Author: The Metrognome

Categories
Film

Review: The Good Dinosaur

Pixar’s newest film based on dinosaurs with good animation, direction and screenplay is a treat for both kids and parents.
by Ravi Shet

Rating: 3 out of 5

Sweet and gently philosophical, this film forces you to think of a parallel universe where dinosaurs might exist.

Set in an alternate timeline 65 million years after an asteroid that would have been reason for the extinction of dinosaurs passes safe and sound over the Earth, the film features Henry (voiced by Jeffrey Wright) and Ida (voiced by Frances McDormand) who are Apatosaurus farmers. They have three children – Buck (voiced by Marcus Scribner), Libby (voiced by Maleah Padilla) and Arlo (voiced by Raymond Ochoa). Buck and Libby are adept at handling responsibilities on their farm; however shy and nervous Arlo is not able to handle the tasks given to him. His father gives him the responsibility of guarding their silo and setting up traps.

One fine day, a caveboy called Spot (voiced by Jack Bright) gets captured in the trap, but Arlo does not kill him, instead he sets him free. Henry is upset by Arlo’s behaviour and forces him to track Spot along with him. But a huge flood kills Henry; this angers Arlo who chases Spot down only for both of them to fall into a river.

 

Arlo soon regains consciousness to realise that he has come far away from home. After a series of mishaps, he becomes friends with Spot, especially when the latter tells him that his parents are dead. A few days later, a storm ruins the land and Arlo remembers his father’s death before running to safety on his own.

Director Peter Sohn keeps the story sweet and simple with good animation and the right amount of humour. There is enough pathos and good nature in the film to keep both children and adults engrossed. The film features some really good music numbers as well. I recommend this film for kids who are curious about dinosaurs, and for parents if they want to tell a fresh bedtime story to their young children.

 (Picture courtesy www.christianitytoday.com)

Categories
Kharcha paani

Why India needs OPD insurance

Most Indians avoid doctor visits due to prohibitive costs of health care, thus leading to eventual hospitalisation. OPD insurance can help.
Sourced from the FICCI Feedback Report, ‘A Guiding Framework for OPD and Preventive Health Insurance in India- Supply and Demand Analysis’

The working population in India spends about 60% on the out-patient healthcare treatment annually from their pockets due to the skewed primary care system in India. Despite this, India has the lowest number of Primary Care visits by individuals, hence leading to hospitalisation cases. This is as per the FICCI-Feedback Consulting report titled ‘A Guiding Framework for OPD and Preventive Health Insurance in India; Supply and Demand Analysis’.

The objective of the report is to analyse the demand and supply needs for primary and preventive care insurance and suggest the business potential for the insurers and government stakeholders by introducing OPD insurance covers for primary care. At present, this has not been an area of focus for the insurance companies, leading to various issues that as discussed in the report.

As per the findings, about 16% of the urban population with a paying capacity and existing policy holders would be potential target group to purchase OPD covers if the primary care system is framed in a proportionate way with the right Government intervention.

Insurers suggest that the biggest barrier for offering OPD covers in India is the lack of data for pricing the covers and unorganised regulatory guidelines for primary healthcare. As per the report, early detection, regular health check-ups and preventive methods, could result in preventing a proportion of 44% of hospitalisation cases.

The IRDAI recently launched the report in a function in New Delhi. As per a release, “While the need to include primary and preventive elements in health insurance products is undisputable, it has not made much headway given the concerns relating to likely misuse and overuse. This paper has come at an opportune moment giving scope for discussions not only regarding the supply and demand side aspects of primary and preventive care but also the environment within which these aspects operate.”

The paper, produced by Feedback Consulting in partnership with FICCI’s task force on ‘Primary and Preventive Care’ provides the international big picture framework and a detailed local market opportunity with actionable solutions.

The report analyses the primary care practices of select countries like Brazil, China, Turkey, Thailand, Indonesia and South Africa to draw learnings from an India perspective. The report also highlights local case studies about healthcare start-ups such as Practo Technologies, Qikwell Technologies and Portea Medical for insurers to galvanise the potential of the primary care market.

Three major actionables can enable the OPD insurance market in India – Capitation-based products to allow risk sharing with aggregators and health administrators; electronic health records for frictionless platforms to administer OPD claims, and closed provider networks to align providers and insurer’s interests.

Read the entire report here.

(Picture courtesy www.kokilabenhospital.com. Image is used for representational purpose only)

Categories
Film

Review: Snoopy and Charlie Brown: The Peanuts Movie

Celebrating the 65th anniversary of the famous comic strip, ‘Peanuts’, this sweet film delivers a dose of nostalgia for fans.
by Ravi Shet

Rating: 3 out of 5

This one is for you if you love Snoopy and Charlie Brown.

The story revolves around Charlie Brown (voiced by Noah Schnapp) who develops a crush on his  new neighbour, The Little Red-Haired Girl (voiced by Francesca Capaldi) and his efforts to grab her attention. In a side story, Charlie’s loyal beagle and best friend Snoopy (voiced by Bill Melendez) discovers a typewriter and decides to write a novel about his alter-ego, The World War I Flying Ace trying to save his lover Fifi (voiced by Kristin Chenoweth) from Red Baron.

On Lucy’s (voiced by Hadley Belle Miller) advice, Charlie who is frustrated with his streak of bad luck, decides to participate in a series of new activities in the school in a hope that The Little Red-Haired Girl will notice him. Charlie participates in the school’s talent show for a magic act with Snoopy; however when his sister Sally’s (voiced by Mariel Sheets) performance goes wrong, Charlie sacrifices his own performance time for her and rescues his sister’s act with Snoopy’s help. Charlie realises that his crush likes dancing and so signs up for the school dance. While he receives praise for his dancing (which he learns from Snoopy), he slips and sets off the sprinkler system, which cut shorts his dance and all the other students ridicule him.

 

Charlie’s bad luck continues even on a book report project that he must partner his crush on. After a series of events, he walks away from fame and glory when he realises that he is being praised for someone else’s work.

Director Steve Martino keeps the film sweet and simple with the right amount of emotions and focuses on the themes of friendship and resilience. The lead characters are adorable, and it has its LOL moments. Mostly, though, it is a nostalgic ride for fans of the famous comic strip featuring two beloved characters.

(Picture courtesy www.nme.com)

Categories
Big story

Mumbai clocks in 300% rise in crimes against women

A White paper recently released by the Praja Foundation reveals South Mumbai is perceived most unsafe, conviction rates are dismally low.
by The Editors | editor@themetrognome.in

Even as the city grapples with rising criminal activity, a very grim picture about crimes against women has surfaced in Mumbai. According to a research paper released by the city-based Praja Foundation, there has been a staggering 390% rise in rapes from the year 2011 to 2014, while molestation cases have gone up by 347% in the same period.

The report analysed data gathered under RTI (Right to Information) and found that Mumbai has lost its ‘safe city’ tag, especially for women. “Within a span of four years (2010-11 to 2014-15), reporting of rape cases has increased to 390% and molestation to 347%. From 2013-14 to 2014-15, the cases of rape and molestation have gone up by 49% and 39% respectively. Conviction for rape was just 27%,” the report states.

Nitai Mehta, Founder and Managing Trustee of Praja Foundation observes, “In serious offence cases, particularly rape, chargesheets are filed under the direction responsibility of a senior officer of the rank of Assistant Commissioner of Police, and prosecuted only when there is enough evidence and witnesses to prosecute the accused. Still the conviction rates are low.”

To further understand the issue and find solutions, Praja initiated a study to understand the life cycle of a serious offense case in the first court of trial, various stages that it goes through and its outcome. The study confined it to Sessions Courts of Mumbai with the understanding that as per the law, most of the serious offences are tried in these courts. Of the 550 cases studied so far, only 127 were convicted and even in them the conviction in 34 cases was on a lesser offence; there was no perjury initiated when witness turned hostile; eight months were taken to file charges for rape cases.

Mehta added, “Preliminary findings of the study highlights, a) Failure in investigation, b) Weak prosecution, c)and weak reformative systems. Based on the report, conviction of Class II serious offences (i.e. crime against body) was as low as 9% in 2014.”

On the whole, South Mumbai remains the area where registered crime is most rampant (9,203 cases). Alarmingly, the report shows that South Central Mumbai have registered most number of rape cases for the last five years whereas South Mumbai has the highest number of reported crimes (9,203) in 2014-15.

(Image is used for representational purpose only)

Categories
Tech

Review: OnePlus X

We test the newest OnePlus phone and come away only slightly impressed. It’s a good phone for its price, though.
by Manik Kakra | @Manik_K on Twitter

We have seen quite a lot of smartphones this year that are not priced upwards of Rs 20,000 and still perform pretty well on most tasks. With the likes of Motorola, ASUS, OnePlus, Xiaomi, and a few more heating the battle up, it isn’t a bad situation for buyers. While the mid-to-high range devices are improving, what they still usually lack is premium build quality, a great camera and every feature at a reasonable price. Does the OnePlus X, priced at Rs 16,999, change that?

The looks. The OnePlus X (E1003) follows a considerably different material and design language than anything OnePlus has sold recently. The device has curved glasses on the front and the back, and is a flat slab on both sides with chamfered edges. Weighing under 140 grams and not measuring too tall, the device is not comfortable to grip as the whole body is quite slippery (you get a plastic case in the box, but you might want to get a better one that looks and feels less cheap).

With the 5-inchAMOLED on front, sensors and front-facing camera above it, and three capacitive touch keys (none of which light up), the bottom has the microUSB port surrounded by the loudspeaker and primary mic. The left panel has a three-way alert switcher (same as the OnePlus 2); the right side has SIM cards tray (nano + nano or microSD card) tactile volume and Power/ Lock keys (near the middle); and the top has secondary mic and 3.5mm headset jack. The back, sports the OnePlus logo apart from the 13 MP camera and LED flash on the top left corner.

Screen. OnePlus X is equipped with a 5-inch full HD AMOLED, which most people would find comfortable for most of their tasks. The screen is sharp, usable under sunlight and has deep rich black levels expected of an AMOLED today. The phone has the black theme selected by default for better battery and the screen does justice to it. Full HD videos and images look fine on it, but you may have to wipe the glass every now and then.

Battery. The device features a 2,525 MAh battery unit. The phone almost never lasted a full day with average to high use. With lighter usage, you can expect it to last about a day. Using a single SIM card, brightness level at 30%, don’t expect a lot from this device in terms of battery life. The phone takes a couple of hours to get fully charged.

Camera. The phone boasts a 13 MP (f/2.0) camera on the back, and here are a few sample images.

As you can see, the camera isn’t that great; images sport quite some noise and while the camera app itself is smooth and quick to capture, the results are not good. You can get some good shots with the right lighting and a still subject but the camera disappoints otherwise.

Software and performance. The OnePlus X runs OxygenOS 2.1.3-x over Android 5.1.1. It sports Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 801 chipset, which was used by a lot Android OEMs for their flagship devices nearly two years back. There’s 3 GB of RAM and about 10.5 GB of storage available to the user. OnePlus’s OxygenOS is close to the look and feel of stock Android, with a few tweaks and features. There aren’t too many additions done since we last used it on the OnePlus 2. The company has stated that the phone will be updated to Android 6.0 in2016’s first quarter. Performance-wise, the OnePlus X is a satisfactory performer. Throughout my usage, I didn’t see too many app crashes or stuttering between Chrome’s tabs. While I wouldn’t say animations and general scrolling are as fluid as, say the Nexus 5X’s, it isn’t bad and definitely as good as phones in this price segment today.

It is quite clear who is this OnePlus X meant for. You can choose it if you want something that looks and feels really nice, has smooth performance and good screen. The OnePlus X sort of makes the mid-range phone segment in the Indian market better and more competitive.

(Pictures courtesy Manik Kakra)

Categories
Deal with it

A helpline for frazzled parents in Mumbai

This unique initiative aims to provide counselling for parents of 2 to 12-year-old children and discuss solutions to behavioural issues.
by The Editors | editor@themetrognome.in

Raising children in today’s world is nothing short of a challenge. With children more and more entranced by technology and drifting away from their parents, it is becoming impossible to find out if one’s child is battling some private issues or if he needs help in any way.

That’s where a new pilot project aimed at helping such harried parents in Mumbai comes in.

Parisar Asha is a 33 year non-profit registered public trust committed to serve children through a unique learning approach ‘ESAL’- The Environmental Studies Approach to Learning. It was founded by the late Gloria de Souza, an Ashoka fellow with a mission to provide a joyful, holistic and child-centric environment-based quality education to empower children to be creative, sensitive and successful global citizens.

After working in the field of education for the past 33 years, Parisar Asha has realised that parents are also an integral part of the school space and it is also important to look into their well-being for the sustainability of the mission. Numerous close encounters with the parents have helped certain common problems come to the fore, oftne expressed in such terms as “I don’t know how to handle my child”, “I get a lot of complaints from the teacher about his non-performance in the class”, “It is always a tussle to meet our needs but still understanding the importance of education, I somehow manage my resources to send him to a good tuition class”.

These are few of the examples of parental woes that Parisar Asha’s CEO Aarati Savur talks about. She says the list is endless. “So we decided to extend support for these troubled parents by providing them with a helping friend who is always a call away. This will help resolve their problems and provide them with solutions. This unique initiative is known as ‘Positive Parent Helpline’. This is a pilot project, in which Parisar Asha’s expert counsellors provide free and confidential telephonic solutions to all child related issues between 2 to 12 years.

Abnormal behaviour has become a common phenomenon among children who are reared in normal family conditions and this is causing panic among parents. Continuous interaction with children and parents have led counsellors to deduce that often parents’ behaviour towards their children determine the children’s behaviour.   Additionally, environment plays an important part in moulding an individual’s behaviour and one’s personality gets carved based on his/her interaction with his/her physical, social and emotional environment.

The ‘ Positive Parenting Helpline’ is a free and confidential online and telephonic service which can be availed by parents to seek help for their children between age group 2 to 12 years. This service is available between Monday to Friday from 9 am to 5 pm. Parents can call or send an sms at 8828233443. All queries will be resolved by expert counsellors. Parents can also email their queries at info@parisarasha.org / pahelpline@gmail.com

(Picture courtesy ldforumforschools.in. Image used for representational purpose only)

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