions of a large and noisy environment.

Variety is also key and at Vitality we are constantly introducing new classes to our most popular sessions as well as changing the timetable to meet seasonal trends. We also seek feedback from our members to find out what we can do to improve their experience, which is why we recently added a spin room. Corporate gyms don’t really care what members want, they just deliver a standard level of equipment and classes across the board and that’s what members have to live with.

A local gym usually provides a cleaner environment, because most local fitness centre owners tend to take more pride in their facility and want to give their members a clean and healthy gym experience; and that includes well-maintained equipment.

Financial Flexibility

Smaller gyms, not driven by a head office directive, can offer flexibility when it comes to membership deals and contracts (and membership tends to be generally cheaper too). For example, a local gym can offer member who want to pay for an annual membership in full a decent discount.

What’s more, if a member is moving away, a local gym is more likely to let that person out of their contract without any extra fees or hassle or put the contract on hold if it’s a temporary move.

Similarly, if someone can’t train because they are ill or injured, a gym like Vitality is more than happy to suspend the contract temporarily until the member is ready to return. In addition, an independent gym can introduce offers and incentives to attract new members at the drop of a hat, without seeking approval from a higher level.

And a local gym can also be flexible when it comes to seasonal offers such as student memberships for the holidays only etc.

The Personal Touch

Since members are more likely to know the people who frequent a local gym, they’ll typically experience a friendlier gym atmosphere than when compared to gyms that are owned by corporations and have hundreds, even thousands of members. Also, staff who work at a local fitness centre often know members by name, which adds to the enhanced personal gym experience.

As smaller gyms tend to employ their own fitness staff who are on hand to help with advice, guidance and, if required a dedicated training programme. Many of the larger corporates allow Personal Trainers to pay them a fee to work the floor and badger members into costly training programmes in addition to their membership fee.

The former approach, adopted by many local gyms like Vitality, helps to make members feel more comfortable and increases their chances of getting their desired results.

So what are you waiting for. Come on down to Vitality Health & Fitness in Neath or Port Talbot today for a free trial and the best gym experience in the area or call us on the numbers below to find out more:

The post The Benefits of Training at a Local Gym appeared first on Vitality Health & Fitness.

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recentanimenews · 6 years ago

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The Future is Now: 30 Years of Patlabor the Movie

If you're not familiar with Headgear's Mobile Police Patlabor, here's the elevator pitch: in the near-future, advances in robotics technology give birth to “Labors” - mass-produced, human-piloted robots that revolutionize the construction industry. This spurs a huge economic boom in Japan as the public and private sectors employ thousands of Labors for massive civic engineering projects, such as transforming entire sections of Tokyo Bay into reclaimed land for real estate.

As with any revolutionary paradigm shift, the arrival of Labors has unintended consequences. Soon malcontents from all walks of life (disgruntled employees, career criminals, eco-terrorists, etc.) begin using Labors to commit all manner of major and minor crimes.

In response, the Tokyo city government unveils a new police unit dedicated to investigating and discouraging Labor crime: the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department Special Vehicles Section (also known as the “Mobile Police”). The citizens of Tokyo can rest easy knowing that the highly-trained members of Special Vehicles Section 1 are ready to keep the peace with the help of their specialized “Patrol Labors” (hence “Patlabor”).

This sounds like a typical set-up for a mecha anime crossed with a police procedural, but here's the twist: Mobile Police Patlabor doesn't focus on Special Vehicles Section 1. Instead, it tells the story of Special Vehicles Section 2 (also known as SV2 for short), the back-up squad comprised of all of the losers, misfits, and rejects who couldn't make the cut for Section 1.

Overworked, under-staffed, and unpopular with the tax-payers, SV2 is banished to a strip of reclaimed land in the middle of nowhere. There they spend more time filing paperwork, fishing, tending tomatoes, cutting grass, and ordering Chinese take-out than they do fighting Labor crimes. Even in the future, gainful employment is hard to find.

Spanning two OVA series, a 47 episode TV series, three theatrical anime films, a live-action TV series, a manga and more, Mobile Police Patlabor is a sprawling franchise. It excels at both serious character drama and situational comedy, and some of its finest qualities are distilled into Patlabor: The Movie, a 1989 theatrical anime film directed by Mamoru Oshii, written by Kazunori Ito, and featuring animation production by Production I.G and Studio Deen.

As a director, Oshii has carved out a reputation for being a big thinker with visually stunning and philosophically dense films such as Angel's Egg, Avalon, the Kerberos Saga, and Ghost in the Shell. Less well known is Oshii's irreverent sense of humor, which he displays in works such as Urusei Yatsura, The Fast Food Grifters, and of course, Mobile Police Patlabor.

At first glance, Patlabor: The Movie seems like a less serious, more comedic entry in Oshii's filmography, but a close viewing reveals a film full of Oshii's trademark religious symbolism, skepticism towards authority, and ambivalence in the face of relentless technological progress.

Patlabor: The Movie begins with a simple premise: when the release of a ground-breaking Labor operating system coincides with a bizarre string of robots going berserk, the members of SV2 suspect that the software's brilliant but elusive programmer has deliberately sabotaged thousands of Labors in an act of religiously-motivated terrorism.

The truth proves difficult to uncover. The mysterious programmer, Eiichi Hoba (nicknamed “Jehovah” by his peers at M.I.T.), has already committed suicide and Shinohara Heavy Industries – the software's developer – is quick to deny any malpractice in order to protect their economic interests. Even the police and local governments seem more concerned with maintaining consumer confidence than preventing disaster, forcing SV2 to step outside the law in an effort to minimize the damage.

Oshii's films have a singular obsession with the machinations of state force. His movies are filled with heavy ordinance, military helicopters, tanks, and firearms of all shapes and sizes. But despite leaning heavily on the aesthetics of these war-machines, Oshii maintains very humanist sensibilities, and Patlabor: The Movie views authority through an extremely skeptical lens.

The heroes are low-level civil servants who get by with guts and brains, while the antagonists are faceless corporations ready to screw over the public in the pursuit of profit and stuffed-suit politicians who compound the problems through a combination of complicity and a nigh pathological inability to act. As a result, Patlabor: The Movie feels powerfully relevant, even thirty years after its initial publication.

Like other Oshii films, Patlabor: The Movie explores matters both mundane and metaphysical through its allusions and religious imagery, evoking Old Testament stories about the fragility and foolishness of humanity. Note to future architects: perhaps it's a bad idea to christen your incalculably expensive projects with titles that call to mind the destruction of the Tower of Babel, the Great Flood, or an ancient city with a reputation as sullied as that of modern day Las Vegas.

Patlabor: The Movie is equally ambivalent about the breakneck speed of technological progress. While modern companies and governments rush to adopt the latest, hottest Labor software, a pair of detectives investigating the programmer's suicide traipse through landfills stacked with abandoned relics of modern life. Meanwhile, cutting edge robots labor among ramshackle slums stacked full of wooden buildings constructed during the Showa Era.

It's a stark contrast, and a not-so-subtle reminder that while technology surges heedlessly into the future, human culture struggles to keep up.

Even if you're not in the mood for a deep dive into the film's imagery and themes, Patlabor: The Movie is still a meticulously animated and action-packed film, with a strong blend of political intrigue, pot-boiler detective antics, and giant robot mayhem leading up to a nail-biting conclusion as SV2 storms the humongous off-shore construction facility known as the Ark during a raging typhoon in a desperate attempt to avert disaster.

Patlabor: The Movie is currently available on home video from Sentai Filmworks as part of the Patlabor The Mobile Police Ultimate Collection Blu-Ray set, which is released in the United States by their Maiden Japan imprint. The film is also available via online streaming through HIDIVE. If mecha action mixed with humor, humanism, and heart is your forte, then you owe it to yourself to check it out, especially since the series feels more topical with each passing day.

And always remember Patlabor's prophetic tagline: “This is a work of fiction...but in ten years, who knows?”

-----

Paul Chapman is the host of The Greatest Movie EVER! Podcast and GME! Anime Fun Time.

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marymosley · 6 years ago

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Union Budget 2019-20: Key Highlights

The Union Minister for Finance and Corporate Affairs Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman made her maiden Budget Speech and presented the Union Budget 2019-20 on 05th July’19 before the Parliament. The key highlights of Union Budget 2019 are as follows:

10-point Vision for the decade

Building Team India with Jan Bhagidari: Minimum Government Maximum Governance.

Achieving green Mother Earth and Blue Skies through a pollution-free India.

Making Digital India reach every sector of the economy.

Launching Gaganyan, Chandrayan, other Space and Satellite programmes.

Building physical and social infrastructure.

Water, water management, clean rivers.

Blue Economy.

Self-sufficiency and export of food-grains, pulses, oilseeds, fruits and vegetables.

Achieving a healthy society via Ayushman Bharat, well-nourished women & children, safety of citizens.

Emphasis on MSMEs, Start-ups, defence manufacturing, automobiles, electronics, fabs and batteries, and medical devices under Make in India.

Towards a 5 Trillion Dollar Economy

“People’s hearts filled with Aasha (Hope), Vishwas (Trust), Aakansha (Aspirations)”, says FM.

Indian economy to become a 3 trillion dollar economy in the current year.

Government aspires to make India a 5 trillion dollar economy.

“India Inc. are India’s job-creators and nation’s wealth-creators”, says FM.

Need for investment in:

Infrastructure.

Digital economy.

Job creation in small and medium firms.

Initiatives to be proposed for kick-starting the virtuous cycle of investments.

Common man’s life changed through MUDRA loans for ease of doing business.

Measures related to MSMEs:

Pradhan Mantri Karam Yogi Maandhan Scheme

Pension benefits to about three crore retail traders & small shopkeepers with annual turnover less than Rs. 1.5 crore.

Enrolment to be kept simple, requiring only Aadhaar, bank account and a self-declaration.

Rs. 350 crore allocated for FY 2019-20 for 2% interest subvention (on fresh or incremental loans) to all GST-registered MSMEs, under the Interest Subvention Scheme for MSMEs.

Payment platform for MSMEs to be created to enable filing of bills and payment thereof, to eliminate delays in government payments.

India’s first indigenously developed payment ecosystem for transport, based on National Common Mobility Card (NCMC) standards, launched in March 2019.

Inter-operable transport card runs on RuPay card and would allow the holders to pay for bus travel, toll taxes, parking charges, retail shopping.

Massive push given to all forms of physical connectivity through:

Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana.

Industrial Corridors, Dedicated Freight Corridors.

Bhartamala and Sagarmala projects, Jal Marg Vikas and UDAN Schemes.

State road networks to be developed in second phase of Bharatmala project.

Navigational capacity of Ganga to be enhanced via multi modal terminals at Sahibganj and Haldia and a navigational lock at Farakka by 2019-20, under Jal Marg Vikas Project.

Four times increase in next four years estimated in the cargo volume on Ganga, leading to cheaper freight and passenger movement and reducing the import bill.

Rs. 50 lakh crore investment needed in Railway Infrastructure during 2018-2030.

Public-Private-Partnership proposed for development and completion of tracks, rolling stock manufacturing and delivery of passenger freight services.

657 kilometers of Metro Rail network has become operational across the country.

Policy interventions to be made for the development of Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO), to achieve self- reliance in aviation segment.

Regulatory roadmap for making India a hub for aircraft financing and leasing activities from Indian shores, to be laid by the Government.

Outlay of Rs. 10,000 crore for 3 years approved for Phase-II of FAME Scheme.

Upfront incentive proposed on purchase and charging infrastructure, to encourage faster adoption of Electric Vehicles.

Only advanced-battery-operated and registered e-vehicles to be incentivized under FAME Scheme.

National Highway Programme to be restructured to ensure a National Highway Grid, using a financeable model.

Power at affordable rates to states ensured under ‘One Nation, One Grid’.

Blueprints to be made available for gas grids, water grids, i-ways, and regional airports.

High Level Empowered Committee (HLEC) recommendations to be implemented:

Retirement of old & inefficient plants.

Addressing low utilization of gas plant capacity due to paucity of Natural Gas.

Cross subsidy surcharges, undesirable duties on open access sales or captive generation for industrial and other bulk power consumers to be removed under Ujjwal DISCOM Assurance Yojana (UDAY).

Package of power sector tariff and structural reforms to be announced soon.

Reform measures to be taken up to promote rental housing.

Model Tenancy Law to be finalized and circulated to the states.

Joint development and concession mechanisms to be used for public infrastructure and affordable housing on land parcels held by the Central Government and CPSEs.

Measures to enhance the sources of capital for infrastructure financing:

Credit Guarantee Enhancement Corporation to be set up in 2019-2020.

Action plan to be put in place to deepen the market for long term bonds with focus on infrastructure.

Proposed transfer/sale of investments by FIIs/FPIs (in debt securities issued by IDF-NBFCs) to any domestic investor within the specified lock-in period.

Measures to deepen bond markets:

Stock exchanges to be enabled to allow AA rated bonds as collaterals.

User-friendliness of trading platforms for corporate bonds to be reviewed.

Social stock exchange:

Electronic fund raising platform under the regulatory ambit of SEBI.

Listing social enterprises and voluntary organizations.

To raise capital as equity, debt or as units like a mutual fund.

SEBI to consider raising the threshold for minimum public shareholding in the listed companies from 25% to 35%.

Know Your Customer (KYC) norms for Foreign Portfolio Investors to be made more investor friendly.

Government to supplement efforts by RBI to get retail investors to invest in government treasury bills and securities, with further institutional development using stock exchanges.

Measures to make India a more attractive FDI destination:

FDI in sectors like aviation, media (animation, AVGC) and insurance sectors can be opened further after multi-stakeholder examination.

Insurance Intermediaries to get 100% FDI.

Local sourcing norms to be eased for FDI in Single Brand Retail sector.

Government to organize an annual Global Investors Meet in India, using National Infrastructure Investment Fund (NIIF) as an anchor to get all three sets of global players (pension, insurance and sovereign wealth funds).

Statutory limit for FPI investment in a company is proposed to be increased from 24% to sectoral foreign investment limit. Option to be given to the concerned corporate to limit it to a lower threshold.

FPIs to be permitted to subscribe to listed debt securities issued by ReITs and InvITs.

NRI-Portfolio Investment Scheme Route is proposed to be merged with the Foreign Portfolio Investment Route.

Cumulative resources garnered through new financial instruments like Infrastructure Investment Trusts (InvITs), Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) as well as models like Toll-Operate-Transfer (ToT) exceed Rs. 24,000 crore.

New Space India Limited (NSIL), a PSE, incorporated as a new commercial arm of Department of Space.

To tap the benefits of the Research & Development carried out by ISRO like commercialization of products like launch vehicles, transfer to technologies and marketing of space products.

Direct Taxes

Tax rate reduced to 25% for companies with annual turnover up to Rs. 400 crore

Surcharge increased on individuals having taxable income from Rs. 2 crore to Rs. 5 crore and Rs. 5 crore and above.

India’s Ease of Doing Business ranking under the category of ‘paying taxes’ jumped from 172 in 2017 to 121 in the 2019.

Direct tax revenue increased by over 78% in past 5 years to Rs. 11.37 lakh crore

Tax Simplification and Ease of living – making compliance easier by leveraging technology:

Interchangeability of PAN and Aadhaar

Those who don’t have PAN can file tax returns using Aadhaar.

Aadhaar can be used wherever PAN is required.

Pre-filling of Income-tax Returns for faster, more accurate tax returns

Pre-filled tax returns with details of several incomes and deductions to be made available.

Information to be collected from Banks, Stock exchanges, mutual funds etc.

Faceless e-assessment

Faceless e-assessment with no human interface to be launched.

To be carried out initially in cases requiring verification of certain specified transactions or discrepancies.

Affordable housing

Additional deduction up to Rs. 1.5 lakhs for interest paid on loans borrowed up to 31st March, 2020 for purchase of house valued up to Rs. 45 lakh.

Overall benefit of around Rs. 7 lakh over loan period of 15 years.

Boost to Electric Vehicles

Additional income tax deduction of Rs. 1.5 lakh on interest paid on electric vehicle loans.

Customs duty exempted on certain parts of electric vehicles.

Other Direct Tax measures

Simplification of tax laws to reduce genuine hardships of taxpayers:

Higher tax threshold for launching prosecution for non-filing of returns

Appropriate class of persons exempted from the anti-abuse provisions of Section 50CA and Section 56 of the Income Tax Act.

Relief for Start-ups

Capital gains exemptions from sale of residential house for investment in start-ups extended till FY21.

‘Angel tax’ issue resolved- start-ups and investors filing requisite declarations and providing information in their returns not to be subjected to any kind of scrutiny in respect of valuations of share premiums.

Funds raised by start-ups to not require scrutiny from Income Tax Department

E-verification mechanism for establishing identity of the investor and source of funds.

Special administrative arrangements for pending assessments and grievance redressal

No inquiry in such cases by the Assessing Officer without obtaining approval of the supervisory officer.

No scrutiny of valuation of shares issued to Category-II Alternative Investment Funds.

Relaxation of conditions for carry forward and set off of losses.

NBFCs

Interest on certain bad or doubtful debts by deposit taking as well as systemically important non-deposit taking NBFCs to be taxed in the year in which interest is actually received.

International Financial Services Centre (IFSC)

Direct tax incentives proposed for an IFSC:

100 % profit-linked deduction in any ten-year block within a fifteen-year period.

Exemption from dividend distribution tax from current and accumulated income to companies and mutual funds.

Exemptions on capital gain to Category-III Alternative Investment Funds (AIFs).

Exemption to interest payment on loan taken from non-residents.

Securities Transaction Tax (STT)

STT restricted only to the difference between settlement and strike price in case of exercise of options.

Indirect Taxes

Make In India

Basic Customs Duty increased on cashew kernels, PVC, tiles, auto parts, marble slabs, optical fibre cable, CCTV camera etc.

Exemptions from Custom Duty on certain electronic items now manufactured in India withdrawn.

End use based exemptions on palm stearin, fatty oils withdrawn.

Exemptions to various kinds of papers withdrawn.

5% Basic Custom Duty imposed on imported books.

Customs duty reduced on certain raw materials such as:

Inputs for artificial kidney and disposable sterilised dialyser and fuels for nuclear power plants etc.

Capital goods required for manufacture of specified electronic goods.

Defence

Defence equipment not manufactured in India exempted from basic customs duty

Other Indirect Tax provisions

Export duty rationalised on raw and semi-finished leather

Increase in Special Additional Excise Duty and Road and Infrastructure Cess each by Rs. 1 per litre on petrol and diesel

Custom duty on gold and other precious metals increased

Legacy Dispute Resolution Scheme for quick closure of pending litigations in Central Excise and Service tax from pre-GST regime

Grameen Bharat / Rural India

Ujjwala Yojana and Saubhagya Yojana have transformed the lives of every rural family, dramatically improving ease of their living.

Electricity and clean cooking facility to all willing rural families by 2022.

Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana – Gramin (PMAY-G) aims to achieve “Housing for All” by 2022:

Eligible beneficiaries to be provided 1.95 crore houses with amenities like toilets, electricity and LPG connections during its second phase (2019-20 to 2021-22).

Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampada Yojana (PMMSY)

A robust fisheries management framework through PMMSY to be established by the Department of Fisheries.

To address critical gaps in the value chain including infrastructure, modernization, traceability, production, productivity, post-harvest management, and quality control.

Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY)

Target of connecting the eligible and feasible habitations advanced from 2022 to 2019 with 97% of such habitations already being provided with all weather connectivity.

30,000 kilometers of PMGSY roads have been built using Green Technology, Waste Plastic and Cold Mix Technology, thereby reducing carbon footprint.

1,25,000 kilometers of road length to be upgraded over the next five years under PMGSY III with an estimated cost of Rs. 80,250 crore.

Scheme of Fund for Upgradation and Regeneration of Traditional Industries’ (SFURTI)

Common Facility Centres (CFCs) to be setup to facilitate cluster based development for making traditional industries more productive, profitable and capable for generating sustained employment opportunities.

100 new clusters to be setup during 2019-20 with special focus on Bamboo, Honey and Khadi, enabling 50,000 artisans to join the economic value chain.

Scheme for Promotion of Innovation, Rural Industry and Entrepreneurship’ (ASPIRE) consolidated.

80 Livelihood Business Incubators (LBIs) and 20 Technology Business Incubators (TBIs) to be setup in 2019-20.

75,000 entrepreneurs to be skilled in agro-rural industry sectors.

Private entrepreneurships to be supported in driving value-addition to farmers’ produce from the field and for those from allied activities.

Dairying through cooperatives to be encouraged by creating infrastructure for cattle feed manufacturing, milk procurement, processing & marketing.

10,000 new Farmer Producer Organizations to be formed, to ensure economies of scale for farmers.

Government to work with State Governments to allow farmers to benefit from e-NAM.

Zero Budget Farming in which few states’ farmers are already being trained to be replicated in other states.

India’s water security

New Jal Shakti Mantralaya to look at the management of our water resources and water supply in an integrated and holistic manner

Jal Jeevan Mission to achieve Har Ghar Jal (piped water supply) to all rural households by 2024

To focus on integrated demand and supply side management of water at the local level.

Convergence with other Central and State Government Schemes to achieve its objectives.

1592 critical and over exploited Blocks spread across 256 District being identified for the Jal Shakti Abhiyan.

Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority (CAMPA) fund can be used for this purpose.

Swachh Bharat Abhiyan

9.6 crore toilets constructed since Oct 2, 2014.

More than 5.6 lakh villages have become Open Defecation Free (ODF).

Swachh Bharat Mission to be expanded to undertake sustainable solid waste management in every village.

Pradhan Mantri Gramin Digital Saksharta Abhiyan,

Over two crore rural Indians made digitally literate.

Internet connectivity in local bodies in every Panchayat under Bharat-Net to bridge rural-urban divide.

Universal Obligation Fund under a PPP arrangement to be utilized for speeding up Bharat-Net.

Shahree Bharat/Urban India

Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana – Urban (PMAY-Urban)-

Over 81 lakh houses with an investment of about Rs. 4.83 lakh crore sanctioned of which construction started in about 47 lakh houses.

Over 26 lakh houses completed of which nearly 24 lakh houses delivered to the beneficiaries.

Over 13 lakh houses so far constructed using new technologies.

More than 95% of cities also declared Open Defecation Free (ODF).

Almost 1 crore citizens have downloaded Swachhata App.

Target of achieving Gandhiji’s resolve of Swachh Bharat to make India ODF by 2nd October 2019.

To mark this occasion, the Rashtriya Swachhta Kendra to be inaugurated at Gandhi Darshan, Rajghat on 2nd October, 2019.

Gandhipedia being developed by National Council for Science Museums to sensitize youth and society about positive Gandhian values.

Railways to be encouraged to invest more in suburban railways through SPV structures like Rapid Regional Transport System (RRTS) proposed on the Delhi-Meerut route.

Proposal to enhance the metro-railway initiatives by:

Encouraging more PPP initiatives.

Ensuring completion of sanctioned works.

Supporting transit oriented development (TOD) to ensure commercial activity around transit hubs.

Youth

New National Education Policy to be brought which proposes

Major changes in both school and higher education

Better Governance systems

Greater focus on research and innovation.

National Research Foundation (NRF) proposed

To fund, coordinate and promote research in the country.

To assimilate independent research grants given by various Ministries.

To strengthen overall research eco-system in the country

This would be adequately supplemented with additional funds.

Rs. 400 crore provided for “World Class Institutions”, for FY 2019-20, more than three times the revised estimates for the previous year.

‘Study in India’ proposed to bring foreign students to study in Indian higher educational institutions.

Regulatory systems of higher education to be reformed comprehensively:

To promote greater autonomy.

To focus on better academic outcomes.

Draft legislation to set up Higher Education Commission of India (HECI), to be presented.

Khelo India Scheme to be expanded with all necessary financial support.

National Sports Education Board for development of sportspersons to be set up under Khelo India, to popularize sports at all levels

To prepare youth for overseas jobs, focus to be increased on globally valued skill-sets including language training, AI, IoT, Big Data, 3D Printing, Virtual Reality and Robotics.

Set of four labour codes proposed, to streamline multiple labour laws to standardize and streamline registration and filing of returns.

A television program proposed exclusively for and by start-ups, within the DD bouquet of channels.

Stand-Up India Scheme to be continued for the period of 2020-25. The Banks to provide financial assistance for demand based businesses.

Ease of Living

About 30 lakh workers joined the Pradhan Mantri Shram Yogi Maandhan Scheme that provides Rs. 3,000 per month as pension on attaining the age of 60 to workers in unorganized and informal sectors.

Approximately 35 crore LED bulbs distributed under UJALA Yojana leading to cost saving of Rs. 18,341 crore annually.

Solar stoves and battery chargers to be promoted using the approach of LED bulbs mission.

A massive program of railway station modernization to be launched.

Naari Tu Narayani/Women

Approach shift from women-centric-policy making to women-led initiatives and movements.

A Committee proposed with Government and private stakeholders for moving forward on Gender budgeting.

SHG:

Women SHG interest subvention program proposed to be expanded to all districts.

Overdraft of Rs. 5,000 to be allowed for every verified women SHG member having a Jan Dhan Bank Account.

One woman per SHG to be eligible for a loan up to Rs. 1 lakh under MUDRA Scheme.

India’s Soft Power

Proposal to consider issuing Aadhaar Card for NRIs with Indian Passports on their arrival without waiting for 180 days.

Mission to integrate traditional artisans with global markets proposed, with necessary patents and geographical indicators.

18 new Indian diplomatic Missions in Africa approved in March, 2018, out of which 5 already opened. Another 4 new Embassies intended in 2019-20.

Revamp of Indian Development Assistance Scheme (IDEAS) proposed.

17 iconic Tourism Sites being developed into model world class tourist destinations.

Present digital repository aimed at preserving rich tribal cultural heritage, to be strengthened.

Banking and Financial Sector

NPAs of commercial banks reduced by over Rs. 1 lakh crore over the last year.

Record recovery of over Rs. 4 lakh crore effected over the last four years.

Provision coverage ratio at its highest in seven years.

Domestic credit growth increased to 13.8%.

Measures related to PSBs:

Rs. 70,000 crore proposed to be provided to PSBs to boost credit.

PSBs to leverage technology, offering online personal loans and doorstep banking, and enabling customers of one PSBs to access services across all PSBs.

Steps to be initiated to empower accountholders to have control over deposit of cash by others in their accounts.

Reforms to be undertaken to strengthen governance in PSBs.

Measures related to NBFCs:

Proposals for strengthening the regulatory authority of RBI over NBFCs to be placed in the Finance Bill.

Requirement of creating a Debenture Redemption Reserve will be done away with to allow NBFCs to raise funds in public issues.

Steps to allow all NBFCs to directly participate on the TReDS platform.

Return of regulatory authority from NHB to RBI proposed, over the housing finance sector.

Rs. 100 lakh crore investment in infrastructure intended over the next five years. Committee proposed to recommend the structure and required flow of funds through development finance institutions.

Steps to be taken to separate the NPS Trust from PFRDA.

Reduction in Net Owned Fund requirement from Rs. 5,000 crore to Rs. 1,000 crore proposed:

To facilitate on-shoring of international insurance transactions.

To enable opening of branches by foreign reinsurers in the International Financial Services Centre.

Measures related to CPSEs:

Target of Rs. 1, 05,000 crore of disinvestment receipts set for the FY 2019-20.

Government to reinitiate the process of strategic disinvestment of Air India, and to offer more CPSEs for strategic participation by the private sector.

Government to undertake strategic sale of PSUs and continue to consolidate PSUs in the non-financial space.

Government to consider going to an appropriate level below 51% in PSUs where the government control is still to be retained, on case to case basis.

Present policy of retaining 51% Government stake to be modified to retaining 51% stake inclusive of the stake of Government controlled institutions.

Retail participation in CPSEs to be encouraged.

To provide additional investment space:

Government to realign its holding in CPSEs

Banks to permit greater availability of its shares and to improve depth of its market.

Government to offer an investment option in ETFs on the lines of Equity Linked Savings Scheme (ELSS).

Government to meet public shareholding norms of 25% for all listed PSUs and raise the foreign shareholding limits to maximum permissible sector limits for all PSU companies which are part of Emerging Market Index.

Government to raise a part of its gross borrowing program in external markets in external currencies. This will also have beneficial impact on demand situation for the government securities in domestic market.

New series of coins of One Rupee, Two Rupees, Five Rupees, Ten Rupees and Twenty Rupees, easily identifiable to the visually impaired to be made available for public use shortly.

Digital Payments

TDS of 2% on cash withdrawal exceeding Rs. 1 crore in a year from a bank account

Business establishments with annual turnover more than Rs. 50 crore shall offer low cost digital modes of payment to their customers and no charges or Merchant Discount Rate shall be imposed on customers as well as merchants.

Mega Investment in Sunrise and Advanced Technology Areas

Scheme to invite global companies to set up mega-manufacturing plants in areas such as Semi-conductor Fabrication (FAB), Solar Photo Voltaic cells, Lithium storage batteries, Computer Servers, Laptops, etc

Investment linked income tax exemptions to be provided along with indirect tax benefits.

Achievements during 2014-19

1 trillion dollar added to Indian economy over last 5 years (compared to over 55 years taken to reach the first trillion dollar).

India is now the 6th largest economy in the world, compared to 11th largest five years ago.

Indian economy is globally the 3rd largest in Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) terms.

Strident commitment to fiscal discipline and a rejuvenated Centre-State dynamic provided during 2014-19.

Structural reforms in indirect taxation, bankruptcy and real estate carried out.

Average amount spent on food security per year almost doubled during 2014-19 compared to 2009-14.

Patents issued more than trebled in 2017-18 as against the number in 2014.

Ball set rolling for a New India, planned and assisted by the NITI Aayog.

Roadmap for future

Simplification of procedures.

Incentivizing performance.

Red-tape reduction.

Making the best use of technology.

Accelerating mega programmes and services initiated and delivered so far.

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