document_title: Wipro

question_text: who became the it company ceo in 2016

question_tokens: who became the it company ceo in 2016

text: Wipro

text: History[edit]

text: Early formative years[edit]

text: The company was incorporated on 29 December 1945 in Amalner, Maharashtra by Mohamed Premji as 'Western India Vegetable Products Limited', later abbreviated to 'Wipro'. It was initially set up as a manufacturer of vegetable and refined oils in Amalner, Maharashtra, India under the trade names of Kisan, Sunflower, and Camel.[1][7][8]

text: In 1966, after Mohamed Premji’s death, his son Azim Premji returned home from Stanford University and took over Wipro as its chairman at the age of 21.[9][10]

text: During the 1970s and 1980s, the company shifted its focus to new business opportunities in the IT and computing industry, which was at a nascent stage in India at the time. On 7 June 1977, the name of the company changed from Western India Vegetable Products Limited, to Wipro Products Limited.[7]

text: The year 1980 marked the arrival of Wipro in the IT domain. In 1982, the name was changed from Wipro Products Limited to Wipro Limited.[11] Meanwhile, Wipro continued to expand in the consumer products domain with the launch of "Ralak" a Tulsi based family soap and "Wipro Jasmine", a toilet soap. In 1988 Premji took a loan of 1 million dollar from Sonkar and Sons to set up the project. Later the entire loan amount was waived.[7]

text: In 1988, Wipro diversified its product line into heavy-duty industrial cylinders and mobile hydraulic cylinders.[7] A joint venture company with the United States' General Electric in the name of Wipro GE Medical Systems Pvt. Ltd. was set up in 1989 for the manufacture, sales, and service of diagnostic and imaging products.[12] Later, in 1991, tipping systems and Eaton hydraulic products were launched. The Wipro Fluid Power division, in 1992, developed expertise to offer standard hydraulic cylinders for construction equipment and truck tipping systems. The market saw the launch of the "Santoor" talcum powder and "Wipro Baby Soft" range of baby toiletries in 1990.[12]

text: In 1995, Wipro set up an overseas design centre, Odyssey 21, for undertaking projects and product developments in advanced technologies for overseas clients. Wipro Infotech and Wipro Systems were amalgamated with Wipro in April that year.[12] Five of Wipro's manufacturing and development facilities secured the ISO 9001 certification during 1994–95. In 1999, Wipro acquired Wipro Acer.[13] Wipro became a more profitable, diversified corporation with new products such as the Wipro SuperGenius personal computers (PCs). In 1999, the product was the one Indian PC range to obtain US-based National Software Testing Laboratory (NSTL) certification for the Year 2000 (Y2K) compliance in hardware for all models.[14]

text: Wipro Limited joined hands with a global telecom major KPN (Royal Dutch telecom) to form a joint venture company "Wipro Net Limited" to provide internet services in India.[10] The year 2000 was the year Wipro launched solutions for convergent networks targeted at Internet and telecom solution providers in the names of Wipro OSS Smart and Wipro WAP Smart.[15] In the same year, Wipro got listed on New York Stock Exchange.[16] In early 2000 Wipro Vice Chairman Vivek Paul and Azim Premji approached KPMG Consulting Vice Chairman Keyur Patel and CEO Rand Blazer to form a mega-outsourcing joint venture between the two organizations.

text: In February 2002, Wipro became the first software technology and services company in India to be certified for ISO 14001 certification.[17] Wipro also achieved ISO 9000 certification to become the first software company to get SEI People Capability Maturity Model (PCMM) Level 5 in 2002.[18][19] Wipro Consumer Care and Lighting Group entered the market of compact fluorescent lamps, with the launch of a range of CFL, under the brand name of Wipro Smartlite.[20] As the company grew, a study revealed that Wipro was the fastest wealth creator for 5 years (1997–2002).[21][22] The same year witnessed the launch of Wipro’s own laptops with Intel's Centrino mobile processor.[23] Wipro also entered into an exclusive agreement with the owners of Chandrika for marketing of their soap in select states in India.[24][25] It set up a wholly owned subsidiary company viz. Wipro Consumer Care Limited to manufacture consumer care and lighting products.[26] In 2004 Wipro joined the billion dollar club.[27] It also partnered with Intel for i-shiksha.[28][29] The year 2006 saw Wipro acquire cMango Inc., a US-based technology infrastructure Consulting firm[30][31] Enabler, and a Europe-based retail solutions provider.[32] In 2007, Wipro signed a large deal with Lockheed Martin.[33][34] It also entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Oki Techno Centre Singapore Pte Ltd (OTCS)[34][35] and signed an R&D partnership contract with Nokia Siemens Networks in Germany.[36][37]

text: In 2008 Wipro’s entered the clean energy business with Wipro Eco Energy.[38][39] In April 2011, Wipro signed an agreement with Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) for the acquisition of their global oil and gas information technology practice of the commercial business services business unit.[40][41] In 2012 Wipro acquired Australian Trade Promotions Management firm Promax Applications Group (PAG) for $35 million.[42][43] In 2012 Wipro employed more than 70,000 H-1B visa professional temporary workers in the United States.[44]

text: In 2012 Wipro Ltd. announced the demerger of its consumer care, lighting, furniture, infrastructure Engineering (hydraulics and water and medical diagnostic business into a separate company to be named Wipro Enterprises Ltd.[45] The merger became effective from 31 March 2013.[46][47] The demerged companies together contributed about 10% of the revenues of Wipro Limited in previous financial year.[48][49]

text: In 2014, Wipro signed a 10-year $1.2 billion contract with ATCO, a Canadian Energy & Utilities corporation based out of Calgary, Alberta. This was the largest deal in Wipro's history.[50]

text: In October 2016, Wipro announced that it was buying Appirio, an Indianapolis-based cloud services company for $500 million.[51][52][53]

text: Wipro Group of Companies[edit]

text: Western India Products Limited[edit]

text: Wipro Limited is a global provider of comprehensive IT solutions and services, including Systems Integration, Consulting, Information Systems outsourcing, IT-enabled services, R&D services.[54]

text: Wipro entered into the technology business in 1981 and has over 140,000 employees and clients across 54 countries.[55] IT revenues were at $7.1 billion for the year ended 31 March 2015, with a repeat business ratio of over 95%.[56][57]

text: Wipro Consumer Care & Lighting[edit]

text: Wipro Consumer Care and Lighting (WCCLG), a business unit of Wipro Limited operates in the FMCG segment dealing in consumable commodities. Established in 1945, its first product was vegetable oil, later sold under the brand name "Sunflower Vanaspati". It sells personal care products, such as Wipro Baby Soft and Wipro Safewash, toilet soaps Santoor and Chandrika as well as Yardley.[58] It sells lighting products, including Smartlite CFL,[59] LED, and emergency lights.[60]

text: Through product sales and acquisitions, Wipro Consumer Care and Lighting has grown steadily in the FMCG segment.[61][62][63]

text: Wipro Infrastructure Engineering[edit]

text: Wipro Infrastructure Engineering is the hydraulics business division of Wipro Limited and has been in the business of manufacturing hydraulic cylinders, truck cylinders, and their components and solutions since 1976. This division delivers hydraulic cylinders to international OEMs and represents the Kawasaki, Sun Hydraulics[64] and Teijin Seiki range of hydraulic products in India.[65] It has entered into partnerships Kawasaki[66][67] and aerospace giant EADS.[68] In 2010 Wipro Infrastructure Engineering was the second largest independent manufacturer of hydraulic cylinders in the world.[69]

text: Wipro GE Medical Systems[edit]

text: Wipro GE Medical Systems Limited is Wipro’s joint venture with GE Healthcare South Asia. It is engaged in the research and development of advanced solutions to cater to patient and customer needs in healthcare. This partnership, which began in 1990,[70] today includes gadgets and equipment for diagnostics, healthcare IT solutions and services to help healthcare professionals combat cancer, heart disease, and other ailments. There is complete adherence to Six Sigma quality standards in all products.[71][72][73]

text: Sustainability at Wipro[edit]

text: Wipro has been ranked 1st in the 2010 Asian Sustainability Rating (ASR) of Indian companies[74] and is a member of the NASDAQ Global Sustainability Index[75] as well as the Dow Jones Sustainability Index.[76]

text: In November 2012 Guide to Greener Electronics, Greenpeace ranked Wipro first with a score of 7.1/10.[77]

text: Listing and shareholding[edit]

text: This section appears to contradict itself. Please see the talk page for more information. (July 2017)

text: Listing: Wipro's equity shares are listed on Bombay Stock Exchange where it is a constituent of the BSE SENSEX index,[78] and the National Stock Exchange of India where it is a constituent of the S&P CNX Nifty.[79] The American Depositary Shares of the company are listed at the NYSE since October 2000.[80]

text: Shareholding: On 30 September 2013, 73.51% of the equity shares of the company were owned by the promoters: Azim Premji, his family members, partnership firms in which he is a partner and Trusts formed by him/his family. The remaining 26.49% shares are owned by others.

text:
Shareholders (as on 20-January-2016)
Shareholding

Promoter group led by Azim Premji
73.36%

Foreign Institutional Investors (FII)
10.68%

Indian Public
4.99%

Bodies Corporate
2.50%

Mutual Funds/UTI
1.90%

NRI
1.11%

Trusts/Others
0.77%

American Depositary Shares
2.30%

Total
100%

text: Employees[edit]

text: At the end of December 31, 2015, its employee strength was 170,664.[81] Abid Ali Neemuchwala was appointed as Wipro's CEO after T. K. stepped down in early 2016.[82]

text: Awards and recognitions[edit]

text:
In March 2017, Wipro was recognized as one of the world’s most ethical companies by US-based Ethisphere Institute for the sixth consecutive year.[83][84][85][86]
In May 2016, it was ranked 755th on the Forbes Global 2000 list.[87]
Wipro won Gold Award for ‘Integrated Security Assurance Service (iSAS)’ under the ‘Vulnerability Assessment, Remediation and Management’ category of the 11th Annual 2015 Info Security PG’s Global Excellence Awards.[88]
Wipro won 7 awards, including Best Managed IT Services and Best System Integrator in the CIO Choice Awards 2015, India[89]
In 2014, Wipro was ranked 52nd among India's most trusted brands according to the Brand Trust Report, a study conducted by Trust Research Advisory.[90]
Wipro was ranked 2nd in the Newsweek 2012 Global 500 Green companies.[91]
Wipro received the 'NASSCOM Corporate Award for Excellence in Diversity and Inclusion, 2012', in the category 'Most Effective Implementation of Practices & Technology for Persons with Disabilities'.[92]
In 2012, it was awarded the highest rating of Stakeholder Value and Corporate Rating 1 (SVG 1) by ICRA Limited.[93]
It received National award for excellence in Corporate Governance from the Institute of Company Secretaries of India during the year 2004.[94]


document_title: Pay Commission

question_text: who headed the 7th central pay commission of india

root

text: Pay Commission

text: First Pay Commission[edit]

text:
The first pay commission was established on January, 1946 and it submitted its report in May, 1947 to the interim government of India.[1]
It was under the chairmanship of Srinivasa Varadachariar.[2]  The mandate  of 1st (nine members) was  to examining and recommending emolument structure of Civilian employees.

tag: p

text:
Armed forces emoluments structure was determined not by the 1st Central Pay Commission(CPC)  but  by a Departmental Committee which had service members.[3]  The task of this committee was to make recommendations "in the structure of emoluments and benefits of service personnel in the light of the recommendations made by the pay commission for civilian employees".[3]:para 5, Chapter 48 [4]:p 95–96
  The First Pay Committee, set up after the 1st pay Commission, was called "The Post War Pay Committee for the armed Forces". The New Pay Code effective from 1 July 1947 was based on the recommendations of this Committee. The pensionary benefits were examined by separate committee called " Armed Forces Pension Revision Committee (1949–50)".

text: Second Pay Commission[edit]

text: The second pay commission was set up in August 1957, 10 years after independence[5] and it gave its report after two years. The recommendations of the second pay commission had a financial impact of ₹ 39.6 crore. The chairman of the second pay commission was Jagannath Das.The second pay commission reiterated the principle on which the salaries have to be determined. It stated that the pay structure and the working conditions of the government employee should be crafted in a way so as to ensure efficient functioning of the system by recruiting persons with a minimum qualification.

text: Raghuramiah Committee

text: The Departmental Pay Committee, set up after the 2nd pay Commission, was called, the Raghuramiah Committee(1960), which had service representatives. It  examined   armed forces emoluments and made recommendations .[3]:para 5, Chapter 48

text: Third Pay Commission[edit]

text: The third pay commission set up in April 1970 gave its report in March 1973 i.e. it took almost 3 years to submit the report, and created proposals that cost the government ₹ 144 crore. The chairman was Raghubir Dayal. The third pay commission (3CPC) added three very important concepts of inclusiveness, comprehensibility, and adequacy for pay structure to be sound in nature. The third pay commission went beyond the idea of minimum subsistence that was adopted by the first pay commission. The commission report says that the true test which the government should adopt is to know whether the services are attractive and it retains the people it needs and if these persons are satisfied by that they are getting paid.

text: Third Pay Commission and the Armed forces[edit]

text: The 3CPC was the first Pay Commission without military member.[6] Its "Terms of Reference" however included "examination of the structure of emoluments, the retirement benefits and terms and conditions of the Defence Forces personnel".[7]:para 2.3.5 The Commission, established 'relativity' of Defence Forces officers and Indian Police Service(IPS) officers, whose wages till for similar years of service were less than that of Armed Forces officers with similar years of service, noted that "the relativity" with IPS was "only a working method of devising scales of pay for the service officers which did not mean that the functional role of the two services were similar". The Commission, ambiguously "qualified this statement by mentioning that the job profile of IPS officers was the closest civilian analogue vis-à-vis infantry officers and that 'a working relationship did exist between the two organizations'". While establishing some sort of parity, and relativity with IPS, the Commission, without an explanation, noted "that the pay structure of the Indian Administrative Service with its long pay scales was particularly unsuitable for service officers", even though the pay structures of armed forces and Indian Civil Service had been, as a matter of established practice, at par.[7]:para 2.3.5

text: It controversially recommended that military pension be de-linked from military service conditions to conform to civil pensions. On the basis of the 3 CPC recommendations Indira Gandhi, Prime Minister in the Indian National Congress(INC) government, took an "ex-parte" decision and terminated One Rank, One Pension (OROP), the basis of military pensions till then.[6]:para 2 and 10.2 [8]:p 1

text: In 1973, the Government, implemented the following changes in pension and service conditions of the Armed Forces: [1] Increased the pension of civilians, who retired at 58, by 20 percent, from 30 to 50 percent; [2] reduced the pension of soldier, Non Commissioned Officers (NCOs), and Junior commissioned Officers (JCOs), by 20 percent, from 70 to 50 percent of basic pay, with the caveat that for full pension the minimum service was 33 years; [3] an exception was made for the armed forces, the mandatory service for full pension was reduced to 25 year. But as soldiers in 1973 retired after 15 years service, at the age of 33-36, they got less than 30 percent of the pay as pension; [4] soldiers pension was thus decreased not by 20 percent but 40 percent from 70 to 30 percent. The government in addition to down grading military pensions down graded the status of soldier by equating "infantry soldier with less than three years’ service" with a "semi-skilled/unskilled labour". These decisions were based on the recommendation, and endorsement of K B Lall, Defence Secretary. The decision was announced two months after Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw, the victor of the 1971 war, retired from service.[9] The reason for depressing the armed Forces pensions given by the government was to ensure ‘equivalence’ of Armed Forces pensions with civilians.[10][11]

text: The reduction in armed Forces pension, and down grading its status immediately following the decisive Bangladesh war, was, not unexpectedly, unpopular with the armed Forces, and has since become a cause of persistent grievance, and distrust. Conflating civil and military pensions, and reduction of Armed forces Pension, by the Indira Gandhi Government, has been invoked to rally Armed Forces Veterans, most recently during the OROP protests.[6] :para 2 and 10.2  [12]

text: Fourth Pay Commission[edit]

text:
Constituted in June 1983, its report was given in three phases within four years and the financial burden to the government was ₹ 1282 crore.[13] This commission has been set up on dated 18.3.1987, Gazette of India (Extra ordinary) Notification No 91 dated 18.3.1987,
The chairman of fourth pay commission was P N Singhal.

text: Fourth Pay Commission and the Armed forces[edit]

text: Indian National Congress (I) Government, headed by Rajiv Gandhi, in the wake of the 4th CPC to implemented concept of 'Rank Pay' for armed forces officer. Rank Pay affected all officers ranks from second lieutenant to brigadier in the army, and equivalent ranks in the Indian Air Force and the Indian Navy. The 'rank pay', which varied from 200 to 1200, was not an additional pay, but amount deducted from their pay grade. This ended long established err Military Indian Police service equations. Police Officers, and officers from other AIS officers, with 14 years of service, who were formerly in the same pay grade as majors, with 14 years service, were equated to Brigadiers, on the basis of the new pay grades. Maj General Satbir Singh an expert on Police- military rank structures and pay grades, called rank pay, "rarest of rare fraud, perjury and Injustice to the defence forces".[12]

text: He explained, "How could it be allowed that the first military rank of Second Lieutenant along with two promotional ranks of Lieutenant and Captain were all clubbed with the first civilian rank?". Similarly at the level of major "rank pay' had the effect of promoting civilian pay grades equal to major till the 3 CPC, to that of Colonels."[12] The rank pay became an issue of considerable resentment in the armed forces, and cause of general distrust of the pay commissions, and the Congress I Government. Eventually, Maj AK Dhanapalan, a retired major, litigates 'rank Pay'. After protracted legal struggle high court, despite many appeals, in a landmark decision declares the 'rank pay' concept illegal. In its judgment the SC notes that the 'rank pay' was wrongly deducted from basic pay and ordered re-fixation of pay "with effect from" and not "as on" 1 January 1986.[14]

text: Fifth Pay Commission[edit]

text:
The notification for setting up the Fifth CPC was issued on 9 April 1994, but started functioning only on 2 May 1994, with the assumption of charge by the Member Secretary.[15]:paras 1.63
The chairman of fifth pay commission was Justice S. Ratnavel Pandian. the members were: Suresh Tendulkar, Professor Delhi school of Economics; and M.K Kaw, Indian Administrative Service. In comparison, First CPC had nine members including military members, the second had six members including a military member, the 3 CPC and 4 CPC had five, but no military member. The fifth had three members, but no military member.[15]:para 1.11  The first had no member secretary, just a secretary. After the 1 CPC all pay commissions have had a member secretary, and invariably from the IAS.[15]:para 1.12

text: The 5 CPC report, a massive tome, had nine part in 172 chapters. It took three years with a sanctioned staff 107, which ballooned to 141, to prepare the report.[15]:page13  By way of comparison, 4 CPC took 209 bureaucrat Accounts Service, Indian Revenue Service, Indian Economic Service, Central Secretariat Service, Border Security Force, Geological Survey of India, Central Public Works Department and National Informatics Centre.[15]:paras 1.63 It cost ₹ 17,000 crore.

text: Part VI of report dealt with pensions and retirement benefits for civilian; Part VII dealt with pay scales and allowances of Armed Forces personnel. Part IX is the concluding part of the Report.[15]:page13

text: Financial Impact of Fifth pay commission[edit]

text: With the implementation of the Fifth Pay commission a huge burden was taken up by the central government. It declared hike in salary of about 3.3 million central government employees. Further, it also insisted on pay revision at the state government level. The Fifth pay commission disturbed the financial situation of both the Central and the State Governments and led to a hue and cry after its implementation. The Central government's wage bill before the implementation of the commission’s recommendations was 218.85 billion in 1996-1997 which also included pension dues, and by 1999 it shot up by about 99% and the burden on the exchequer was about to ₹ 43,568 crore in 1999-2000. With regard to the state government the bill went up by 74%. The state governments which paid about Rs 515.48 billion in 1997 as salaries, had to pay Rs 898.13 billion in 1999 as salaries. This clearly indicates the burden on the state and the central government. Many economists[who?] say that about 90% of the revenue of the state went in as salaries[verification needed]. 13 states of India were not in a position to pay salaries to its employees due to the hike and hence the central government’s help was sought[citation needed].

text: Other recommendations[edit]

text: One of its recommendations was to slash government workforce by about 30%. It also recommended to reduce the number of pay scale from 51 to 34 and to not recruit to about 3,50,000 vacant position in the government. None of these recommendations were implemented.[16]

text: Criticisms by World Bank[edit]

text: The World Bank criticized the Fifth Pay Commission, stating that the Fifth Pay Commission is the 'single largest adverse shock' to the public finance of the nation. It also said that the number of employees of the government was 'not unduly' large, but there was a 'pronounced imbalance' in the skills. It noted that about 93% of the employees were of 3rd or 4th grade.

text: Fifth Pay Commission and the Armed forces[edit]

text: Terms of Reference[edit]

text:
The 4CPC, for unknown reasons, had no separate TORs for the Armed Forces. The 5 CPC, however, for the first time was asked to examine the terms and conditions of the Armed Forces, and make suggestions for what is "considered desirable and feasible".[15]:para 1.2
Thus, the pay commission noted ambiguously that "even their recommendations with regard to changes in the structure of emoluments including death cum gratuity in respect of Armed Forces Personnel had to be made with due regard to the terms and conditions of their service" [15]:para 1.2

text: Lateral Transfer[edit]

text: The 5 CPC, in its report submitted in January 1997, recommended increase in posts for Armed Forces personnel in Group C and D in Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs) from 10 to 25percent. For Short Service Commissioned Officers, on completion of their military service, 5 CPC recommended earmarking 25 percent officer's post in the CAPFs. These recommendationsby the pay Commission were intended to reduce the defence pension bill; save on training and recruitment costs; provide trained manpower to government departments; and provide soldiers a second career after their term of military engagement.[17]:p 139, para 2.4.4

text: These recommendations of the Pay Commission were, however, mostly ignored by the Janata Dal (United Front), and BJP Government of Atal Bihari Vajpayee that followed. Mulayam Singh Yadav, Defence Minister (1 June 1996 – 19 March 1998), Indrajit Gupta (Communist Party of India-United Front), Home Minister (29 June 1996 – 19 March 1998), and L K Advani (BJP), Home Minister (19 March 1998 – 22 May 2004) did little to implement these recommendations. The problem festered, and the pension bill ballooned.[17]:p 139, para 2.4.4

text: Sixth Pay Commission[edit]

text:
In July 2006, the Cabinet approved setting up of the sixth pay commission. This commission has been set up under Justice B.N.Srikrishna with a timeframe of 18 months. The cost of hikes in salaries is anticipated to be about ₹ 20,000 crore for a total of 5.5 million government employees as per media speculation on the 6th Pay Commission, the report of which is expected to be handed over in late March/early April 2008. The employees had threatened to go on a nationwide strike if the government failed to hike their salaries. Reasons for the demand of hikes include rising inflation and rising pay in the private sector due to the forces of Globalization.
The Class 1 officers in India are grossly underpaid with an IAS officer with 25 years of work experience earning just Rs.55,000 as his take home pay.
Pay arrears are due from January 2006 till September 2008. Almost all the Government employees received 40% of the pay arrears in 2008 and balance 60% arrears (as promised by Government) has also been credited in Government employees account in 2009. The Sixth Pay Commission mainly focused on removing ambiguity in respect of various pay scales and mainly focused on reducing number of pay scales and bring the idea of pay bands. It recommended for removal of Group-D cadre.

text: Seventh Pay Commission[edit]

text:
The Government of India has initiated the process to constitute the 7th Central Pay Commission along with finalisation of its Terms of Reference, the composition and the possible timeframe for submission of its Report.[18]
On 25 September 2013 then Finance Minister P Chidambaram announced that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has approved the constitution of the 7th Pay Commission. Its recommendations are likely to be implemented with effect from 1 January 2016.
Justice A.K Mathur will be heading the Seventh Pay Commission, announcement of which was done on 4 February 2014.[19] On 29 June 2016, Government accepted the recommendation of 7th Pay Commission Report with meager increase in salary of 14% after six month of intense evaluation and successive discussions. The Finance Minister of India claimed it historical increase of salaries due to little knowledge of Sixth Pay Commission.[citation needed]

text: Composition[edit]

text:
Name
Designation
Role in Commission

Ashok Kumar Mathur[20]
Retired Judge, Supreme Court and Retired Chairman, Armed Forces Tribunal
Chairman

Vivek Rae[21]
Retd. Secretary, Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas
Member (Full Time)

Dr. Rathin Roy[22]
Director, NIPFP
Member (Part Time)

Meena Agarwal
OSD, Department of Expenditure, Ministry of Finance
Secretary

tag: table

text: In May 2014, a group of retired government officials, challenged the inclusion of a senior IAS officer in the three member 7th Pay Commission, in the Delhi High Court. They alleged that this would lead an inherent bias in the commission's recommendations towards IAS officers.[23]

text: On 9 November 2017, the government raised the maximum amount that a central government employee can borrow from the government to Rs 25 lakh for new construction/purchase of new house/flat

text: The employee can borrow up to 34 months of the basic pay to a maximum of Rs 25 lakh, or cost of the house/flat, or the amount according to repaying capacity, whichever is the least.

text: SC constitute a new Pay commission for trial court judges[edit]

text: The chief justice and other supreme court and high court judges got a threefold salary hike in the sixth pay commission however the trial court judges were paid low and a bench comprising Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan and Justices P Sathasivam and J M Panchal constituted a new pay commission for the trial court judges headed by retired Madras High Court judge, Justice E Padmanabhan for recommendation of revision of about 14000 trial court judges. This order from the SC came because of a petition filed by All India Judges Association, which stated that the first judicial commission which was headed by Justice Jagannatha Shetty  said that there should be an upward revision of salaries of lower court judges in proportion to the hike to the judges of high court and Supreme Court. It also sought direction from the court to the centre for setting up a committee "forthwith appoint a committee of one or more persons to look into the matter" relating the salary of officers in the lower judiciary.

text: On 19 November 2015, the 7th Central Pay Commission recommended 23.55% hike in pay and allowances which will be implemented from 1 January 2016. The full report is available on the website of Ministry of Finance, Government of India[24]

text: The Union Cabinet approves 7th Pay panel recommendations on 29 June 2016. The recommendations will be effected from 1 January 2016 with arrears to be paid in the financial year 2016-17 itself unlike previously, when arrears were paid in the following financial year. Also this time, employees will had to wait only 6 months for the CPC's recommendations to be implemented as compared to 19 months for the 5th CPC and 32 months for the 6th [25] except for autonomous organizations like CSIR, ICAR, ICMR etc. under various ministries.

text: Seventh Pay Commission and the Armed forces[edit]

text: The recommendation of the 7CPC affecting the armed forces are a cause of profound unease and resentment in the Armed Forces, especially, 7CPC recommendation on separate 'Pay Matrices', and allowance system for the armed forces and defence civilians, and police, and other civil servants. While 7CPC provides for mandated timescale promotions to from Defence civilians from audit and account services, police, and other officers at regular intervals of 4, 9, 13, 14, and 16 years of service; it does not do so armed forces officers. The orders implemented by the government on the basis of 7 CPC recommendation, despite armed forces advise and concerns, make time scale police officers and defence civilians, with lesser service and experience, senior to armed forces officers, and potentially in command of armed forces officers of equal or more seniority. For instance, Wing Commanders of the Air Force, commander of the navy, and Lt colonel of the army, with 13 years of service, according to MOD implementation tables, will be subordinate in 'level', rank, pay scale, and organizational hierarchy than police officers, auditors, accountants, with equal or even lesser service.[2]MOD implementation order has created an invidious situation for armed forces officers when serving alongside defence civilians and police officer. According to the MOD orders a police officer and Defence Accounts officer with 14 years service will be at higher level than the naval officer in command of INS Vikramaditya, India’s Aircraft carrier, a highly selective rank and appointment, with some 20 years of service.[7][8]

text: In March 2016, eighteen former heads of the Armed forces, including General Ved Prakash Malik, former Chief of Army Staff, and Admiral Arun Prakash, former Chief of naval staff, send a joint letter to Narendra Modi, the Prime Minister conveying their distress and alarm on the flawed approach and contentious recommendations of the 7CPC. [4] The representations by former Chiefs, and the Chiefs of Staff, to the MOD, the PM, other bureaucratic bodies reviewing the 7CPC recommendations, are in vain.[5] On 25 July 2016, without addressing or taking into account the key concerns of the armed forces, the Government issued instructions implementing 7CPC's "general recommendations on pay without any material alteration" including separate "Pay Matrices" (for civilians) and the armed forces.[4][6]


document_title: Fission (biology)

question_text: what types of cells go through binary fission

text: Fission (biology)

text: Binary fission[edit]

text: Organisms in the domains of Archaea and Bacteria reproduce with binary fission. This form of asexual reproduction and cell division is also used by some organelles within eukaryotic organisms (e.g., mitochondria). Binary fission results in the reproduction of a living prokaryotic cell (or organelle) by dividing the cell into two parts, each with the potential to grow to the size of the original.

text: Fission of prokaryotes[edit]

text: The single DNA molecule first replicates, then attaches each copy to a different part of the cell membrane. When the cell begins to pull apart, the replicated and original chromosomes are separated. The consequence of this asexual method of reproduction is that all the cells are genetically identical, meaning that they have the same genetic material (barring random mutations). Unlike the process of mitosis used by eukaryotic cells, binary fission takes place without the formation of a spindle apparatus on the cell. In binary fission the parental identity is lost.

text: Process of bacterial fission[edit]

text: The process of binary fission in bacteria involves the following steps. First, the cell's DNA is replicated. The replicated DNA copies then move to opposite poles of the cell in an energy-dependent process.[4] The cell lengthens. Then, the equatorial plane of the cell constricts and separates the plasma membrane such that each new cell has exactly the same genetic material.

text: More specifically, the following steps occur:

text:
The bacterium before binary fission is when the DNA is tightly coiled.
The DNA of the bacterium has uncoiled and duplicated.
The DNA is pulled to the separate poles of the bacterium as it increases the size to prepare for splitting.
The growth of a new cell wall begins to separate the bacterium.
The new cell wall fully develops, resulting in the complete split of the bacterium.
The new daughter cells have tightly coiled DNA rods, ribosomes, and plasmids; these are now brand new organisms.

tag: ol

text: Speed of bacterial fission[edit]

text: Binary fission is generally rapid though its speed varies between species. For E. coli, cells typically divide about every 20 minutes at 37 °C.[5] Because the new cells will, in turn, undergo binary fission on their own, the time binary fission requires is also the time the bacterial culture requires to double in the number of cells it contains. This time period can, therefore, be referred to as the doubling time. Some species other than E. coli may have faster or slower doubling times: some strains of Mycobacterium tuberculosis may have doubling times of nearly 100 hours.[6] Bacterial growth is limited by factors including nutrient availability and available space, so binary fission occurs at much lower rates in bacterial cultures once they enter the stationary phase of growth.

text: Fission of organelles[edit]

text: Some organelles in eukaryotic cells reproduce using binary fission. Mitochondrial fission occurs frequently within the cell, even when the cell is not actively undergoing mitosis, and is necessary to regulate the cell's metabolism.[7]

text: Types of Binary Fission[edit]

text: Binary fission in organisms can occur in four ways, irregular,longitudinal, transverse, oblique.

text:
Irregular: In this fission, cytokinesis may take place along any plane but it is always perpendicular to the plane of karyokinesis. e.g. amoeba
Longitudinal: Here cytokinesis takes place along the longitudinal axis. e.g. in flagellates like Euglena.
Transverse: Here cytokinesis takes place along the transverse axis. e.g. in ciliate protzoans like paramecium.
Oblique: In this type of binary fission cytokinesis occurs obliquely. e.g. ceratium

text: Multiple fission[edit]

text: Fission of protists[edit]

text: Multiple fission at the cellular level occurs in many protists, e.g. sporozoans and algae. The nucleus of the parent cell divides several times by amitosis, producing several nuclei. The cytoplasm then separates, creating multiple daughter cells.[8][9][10]

text: Some parasitic, single-celled organisms undergo a multiple fission-like process to produce numerous daughter cells from a single parent cell. Isolates of the human parasite Blastocystis hominis were observed to begin such a process within 4 to 6 days.[11] Cells of the fish parasite Trypanoplasma borreli have also been observed participating in both binary and multiple fission.[12]

text: Fission of apicomplexans[edit]

text: In the apicomplexans, a phylum of parasitic protists, multiple fission, or schizogony, is manifested either as merogony, sporogony or gametogony. Merogony results in merozoites, which are multiple daughter cells, that originate within the same cell membrane,[13][14] sporogony results in sporozoites, and gametogony results in microgametes.

text: Fission of green algae[edit]

text: Green algae can divide into more than two daughter cells. The exact number of daughter cells depends on the species of algae and is an effect of temperature and light.[15]

text: Multiple fission of bacteria[edit]

text: Most species of bacteria primarily undergo binary reproduction. Some species and groups of bacteria may undergo multiple fission as well, sometimes beginning or ending with the production of spores.[16] The species Metabacterium polyspora, a symbiont of guinea pigs, has been found to produce multiple endospores in each division.[17] Some species of cyanobacteria have also been found to reproduce through multiple fission.[18]

text: Plasmotomy[edit]

text: Some protozoans reproduce by yet another mechanism of fission called as plasmotomy. In this type of fission, a multinucleate adult parent undergoes cytokinesis to form two multinucleate( or coenocytic) daughter cells. The daughter cells so produced undergo karyokinesis, further.

text: Such a type of reproduction is shown by opalina and pelomyxa.

text: Clonal fragmentation[edit]

text: Fragmentation in multicellular or colonial organisms is a form of asexual reproduction or cloning where an organism is split into fragments. Each of these fragments develop into mature, fully grown individuals that are clones of the original organism. In echinoderms, this method of reproduction is usually known as fissiparity.[19]

text: Population fission[edit]

text: Any splitting of a single population of individuals into discrete parts may be considered fission. A population may undergo fission for a variety of reasons, including migration or geographic isolation. Because the fission leads to genetic variance in the newly isolated, smaller populations, population fission is a precursor to speciation.[20][21]


document_title: Value-added tax in the United Kingdom

question_text: when did vat change from 17.5 to 20

question_tokens: when did vat change from 17.5 to 20

text: Value-added tax in the United Kingdom

text: History[edit]

text: Between October 1940 and March 1973 the UK had a consumption tax called Purchase Tax, which was levied at different rates depending on goods' luxuriousness.[5] Purchase Tax was applied to the wholesale price, initially at a rate of 331⁄3%. This was doubled in April 1942 to 662⁄3%, and further increased in April 1943 to a rate of 100%, before reverting in April 1946 to 331⁄3% again. Unlike VAT, Purchase Tax was applied at the point of manufacture and distribution, not at the point of sale. The rate of Purchase Tax at the start of 1973, when it gave way to VAT, was 25%.

text: On 1 January 1973 the UK joined the European Economic Community and as a consequence Purchase Tax was replaced by Value Added Tax on 1 April 1973.[5][8][9] The Conservative Chancellor Lord Barber set a single VAT rate (10%) on most goods and services.[5][8][9]

text: In July 1974, Labour Chancellor Denis Healey reduced the standard rate of VAT from 10% to 8% but introduced a new higher rate of 12.5% for petrol and some luxury goods.[5][8][10] In November 1974, Healey doubled the higher rate of VAT to 25%.[8] Healey reduced the higher rate back to 12.5% in April 1976.[8][10][11]

text: Conservative Chancellor Geoffrey Howe increased the standard rate of VAT from 8% to 15% and abolished the higher rate in June 1979.[5][8][12] The rate remained unchanged until 1991, when Conservative Chancellor Norman Lamont increased it from 15% to 17.5%.[5][8][12] The additional revenue was used to pay for a reduction in the hugely unpopular community charge.[12] During the 1992 general election the Conservatives promised not to extend the scope of VAT but in March 1993, Lamont announced that domestic fuel and power, which had previously been zero-rated, would have VAT levied at 8% from April 1994 and the full 17.5% from April 1995.[9][13] The planned introduction of VAT on domestic fuel and power went ahead in April 1994, but the increase from 8% to 17.5% in April 1995 was scuppered in December 1994, after the government lost the vote in parliament.[8][13]

text: In its 1997 general election manifesto, the Labour Party pledged to reduce VAT on domestic fuel and power to 5%.[14] After gaining power, the new Labour Chancellor Gordon Brown announced in June 1997 that the lower rate of VAT on domestic fuel and power would be reduced from 8% to 5% with effect from 1 September 1997.[15][16] In November 1997, Brown announced that the VAT on installation of energy saving materials would be reduced from 17.5% to 5% from 1 July 1998. Brown subsequently reduced VAT from 17.5% to 5% on sanitary protection products (from 1 January 2001); children's car seats (from 1 April 2001); conversion and renovation of certain residential properties (from 12 May 2001); contraceptives (from 1 July 2006); and smoking cessation products (from 1 July 2007).

text: In response to the late-2000s recession, Labour Chancellor Alistair Darling announced in November 2008 that the standard rate of VAT would be reduced from 17.5% to 15% with effect from 1 December 2008.[17][18] In December 2009, Darling announced that the standard rate of VAT would return to 17.5% with effect from 1 January 2010.[19][20]

text: In the run up to the 2010 general election there were reports that the Conservatives would raise VAT if they gained power.[21][22][23] The party denied the reports.[24][25] Following the election in May 2010, the Conservatives formed a coalition government with the Liberal Democrats. In the 2010 budget, described by PM David Cameron as an "emergency budget", Chancellor George Osborne announced that the standard rate of VAT would increase from 17.5% to 20% with effect from 4 January 2011.[26][27]

text: Before the 2015 general election Labour claimed that the Conservatives would raise VAT to 22.5% if they were re-elected and Osborne reputedly refused to deny the claim.[28][29] On 25 March 2015 Cameron pledged in the House of Commons that VAT would not be increased.[30][31]

text: Operation[edit]

text: All businesses that provide "taxable" goods and services and whose taxable turnover exceeds the threshold must register for VAT.[3] The threshold was £77,000 since April 2012,[32] and as of 2016 it is £83,000,[33] by far the highest VAT registration threshold in the world.[5] Businesses may choose to register even if their turnover is less than that amount. All registered businesses must charge VAT on the full sale price of the goods or services that they provide unless exempted or outside the VAT system. The default VAT rate is the standard rate, currently 20%.[3] Some goods and services are charged lower rates (reduced or zero).

text: Registered businesses must pay over to HMRC the VAT they have charged on their goods or service (known as output tax) but they may offset this with the VAT they have incurred on goods or services they have purchased that relates to their own onward 'taxable' supplies (known as input tax).[34] VAT incurred by businesses that does not relate to their onward making of taxable supplies (whether exempt or from 'non-business' activities) may not be offset from the amount of VAT that is payable to HMRC.

text: A separate scheme, called The Flat Rate Scheme is also run by HMRC. This scheme allows a VAT registered business with a turnover of less than £150,000 per annum to pay a fixed percentage of its turnover to HMRC every 3 months. The scheme is designed to reduce red tape for small business and allow new companies to keep some of the VAT they charge to their customers.[35]

text: Businesses selling exempt good, supplies or services, such as banks, may not register for VAT or reclaim VAT that they have incurred on purchases.[3] Businesses that sell a mixture of taxable and exempt goods or services can only recover the proportion of the VAT they incur on their purchases that relates to their onward taxable supplies. The rules dealing with 'mixed use' (or 'residual') VAT on purchases are complex. However, businesses that sell zero-rated goods or supplies, such as food producers or bookseller, may reclaim all the VAT they have incurred on purchases.

text: Rates[edit]

text: There are currently three rates of VAT: standard (20%),[36] reduced (5%) and zero (0%).[3] In addition some goods and services are exempt from VAT or outside the VAT system.[3]

text: The following are the rates applicable to some common goods and services:[37]

text:
Standard rated
Alcoholic drinks
Biscuits (chocolate covered only)
Bottled water (inc. mineral water)
Calendars & diaries
Carbonated (fizzy) drinks
CDs, DVDs, video games, & tapes
Cereal bars
Chocolate
Clothes & footwear (not for children under 14)
Confectionery/sweets
Delivery charges (postage & packaging)
Electrical goods
Electricity, gas, heating oil & solid fuel (business)
Food & drinks supplied for consumption on the premises (at restaurants, cafes etc)
Hot take-away food & drinks (inc. burgers, hot dogs, toasted sandwiches)
Ice cream
Fruit juice & other cold drinks (not milk)
Nuts (shelled, roasted/salted)
Postal services (Royal Mail/other licensed operators)
Potato crisps
Prams & pushchairs
Road fuel (petrol/diesel)
Salt (non-culinary)
Stationery
Taxi fares
Tolls for bridges, tunnels & roads (privately operated)
Water (industrial)

Reduced rated
Children's car seats
Electricity, gas, heating oil & solid fuel (domestic/residential/charity non-business)
Energy saving materials (permanently installed in residential/charity premises)
Maternity pads
Mobility aids for the elderly
Sanitary protection products
Smoking cessation products

Zero rated
Aircraft (sale/charter)
Bicycle & motorcycle helmets
Biscuits (not chocolate covered)
Books, maps & charts (not ebooks)
Bread, rolls, baps & pitta bread
Brochures, leaflets & pamphlets
Building services for disabled people
Cakes (including Chocolate teacake, Jaffa Cakes)
Canned & frozen food (not ice cream)
Cereals
Chilled/frozen ready meals, convenience foods
Clothes & footwear (for children under 14 only)
Construction & sale of new domestic buildings
Cooking oil
Donated goods sold at charity shops
Eggs
Equipment for disabled people (inc. blind/partially sighted)
Fish (inc. live fish)
Fruit & vegetables
Live animals for human consumption
Meat & poultry
Milk, butter, cheese
Newspapers, magazines & journals
Nuts & pulses (raw for human consumption)
Prescription medicine
Protective boots & helmets (industrial)
Public transport fares (bus, train & tube)
Salt (culinary)
Sandwiches (cold)
Sewerage (domestic & industrial)
Shipbuilding (15 tonnes or over)
Tea, coffee & cocoa
Transport in a vehicle, boat or aircraft (not fewer than ten passengers)
Water (household)

Exempt
Antiques, works of art or similar
Burial or cremation (human)
Commercial land & buildings (selling/leasing/letting)
Cultural events operated by public bodies (museums, art exhibitions, zoos & performances)
Education, vocational training
Financial services (money transactions, loans/credits, savings/deposits, shares/bonds)
Funeral plan insurance
Gambling (betting, gaming, bingo, lottery)
Health services (doctors, dentists, opticians, pharmacists & other health professionals)
Insurance
Medical treatment & care
Membership subscriptions
Postage stamps
Sports activities & physical education
TV licence

Outside
Goods & services sold outside the EU
Goods & services supplied by unregistered supplier
Statutory fees & services (MOT testing, congestion charge etc)
Tolls for bridges, tunnels and roads (operated by public authorities)
Voluntary donations to charity

text: Historical rates[edit]

text: Standard VAT rates since 1979:[38]

text:
From
To
Standard rate

18 June 1979
18 March 1991
15.0%

19 March 1991
30 November 2008
17.5%

1 December 2008
31 December 2009
15.0%

1 January 2010
3 January 2011
17.5%

4 January 2011
Present
20.0%

text: Revenue[edit]

text: VAT revenue since 1978/79 as a percentage of total government revenue:[39]

text:
Year
VAT (£bn)
 %
Year
VAT (£bn)
 %
Year
VAT (£bn)
 %
Year
VAT (£bn)
 %

1978/79
4.9
7.02%
1988/89
27.2
13.81%
1998/99
52.3
15.60%
2008/091
78.4
14.77%

1979/80
8.0
9.41%
1989/90
29.6
14.02%
1999/00
56.4
15.73%
2009/101
63.7
12.84%

1980/81
11.1
11.00%
1990/91
30.9
13.94%
2000/01
58.5
15.30%
2010/111
73.4
13.89%

1981/82
11.9
9.95%
1991/92
35.3
15.25%
2001/02
61.0
15.66%
2011/121
79.5
13.79%

1982/83
13.8
10.63%
1992/93
37.2
16.36%
2002/03
63.5
16.03%
2012/131
83.8
13.52%

1983/84
15.3
11.09%
1993/94
39.2
16.67%
2003/04
69.1
16.36%
2013/141
87.7
13.26%

1984/85
18.6
12.59%
1994/95
41.7
16.30%
2004/05
73.0
16.11%

1985/86
19.4
12.29%
1995/96
43.1
15.58%
2005/06
72.9
14.98%

1986/87
21.3
12.94%
1996/97
46.6
16.14%
2006/07
77.4
14.89%

1987/88
24.2
13.53%
1997/98
50.6
16.00%
2007/08
80.6
14.71%

text: 1. Estimated

text: Avoidance, evasion and fraud[edit]

text: The UK government loses billions in revenue each year due to VAT avoidance, evasion and fraud. In 2006 the loss was estimated to be between £13bn and £18bn, equivalent to £1 for every £6 of VAT due.[40] The bulk of the lost revenue, about £1 in every £8 of VAT due, is due to evasion.[41] Evasion, which is illegal, occurs when registered businesses pay over to HMRC less than they should. This can be done by understating sales or overstating purchases. Evasion also occurs when businesses do not charge VAT on goods and services they provide even though they are legally obliged to. Cash-in-hand jobs by tradesmen may indicate VAT evasion.[42]

text: In recent years carousel fraud (also known as missing trader fraud) has increased. Criminal gangs trade goods, such as mobile phones, across EU countries.[43] They do not have to pay VAT, as imports from the EU are not subject to VAT in the UK. The fraud occurs when the criminals sell the goods with VAT in the UK but fail to pass the VAT to HMRC.[43] The goods are often repeatedly shipped round EU countries by criminal gang networks, hence the "carousel" name.[44] According to the HMRC, between £1.1bn and £1.9bn tax revenue was lost in 2004/05 due to carousel fraud.[44] The European Union Emission Trading Scheme has been plagued by carousel fraud.[45][46]

text: Until 2012, the Low Value Consignment Relief (LVCR) meant that goods imported from outside the EU through Jersey and costing less than a set amount were not subject to VAT.[47] When the LVCR was introduced in 1983 it was set at about £5 but gradually rose to £18.[48] From 1 November 2011 the LVCR was reduced from £18 to £15.[48] The LVCR allowed online retailers of DVDs and CDs to avoid VAT by importing the goods from the Channel Islands, which are not part of the EU. Major retailers involved in this tax avoidance included Amazon, Asda, HMV, Play.com, Tesco, W H Smith and Woolworths.[49] The tax avoided each year due to LVCR was estimated to be £85m in 2005, £110m in 2008, £130m in 2010 and £140m in 2011.[47][48] From 1 April 2012 the relief was withdrawn in respect of goods imported to the UK from the Channel Islands.[50]

text: Criticism[edit]

text: Opponents of VAT claim VAT is regressive and is paid by all consumers whether they be rich or poor, young or old.[9] The poorest also spend a higher proportion of their disposable income on VAT than richest.[7] The Office for National Statistics report showed that in 2009/10 the poorest 20% spent 8.7% of their gross income on VAT, whereas the richest 20% spent only 4.0% of their gross income on VAT.[51] Similarly, the poorest 20% spent 9.7% of their disposable income on VAT, whereas the richest 20% spent only 5.2% of their disposable income on VAT.[51] Supporters of VAT claim VAT is progressive as consumers who spend more pay more VAT.[5] However, according to their definitions, VAT is neither progressive nor regressive, since the rate neither increases or decreases with the taxable amount.[52][53][54][55]

text: The zero rating of food, and the permission for businesses to reclaim input VAT, have been said to mean that the government in effect subsidises the food industry.[5] Critics also argue that VAT is double taxation as consumers pay for goods and services using income that has already been taxed.[5] It is also argued that VAT is an inefficient tax owing to the numerous exemptions and concessions.[9]


document_title: Minority Report (film)

question_text: what is the location at the end of minority report

text: Minority Report (film)

text: Plot[edit]

text: In April 2054, Washington, DC's PreCrime police stops murderers before they act, reducing the murder rate to zero. Murders are predicted using three mutated humans, called "Precogs", who "previsualize" crimes by receiving visions of the future. Would-be murderers are imprisoned in their own happy virtual reality. The Federal government is on the verge of adopting the controversial program.

text: Since the disappearance of his son Sean, PreCrime Captain John Anderton has both separated from his wife Lara and become a drug addict. While United States Department of Justice agent Danny Witwer is auditing the program, the Precogs generate a new prediction, saying Anderton will murder a man named Leo Crow in 36 hours. Anderton does not know Crow, but flees the area as Witwer begins a manhunt. Anderton seeks the advice of Dr. Iris Hineman, the creator of PreCrime technology. She reveals that sometimes, one of the Precogs, usually Agatha, has a different vision than the other two, a "minority report" of a possible alternate future; this has been kept a secret as it would damage the system's credibility. Anderton resolves to recover the minority report to prove his innocence.

text: Anderton goes to a black market doctor for a risky eye transplant so as to avoid the citywide optical recognition system. He returns to PreCrime and kidnaps Agatha, shutting down the system, as the Precogs operate as a group mind. Anderton takes Agatha to a hacker to extract the minority report of Leo Crow, but none exists; instead, Agatha shows him an image of the murder of Ann Lively, a woman who was drowned by a hooded figure in 2049.

text: Anderton and Agatha go to Crow's hotel room as the 36-hour time nears, finding numerous photos of children, including Sean's. Crow arrives and Anderton prepares to kill him, accusing him of being a serial child killer. Agatha talks Anderton out of shooting Crow by telling him that he has the ability to choose his future now that he is aware of it. Crow however begs to be killed, having been hired to plant the photos and be killed in exchange for his family's financial well being. Crow grabs Anderton's gun and pushes the trigger, killing himself. Anderton and Agatha flee to Lara's house outside the city for refuge. There they learn Lively was Agatha's drug-addicted mother who sold her to PreCrime. Lively had sobered up and attempted to reclaim Agatha, but was murdered. Anderton realizes he is being targeted for knowing about Lively's existence and her connection to Agatha.

text: Witwer, studying Crow's death, suspects Anderton is being framed. He examines the footage of Lively's murder and finds there were two attempts on her life, the first having been stopped by PreCrime but the second, occurring minutes later, having succeeded. Witwer reports this to the director and founder of PreCrime, Lamar Burgess, but Burgess responds by killing Witwer using Anderton's gun. With the Precogs still offline, the murder is not detected.

text: Lara calls Burgess to reveal that Anderton is with her, and Anderton is captured, accused of both murders, and fitted with the brain device that puts him permanently into a dreamlike sleep. As his body is deposited into the prison, the warden tells him, "that all your dreams come true”.

text: Agatha is reconnected to the PreCrime system. While attempting to comfort Lara, Burgess accidentally reveals himself as Lively's murderer. Lara frees Anderton from stasis, and Anderton exposes Burgess at a PreCrime celebratory banquet by playing the full video of Agatha's vision of Burgess killing Lively. A new report is generated at PreCrime: Burgess will kill Anderton. Burgess corners Anderton, and explains that as he could not afford to let Lively take Agatha back without impacting PreCrime, he arranged to kill Lively following an actual attempt on her life, so that the murder would appear as an echo to the technician within PreCrime and be ignored. Anderton points out Burgess's dilemma: If Burgess kills Anderton, he will be imprisoned for life, but PreCrime will be validated; if he spares Anderton, PreCrime will be discredited and shut down. Anderton reveals the ultimate flaw of the system: once people are aware of their future, they are able to change it. Burgess shoots himself.

text: After Burgess's death, the PreCrime system is shut down. All the prisoners are unconditionally pardoned and released, although they are kept under occasional surveillance. Anderton and Lara are soon to have a new child together. The Precogs are sent to an undisclosed location to live their lives in peace.

text: Cast[edit]

text:
Tom Cruise as Chief John Anderton
Max von Sydow as Director Lamar Burgess
Samantha Morton as Agatha Lively
Colin Farrell as Danny Witwer
Michael and Matthew Dickman as Arthur and Dashiell "Dash" Arkadin, the precog twins
Neal McDonough as Gordon "Fletch" Fletcher
Steve Harris as Jad
Patrick Kilpatrick as Knott
Jessica Capshaw as Evanna
Lois Smith as Dr. Iris Hineman
Kathryn Morris as Lara Anderton
Peter Stormare as Dr. Solomon P. Eddie
Jason Antoon as Rufus T. Riley
Mike Binder as Leo Crow
Jessica Harper as Ann Lively
Tim Blake Nelson as Gideon
Daniel London as Norbert "Wally" Wallace

tag: ul

text: Production[edit]

text: Development[edit]

text: Dick's story was first optioned by producer and writer Gary Goldman in 1992.[5] He created the initial script for the film with Ron Shusett and Robert Goethals (uncredited).[6] It was supposed to be a sequel to the 1990 Dick adaptation Total Recall, which starred Arnold Schwarzenegger.[7] Novelist Jon Cohen was hired in 1997 to adapt the story for a potential film version that would have been directed by Dutch filmmaker Jan de Bont.[8][9] Meanwhile, Cruise and Spielberg, who met and became friends on the set of Cruise's film Risky Business in 1983,[10] had been looking to collaborate for ten years.[11][12] Spielberg was set to direct Cruise in Rain Man, but left to make Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.[10] Cruise read Cohen's script, and passed it onto Spielberg, who felt it needed some work. Spielberg was not directly involved in the writing of the script; however, he was allowed to decide whether the picture's screenplay was ready to be filmed. When Cohen submitted an acceptable revision, he called Cruise and said, "Yeah, I'll do this version of the script."[9][13] In that version, Witwer creates a false disk which shows Anderton killing him. When Anderton sees the clip, his belief in the infallibility of the precogs' visions convinces him it is true, therefore the precogs have a vision of him killing Witwer. At the end, Anderton shoots Witwer and one of the brother precogs finishes him off, because Witwer had slain his twin.[14] Spielberg was attracted to the story because as both a mystery and a movie set 50 years in the future, it allowed him to do "a blending of genres" which intrigued him.[15]

text: In 1998, the pair joined Minority Report and announced the production as a joint venture of Spielberg's DreamWorks and Amblin Entertainment, 20th Century Fox, Cruise's Cruise/Wagner Productions, and De Bont's production company, Blue Tulip.[16] Spielberg however stated that despite being credited, De Bont never became involved with the film.[17] Cruise and Spielberg, at the latter's insistence,[18] reportedly agreed to each take 15% of the gross instead of any money up front to try to keep the film's budget under $100 million.[19] Spielberg said he had done the same with name actors in the past to great success: "Tom Hanks took no cash for Saving Private Ryan but he made a lot of money on his profit participation."[18] He made this agreement a prerequisite:[18]

text: I haven't worked with many movie stars—80 per cent of my films don't have movie stars—and I've told them if they want to work with me I want them to gamble along with me. I haven't taken a salary in 18 years for a movie, so if my film makes no money I get no money. They should be prepared to do the same.

text: Production was delayed for several years; the original plan was to begin filming after Cruise's Mission: Impossible II was finished.[16] However, that film ran over schedule, which also allowed Spielberg time to bring in screenwriter Scott Frank to rework Cohen's screenplay.[8][20] John August did an uncredited draft to polish the script,[21] and Frank Darabont was also invited to rewrite, but was by then busy with The Majestic.[22] The film closely follows Frank's final script (written May 16, 2001), and contains much of Cohen's third draft (May 24, 1997).[9] Frank removed the character of Senator Malcolm from Cohen's screenplay, and inserted Burgess, who became the "bad guy". He also rewrote Witwer from a villain to a "good guy", as he was in the short story.[14] In contrast to Spielberg's next science fiction picture, War of the Worlds, which he called "100 percent character" driven, Spielberg said the story for Minority Report became "fifty percent character and fifty percent very complicated storytelling with layers and layers of murder mystery and plot."[4] According to film scholar Warren Buckland, "It appears that...Cohen and...Frank did not see" the "Goldman and Schusett screenplay; instead; they worked on their own adaptation."[7] Goldman and Schusett however claimed the pair used a lot of material from their script, so the issue went through the Writer's Guild arbitration process. They won a partial victory; they were not given writing credits, but were listed as executive producers.[7] The film was delayed again so Spielberg could finish A.I. after the death of his friend Stanley Kubrick.[23] When Spielberg originally signed on to direct, he planned to have an entirely different supporting cast. He offered the role of Witwer to Matt Damon, Iris Hineman to Meryl Streep, Burgess to Ian McKellen, Agatha to Cate Blanchett, and Lara to Jenna Elfman.[24] However, Streep declined the role,[24] Damon opted out,[24] and the other roles were recast due to the delays. Spielberg also offered the role of Witwer to Javier Bardem, who turned it down.[25]

text: Technology[edit]

text: After E.T., Spielberg started to consult experts, and put more scientific research into his science fiction films.[26] In 1999, he invited fifteen experts convened by Peter Schwartz and Stewart Brand to a hotel in Santa Monica for a three-day "think tank". He wanted to consult with the group to create a plausible "future reality" for the year 2054 as opposed to a more traditional "science fiction" setting.[27] Dubbed the "think tank summit",[28] the experts included architect Peter Calthorpe, author Douglas Coupland, urbanist and journalist Joel Garreau, computer scientist Neil Gershenfeld, biomedical researcher Shaun Jones, computer scientist Jaron Lanier, and former Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) architecture dean William J. Mitchell.[27][29] Production designer Alex McDowell kept what was nicknamed the "2054 bible", an 80-page guide created in preproduction which listed all the aspects of the future world: architectural, socio-economic, political, and technological.[28] While the discussions did not change key elements in the film, they were influential in the creation of some of the more utopian aspects, though John Underkoffler, the science and technology advisor for the film, described it as "much grayer and more ambiguous" than what was envisioned in 1999.[30] Underkoffler, who designed most of Anderton's interface after Spielberg told him to make it "like conducting an orchestra", said "it would be hard to identify anything [in the movie] that had no grounding in reality."[28] McDowell teamed up with architect Greg Lynn to work on some of the technical aspects of the production design. Lynn praised his work, saying that "[a] lot of those things Alex cooked up for Minority Report, like the 3-D screens, have become real."[31]

text: Spielberg described his ideas for the film's technology to Roger Ebert before the movie's release:

text: I wanted all the toys to come true someday. I want there to be a transportation system that doesn't emit toxins into the atmosphere. And the newspaper that updates itself...

text: The Internet is watching us now. If they want to. They can see what sites you visit. In the future, television will be watching us, and customizing itself to what it knows about us. The thrilling thing is, that will make us feel we're part of the medium. The scary thing is, we'll lose our right to privacy. An ad will appear in the air around us, talking directly to us.[11]

text: Filming[edit]

text: Minority Report was the first film to have an entirely digital production design.[31] Termed "previz", as an abbreviation of previsualization (a term borrowed from the film's narrative), production designer Alex McDowell said the system allowed them to use Photoshop in place of painters, and employ 3-D animation programs (Maya and XSI) to create a simulated set, which could be filled with digital actors then used to block out shots in advance. The technology also allowed the tie-in video game and special effects companies to cull data from the previs system before the film was finished, which they used to establish parameters for their visuals. When Spielberg quickly became a fan, McDowell said "[i]t became pretty clear that [he] wouldn't read an illustration as a finished piece, but if you did it in Photoshop and created a photorealistic environment he focused differently on it."[31] Filming took place from March 22 to July 18, 2001,[24] in Washington, D.C., Virginia, and Los Angeles.[32] Film locations included the Ronald Reagan Building (as PreCrime headquarters) and Georgetown.[32] The skyline of Rosslyn, Virginia is visible when Anderton flies across the Potomac River.[33] During production, Spielberg made regular appearances on a video-only webcam based in the craft services truck, both alone[34] and with Tom Cruise; together they conferenced publicly with Ron Howard and Russell Crowe via a similar webcam on the set of "A Beautiful Mind" in New York.[35]

text: The location of the small, uncharted island in the last shot of the film is Butter Island off North Haven, Maine in the Penobscot Bay.[36]

text: Although it takes place in an imagined future world of advanced technology, Minority Report attempts to embody a more "realistic" depiction of the future.[37] Spielberg decided that to be more credible, the setting had to keep both elements of the present and ones which specialists expected would be forthcoming. Thus Washington, D.C. as depicted in the movie keeps well-known buildings such as the Capitol and the Washington Monument, as well as a section of modern buildings on the other side of the Potomac River. Production designer Alex McDowell was hired based on his work in Fight Club and his storyboards for a film version of Fahrenheit 451 which would have starred Mel Gibson. McDowell studied modern architecture, and his sets contain many curves, circular shapes, and reflective materials. Costume designer Deborah L. Scott decided to make the clothes worn by the characters as simple as possible, so as not to make the depiction of the future seem dated.[38]

text: The stunt crew was the same one used in Cruise's Mission: Impossible 2, and was responsible for complex action scenes. These included the auto factory chase scene, filmed in a real facility using props such as a welding robot, and the fight between Anderton and the jetpack-clad officers, filmed in an alley set built on the Warner Bros. studio lot.[39] Industrial Light & Magic did most of the special effects, and DreamWorks-owned PDI was responsible for the Spyder robots. The company Pixel Liberation Front did previsualization animatics. The holographic projections and the prison facility were filmed by several roving cameras which surrounded the actors, and the scene where Anderton gets off his car and runs along the Maglev vehicles was filmed on stationary props, which were later replaced by computer-generated vehicles.[40]

text: Storyline differences[edit]

text: The Philip K. Dick story only gives you a springboard that really doesn't have a second or third act. Most of the movie is not in the Philip K. Dick story – to the chagrin of the Philip K. Dick fans, I'm sure.

text: Like most film adaptations of Dick's works,[5] many aspects of his story were changed in their transition to film, such as the addition of Lamar Burgess and the change in setting from New York City to Washington, D.C., Baltimore, and Northern Virginia. The character of John Anderton was changed from a balding and out-of-shape old man to an athletic officer in his 40s to fit its portrayer and the film's action scenes.[41] The film adds two stories of tragic families; Anderton's, and that of the three pre-cogs.[42] In the short story, Anderton is married with no children, while in the film, he is the divorced father of a kidnapped son, who is most likely deceased.[43] Although it is implied, but unclear in the film whether Agatha is related to the twin pre-cogs, her family was shattered when Burgess murdered her mother, Anne Lively.[44] The precogs were intellectually disabled and deformed individuals in the story, but in the film, they are the genetically mutated offspring of drug addicts.[45][46] Anderton's future murder and the reasons for the conspiracy were changed from a general who wants to discredit PreCrime to regain some military funding, to a man who murdered a precog's mother to preserve PreCrime. The subsequent murders and plot developed from this change. The film's ending also differs from the short story's. In Dick's story, Anderton prevents the closure of the PreCrime division, however, in the movie Anderton successfully brings about the end of the organization.[47] Other aspects were updated to include current technology. For instance in the story, Anderton uses a punch card machine to interpret the precogs' visions; in the movie, he uses a virtual reality interface.[48]

text: Themes[edit]

text: The main theme of Minority Report is the classic philosophical debate of free will versus determinism.[49][50] Other themes explored by the film include involuntary commitment, the nature of political and legal systems in a high technology-advanced society,[51] the rights of privacy in a media-dominated world,[28] and the nature of self-perception.[52] The film also continues to follow Spielberg's tradition of depicting broken families,[53][54] which he has said is motivated by his parents' divorce when he was a child.[18]

text: Music[edit]

text:
Minority Report: Original Motion Picture Score

Film score by John Williams

Released
June 18, 2002

Genre
Soundtrack

Label
DreamWorks

John Williams chronology

Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones
(2002)Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones2002
Minority Report
(2002)
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
(2002)Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets2002

text:
Professional ratings

Review scores

Source
Rating

AllMusic

Empire

Filmtracks

Movie Wave

SoundtrackNet

Tracksounds

text: The score was composed and conducted by John Williams and orchestrated by John Neufeld, with vocals by Deborah Dietrich. Williams normally enters Spielberg productions at an early stage, well before the movie starts shooting. For Minority Report however, his entry was delayed due to his work on Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones, and he joined the film when it was nearly completed, leaving him scant production time. The soundtrack takes inspiration from Bernard Herrmann's work.[55] Williams decided not to focus on the science fiction elements, and made a score suitable for film noir. He included traditional noir elements such as a female singer in the Anne Lively scenes, but the "sentimental scenes", which Williams considered unusual for that genre, led to soothing themes for Anderton's ex-wife Lara and son Sean.[38] The track "Sean's Theme" is described as the only one "instantly recognizable as one of Williams'" by music critic Andrew Granade.[56] Spielberg typified it as "a black and white score" and said, "I think Johnny Williams does a really nice bit of homage to Benny Herrmann."[57]

text: In an interview which appeared in The New York Times, Williams said that the choices for many of the pieces of classical music were made by the studio. He also said that while he did not know why certain pieces were chosen, Franz Schubert's Symphony No. 8 (commonly known as the Unfinished Symphony), which features prominently in the film,[58] was most likely included because Anderton was a big fan of classical music in the script.[59] Some of the other choices, such as Gideon's playing of "Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring" by Bach on an organ in the subterranean prison, were also in the screenplay, and he figured that "[t]hey are some writer's conception of what this character might have listened to."[59] Williams did choose the minuet from a Haydn string quartet (Op. 64, No. 1) which plays on the radio in the scene where Dr. Hineman is gardening in her greenhouse. He said he picked the piece because "[i]t seemed to me to be the kind of thing a woman like this would play on the radio."[59] James R. Oestreich in The New York Times characterized the score as "evocative" and said it was "thoroughly modern" while also being "interlaced with striking snippets of masterworks", including the "lopsided waltz" from the second movement of Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 6, known as the Pathétique.[59]

text:
[show]Minority Report: Original Motion Picture Score

No.
Title
Length

1.
"Minority Report"
6:29

2.
""Can You See?""
2:12

3.
"Pre-Crime to the Rescue"
5:48

4.
"Sean and Lara"
4:46

5.
"Spyders"
4:33

6.
"The Greenhouse Effect"
5:09

7.
"Eye-Dentiscan"
4:48

8.
"Everybody Runs"
3:10

9.
"Sean's Theme"
1:57

10.
"Anderton's Great Escape"
6:47

11.
"Dr. Eddie and Miss Van Eych"
3:08

12.
"Visions of Anne Lively"
3:27

13.
"Leo Crow... The Confrontation"
5:55

14.
""Sean" by Agatha"
4:59

15.
"Psychic Truth and Finale"
7:10

16.
"A New Beginning"
3:29

text: Ending[edit]

text: The most commonly criticized element of the film is its ending. The film has a more traditional "happy ending" which contradicts the tone of the rest of the picture.[60][61] This has led to speculation that this ending is the product of John's imagination, caused by hallucinations from his forced coma after he is incarcerated. As one observer mused, "The conclusion of Minority Report strikes me as a joke Spielberg played on his detractors—an act of perfectly measured deviltry."[62]

text: One critic theorized, "...[r]ather than end this Brazil-ian sci-fi dystopia with the equivalent of that film's shot of its lobotomized hero, which puts the lie to the immediately previous scene of his imagined liberation, Spielberg tries to pass off exactly the same ending but without the rimshot, just to see if the audience is paying attention."[62] Film scholars Nigel Morris and Jason P. Vest point to a line in the film as possible evidence of this. After Anderton is captured, Gideon tells him that, "It's actually kind of a rush. They say you have visions. That your life flashes before your eyes. That all your dreams come true."[63] While Vest considers the blissful dream ending a possibility, he questions why Anderton did not imagine his son as having returned.[64]

text: Buckland expressed disappointment in the ending, but blamed Frank. He felt that given the water theme, and closely tied together tragic parent-child theme, Anderton should have ended the film by taking Agatha in his care if Spielberg wanted a happy ending. Especially since "Anderton kidnaps Agatha from the precog pool just as his son was kidnapped from a swimming pool" and because Anderton could act as a "substitute parent for Agatha, and Agatha...a substitute child for Anderton."[65] This opportunity is missed however, when the precogs are sent to the remote island, and Anderton reunites with his wife; an ending which Buckland finds more "forced" than the "more authentic" path he feels he noticed.[65]

text: Style[edit]

text: Minority Report is a futuristic film which portrays elements of a both dystopian and utopian future.[66] The movie renders a much more detailed view of its future world than the book, and contains new technologies not in Dick's story.[67] From a stylistic standpoint, Minority Report resembles Spielberg's previous film A.I.,[41] but also incorporates elements of film noir. Spielberg said that he "wanted to give the movie a noir feel. So I threw myself a film festival. Asphalt Jungle. Key Largo. The Maltese Falcon."[10] The picture was deliberately overlit, and the negative was bleach-bypassed during post-production.[68] The scene in which Anderton is dreaming about his son's kidnapping at the pool is the only one shot in "normal" color. Bleach-bypassing gave the film a distinctive look; it desaturated the film's colors, to the point that it nearly resembles a black-and-white movie, yet the blacks and shadows have a high contrast like a film noir picture.[68][69] The color was reduced by "about 40%" to achieve the "washed-out" appearance.[70] Elvis Mitchell, formerly of The New York Times, commented that "[t]he picture looks as if it were shot on chrome, caught on the fleeing bumper of a late '70s car."[71]

text: Cinematographer Janusz Kamiński shot the movie with high-speed film,[70] which Spielberg preferred to the then-emerging digital video format.[72] The movie's camera work is very mobile, alternating between handheld and Steadicam shots, which are "exaggerated by the use of wide angle lenses and the occasional low camera angle" to increase the perception of movement according to film scholar Warren Buckland.[70] Kamiński said that he never used a lens longer than 27mm, and alternated between 17, 21, and 27mm lenses, as Spielberg liked to "keep the actors as close to the camera as possible". He also said, "We staged a lot of scenes in wide shots that have a lot of things happening with the frame."[70] The duo also used several long takes to focus on the emotions of the actors, rather than employing numerous cuts.[73] Spielberg eschewed the typical "shot reverse shot" cinematography technique used when filming characters' interactions in favor of the long takes, which were shot by a mobile, probing camera.[74] McDowell relied on colorless chrome and glass objects of curved and circular shapes in his set designs, which, aided by the "low-key contrastive lighting", populated the film with shadows, creating a "futuristic film noir atmosphere".[70]

text: Buckland describes the film's 14 minute opening sequence as the "most abstract and complex of any Spielberg film."[14] The first scene is a distorted precog vision of a murder, presented out of context. The speed of the film is sped up, slowed, and even reversed, and the movie "jumps about in time and space" by intercutting the images in no discernible order.[75] When it ends, it becomes clear that the scene was presented through Agatha's eyes, and that this is how previsions appear to her.[75] Fellow scholar Nigel Morris called this scene a "trailer", because it foreshadows the plot and establishes the type of "tone, generic expectations, and enigmas" that will be used in the film.[76] The visions of the pre-cogs are presented in a fragmented series of clips using a "squishy lens" device, which distorts the images, blurring their edges and creating ripples across them.[77] They were created by a two-man production team, hired by Spielberg, who chose the "layered, dreamlike imagery" based on some comments from cognitive psychologists the pair consulted.[78] In the opening's next scene, Anderton is "scrubbing the images", by standing like a composer (as Spielberg terms it), and manipulating them, while Jad assists him. Next the family involved in the murder in Agatha's vision is shown interacting, which establishes that the opening scene was a prevision. The picture then cuts back to Anderton and the precogs' images, before alternating between the three.[79] The opening is self-contained, and according to Buckland acts merely as a setup for numerous elements of the story.[80] It lasts 14 minutes, includes 171 shots, and has an average shot length of five seconds as opposed to the 6.5 second average for the entire film. The opening's five-second average is attained despite "very fast cutting" in the beginning and ending, because the middle has longer takes, which reach 20 seconds in some instances. Spielberg also continues his tradition of "heavily diffused backlighting" for much in the interior shots.[70]

text: Release[edit]

text: Spielberg typically keeps the plot points of his films closely guarded before their release, and Minority Report was no different.[81] He said he had to remove some scenes, and a few "F-words" to get the film's PG-13 rating.[10] Following the disappointing box office results of Spielberg's A.I., the marketing campaign for Minority Report downplayed his role in the movie and sold the film as a Cruise action thriller.[82]

text: Tom Rothman, chairman of the film's co-financier Fox Filmed Entertainment, described the film's marketing strategy thus: "How are we marketing it? It's Cruise and Spielberg. What else do we need to do?"[10] The strategy made sense; coming into the film, Spielberg had made 20 films which grossed a domestic total of $2.8 billion, while Cruise's resume featured 23 films and $2 billion in domestic revenues.[10] With their combined 30% take of the film's box office though, sources such as BusinessWeek's Ron Grover predicted the studios would have a hard time making the money needed to break even.[19] Despite the outward optimism, as a more adult-oriented, darker film than typical blockbusters, the studio held different box office expectations for the movie than they would a more family friendly film. Entertainment Weekly projected the film would gross $40 million domestic in its opening weekend,[83] and Variety predicted that the high concept storyline would not appeal to children and would render it a "commercial extra-base hit rather than a home run."[8]

text: Theatrical run[edit]

text: Minority Report's world premiere took place in New York City on June 19, 2002.[84] An online "popcorn cam" broadcast live from inside the premiere.[85] Cruise attended the London premiere the following week, and mingled with thousands of adoring fans as he walked through the city's Leicester Square.[86] It debuted at first place in the U.S. box office, collecting $35.677 million in its opening weekend.[87] Forbes considered those numbers below expectations, as they gave the film a small edge over Lilo & Stitch, which debuted in second place ($35.260 million). Lilo & Stitch sold more tickets, but since much of the film's attendees were children, its average ticket price was much lower.[88] The movie opened at the top of the box office in numerous foreign markets; it made $6.7 million in 780 locations in Germany its opening weekend, and accounted for 35% of France's total box office weekend office gross when it collected $5 million in 700 theaters. In Great Britain, Minority Report made $36.9 million in its first three days, in Italy, $6.2 million in its first ten, in Belgium, $815,000 in its 75 location opening weekend, and in Switzerland, $405,000 in an 80 theater opening weekend.[89][90] The BBC felt the film's UK performance was "buoyed by Cruise's charm offensive at last week's London premiere."[91] Minority Report made a total of $132 million in the United States and $226.3 million overseas.[2]

text: Home media[edit]

text: DreamWorks spent several million dollars marketing the film's DVD and VHS releases. The campaign included a tie-in video game released by Activision, which contained a trailer for the movie's DVD.[92] Minority Report was successful in the home video market, selling at least four million DVDs in its first few months of release.[93] The DVD took two years to produce. For the first time, Spielberg allowed filmmakers to shoot footage on the set of one of his films. Premiere-award-winning DVD producer Laurent Bouzereau, who would become a frequent Spielberg DVD collaborator, shot hundreds of hours of the film's production in the then-new high-definition video format. It contained over an hour of featurettes which discussed various aspects of film production, included breakdowns of the film's stunt sequences, and new interviews with Spielberg, Cruise, and other "Academy Award-winning filmmakers".[92][94] The film was released on a two-disc Blu-ray by Paramount Pictures (now the owner of the early DreamWorks library) on May 16, 2010. It included exclusive extras and interactive features, such as a new Spielberg interview, that were not included in the DVD edition. The film was transferred from its "HD master" which retained the movie's distinctive grainy appearance.[95]

text: Video game[edit]

text: A video game based on the film titled Minority Report: Everybody Runs was developed by Treyarch, published by Activision and released on November 18, 2002 for Game Boy Advance, Nintendo GameCube, PlayStation 2 and Xbox. It received mixed reviews.

text: Reception[edit]

text: The film received critical acclaim. On the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, Minority Report received 91% positive reviews based on 239 critics, with an average rating of 8.1/10. The site's critical consensus is, "Thought-provoking and visceral, Steven Spielberg successfully combines high concept ideas and high octane action in this fast and febrile sci-fi thriller."[96] The website listed it among the best reviewed films of 2002.[97] The film also earned an 80 out of a possible 100 on the similar review aggregating website Metacritic.[98] Most critics gave the film's handling of its central theme (free will vs. determinism) positive reviews,[96] and many ranked it as the film's main strength.[99][100] Other reviewers however, felt that Spielberg did not adequately tackle the issues he raised.[49][101][102] The movie has inspired significant discussion and analysis, the scope of which has been compared to the continuing analysis of Blade Runner.[103] This discussion has advanced past the realm of standard film criticism. Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Žižek fashioned a criticism of the Cheney Doctrine, by comparing its preemptive strike methodology to that of the film's PreCrime system.[104]

text: Richard Corliss of Time said it's "Spielberg's sharpest, brawniest, most bustling entertainment since Raiders of the Lost Ark".[105] Mike Clark of USA Today felt it succeeded due to a "breathless 140-minute pace with a no-flab script packed with all kinds of surprises."[106] Lisa Schwarzbaum of Entertainment Weekly praised the film's visuals,[107] and Todd McCarthy of Variety complimented the cast's performances.[108] Film scholar Warren Buckland recommended the film, but felt that the comedic elements—aside from Stormare's lines—detracted from the plot and undermined the film's credibility.[109]

text: Several critics used their reviews to discuss Spielberg and analyze what the movie signified in his development as a filmmaker. Andrew O'Hehir of the online magazine Salon expressed excitement over the atypically hard edge of the movie. "Little Steven Spielberg is all grown up now...into of all things a superior film artist...It's too early to know whether Minority Report, on the heels of A.I., marks a brief detour in Spielberg's career or a permanent change of course, but either way it's a dark and dazzling spectacle."[110] J. Hoberman of The Village Voice said it is "the most entertaining, least pretentious genre movie Steven Spielberg has made in the decade since Jurassic Park."[54] Randy Shulman of Metro Weekly said that "the movie is a huge leap forward for the director, who moves once and for all into the world of adult movie making."[55] Roger Ebert called the film a "masterpiece" and said that when most directors of the period were putting "their trust in technology", Spielberg had already mastered it, and was emphasizing "story and character" while merely using technology as a "workman uses his tools".[100] David Edelstein of Slate echoed the positive sentiments, saying "[i]t has been a long time since a Spielberg film felt so nimble, so unfettered, so free of self-cannibalizing."[60] Jonathan Rosenbaum, then of the Chicago Reader, was less convinced. Though he approved of the movie, he derided it in his review as a superficial action film, cautioning audiences to enjoy the movie, but not "be conned into thinking that some sort of serious, thoughtful statement is being delivered along with the roller-coaster ride."[110]

text: Andrew Sarris of the New York Observer gave the film a negative review in which he described the script as full of plot holes, the car chases as silly, and criticized the mixture of futuristic environments with "defiantly retro costuming".[111] The complexity of the storyline was also a source of criticism for Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times, who considered the plot "too intricate and difficult to follow".[112] Rick Groen of The Globe and Mail criticized Tom Cruise's performance,[113] and though Hoberman liked the movie, he described the film as "miscast, misguided, and often nonsensical".[114] Both Rosenbaum and Hoberman belittled the titular minority report as a "red herring".[115][54] More positive reviews have seen it similarly, but referred to it as a "MacGuffin".[116]

text: Awards and honors[edit]

text: The film earned nominations for many awards, including Best Sound Editing at the Academy Awards,[117] and Best Visual Effects at the BAFTAs.[118] It was nominated for eleven Saturn Awards including Best Actor for Cruise, Best Supporting Actor for von Sydow and Best Music for Williams, and won four: Best Science Fiction Film, Best Direction for Spielberg, Best Writing for Frank and Cohen and Supporting Actress for Morton.[119] It was nominated two Visual Effects Society Awards in the categories of "Best Effects Art Direction in a Motion Picture" and "Best Compositing in a Motion Picture."[120] It also won the BMI Film Music Award,[121] the Online Film Critics Society Award for Best Supporting Actress,[122] and the Empire Awards for Best Actor for Cruise, Best Director for Spielberg and Best British Actress for Morton.[123] Ebert listed Minority Report as the best film of 2002,[124] as did online film reviewer James Berardinelli.[125] The film was also included in top ten lists by critic Richard Roeper,[124] and both reviewers at USA Today.[126]

text: In 2008, the American Film Institute nominated this film for its Top 10 Science Fiction Films list.[127]

text: Television series[edit]

text: On September 9, 2014, it was announced that a follow-up television series had been given a pilot commitment at Fox.[128] Max Borenstein wrote the script and served as executive producer alongside Spielberg, Justin Falvey and Darryl Frank. The series was envisioned to be set 10 years after the film, and focused on a male precog who teams up with a female detective to find a purpose to his gift.[128] On February 13, 2015, Daniel London and Li Jun Li joined the cast.[129] On February 24, 2015, Laura Regan was cast as Agatha Lively, replacing Samantha Morton, who was said to have been offered to reprise the role.[130] In March 2015, Stark Sands and Meagan Good landed the lead roles with Sands playing the role of Dash, one of the male precogs, and Good playing Lara Vega, a detective haunted by her past, who works with Dash to help him find a purpose for his gift, Li Jun Li plays Akeela, a CSI technician, Daniel London reprised his role as Wally the Caretaker from the original film and Wilmer Valderrama was cast as a police detective.[131][132] The show was picked up to series by Fox on May 9, 2015, and made its broadcast debut on September 21, 2015. However, the show was cancelled on May 13, 2016 by Fox.


document_title: Florida's Natural Growers

question_text: where does florida natural orange juice come from

text: Florida's Natural Growers

text: History[edit]

text: Florida's Natural Growers was founded in 1933 as Florida Citrus Canners Cooperative. Its initial operations included canning juice and grapefruit sections for its members,[2] and in 1938 began extracting juice with automated machines. During World War II, the company produced concentrated orange juice for the military; after the war, 80% of the juice the company produced was in frozen concentrate form to meet consumer demand for the relatively new, convenient form.

text: In the 1960s, consumer demand shifted to fresh-squeezed orange juice, and frozen concentrate sales declined while demand for chilled juices increased. In 1969, the cooperative took the name Citrus World and adopted the current name in 1998. It is currently composed of 12 growers: Waverly Growers Cooperative, Lake Placid Cooperative, Ben Hill Griffin Inc., Haines City Citrus Growers Association, Orange Growers Marketing Association, Lake Wales Citrus Growers Association, Hunt Brothers Cooperative, Citrus Marketing Services Inc, Peace River Packing Company, Dundee Citrus Growers Association, Winter Haven Citrus Growers Association, and Umatilla Citrus Growers Association.[3]

text: In 1987, consumer demand for premium juices that are not made from reconstituted concentrate increased, leading to the creation of the Florida's Natural brand (which would later become the name of the cooperative itself), which consists only of freshly squeezed, pasteurized juice, which contains no additional ingredients. The company also added Ruby Red grapefruit juice to its line of products, and is also known for introducing the resealable pour spout to its cartons, a design which went on to be used throughout the industry for premium juices and other beverages. The company purchased Sun Pac Foods in 2000 and began shipping premium orange juice to China.

text: In 2001, the company opened "Grove House", a visitor's center across the street from its Lake Wales, Florida processing plant.[4] Grove House is open daily except Sunday, and is closed from Memorial Day through the last day of September.

text: Products and Marketing[edit]

text: Florida's Natural produces not-from-concentrate citrus juices (mainly orange juice) under the Florida's Natural and Donald Duck brand names.

text: The company's primary marketing strategy is to differentiate itself from main competitors Simply Orange, Minute Maid and Tropicana. It does this by emphasizing its cooperative organization ("we own the land, we own the trees, we own the company"). By comparison, Simply Orange and Minute Maid are both owned by Coca-Cola, while Tropicana is owned by PepsiCo. For a long time,[when?] it was the only national orange juice maker that used only US-grown fruit (grown by its cooperative members primarily in Polk County, Florida) in its products. Nearly all other juice makers use a mix of domestic and imported (Brazil) citrus fruit.[5]