My first overseas reporting trip was to Iran nearly half a century ago. Coincidentally it was also my first overseas trip. I have the Iraqis to thank for it. I was a reporter with New Delhi magazine (which shut shop in 1981) in its namesake city. In 1979, soon after the Islamic revolution toppled Shah…
From Chaitanya Kalbag TEHRAN, JAN. 24—There was a strong rumour here last week that the Shah is not really dead. Many people swore that they had never seen a photograph of his dead body and pointed out that only his wife and son were shown in pictures of the funeral, along with “co-conspirators” like Anwar Sadat.…
From Chaitanya Kalbag TEHERAN, JAN. 21—It was clear that the on-off hostage crisis, which finally came to an end a scant half hour before Ronald Reagan’s swearing in as America’s 40th president on Tuesday, had begun to boomerang badly for the Iranians towards the end. Today, only two bored Pasdaran (Islamic Revolutionary Guards) stood guard outside the…
From Chaitanya Kalbag TEHERAN, JAN. 22—“The economy can’t get any worse”, say businessmen in Teheran. But the isolation the Iranians brought upon themselves, most people agree, could have been easily averted. The release of the US hostages may reopen the gates to the West and one country that can lose out as a result is India. Hardliners…
From Chaitanya Kalbag TEHRAN, Jan. 23 — Iranian military plans were always offensive vis-à-vis Iraq. It was not surprising, therefore, that the Iranian Air Force’s first raids on Iraq after the war broke out in late September focused on economically important targets. The Iraqis, too, have concentrated their attacks on Iranian economic centres — a situation…
When Anand Mohan and Chaitanya Kalbag called on Mrs. Ambika Soni in Delhi on August 17, they expected her to come forth with the defensiveness and the self-righteousness most of her colleagues in the Congress Party display. Mrs. Soni, after all, had occupied a powerful and coveted position during the Emergency—as President of the Youth…
When I’m sixty-four Give me your answer, fill in a form Mine for evermore Will you still need me Will you still feed me When I’m sixty-four? Average life expectancy at birth for Indians in 2010 was 64.4 years, which means the Beatles song could be an elegy. We fared more poorly than our neighbors,…
The only blood that sub-inspector Kabir Singh Limbo has seen spilled in the Nellie area has been in very bad road accidents on National Highway 37 as traffic whizzes past. Limbo has been in charge of the tin-roofed Nellie police outpost for a year-and-a-half. During monsoons, Limbo says, parts of the highway linking Assam’s Goalpara…
Two weeks into 1977, the Ear is again put to the Ground, and monitors the subterranean noises of the Ten Approaching Bestsellers of the New Year: • PAWS: Peter Benchley will follow up The Deep with this blood-curdling story of a giant Royal Bengal Tiger that stalks the outskirts of Calcutta, gobbling up little Bengali…
Jayaprakash Narayan today occupies a place in the hearts of his countrymen not unlike the one allotted to Mahatma Gandhi after Independence. How does the ailing ‘Father’ of the Second Liberation take to his new role? With his usual calm, discovered Chaitanya Kalbag and Shobha Kilachand when they met him in Bombay a day before…
Our Staff Reporter A French hotel firm is collaborating in the construction and marketing of the latest five star hotel that is being built in the Capital in the private sector by Congress-I MP Charanjit Singh. A three per cent royalty on the basis of room revenue will be siphoned off by the French collaborators,…
Express News ServiceNEW DELHI, July 24:The Works and Housing Ministry and the New Delhi Municipal Committee came under sharp attack from opposition members of Parliament on Friday for allotting plots on instalments to Communist leaders and Congress(I) men on preferential terms to individuals close to the ruling party. The Minister for Works and Housing, Mr…
Chaitanya Kalbag Manila (Reuter) — The armed forces, the institution that has held the Philippines together over the past year, has emerged at war with itself after Thursday’s face-saving solution to an insurrection by 400 rebel soldiers, analysts said. Western diplomats and military experts said that Tuesday’s coup attempt and its compromise with a rump…
Chaitanya Kalbag, Reuters Tokyo, Dec. 28 Satellite and cable television is approaching the status of rice as staple in the Asian diet but some governments feel threatened by foreign encroachment on their airwaves. Viewers across Asia are tuning in to a cornucopia of information and entertainment. Millions of Asians now know American newsmen Ted Koppel…
Chaitanya Kalbag Manila (Reuter-Kyodo) “Who goes there — friend or foe?” That traditional challenge has acquired new meaning here after the recent uprising by elite soldiers who helped President Corazon Aquino to power last year, analysts say. A senior army officer who did not wish to be identified said the coup bid had proved loyalty to…
Chaitanya Kalbag, Reuters The Philippine economy is expected to continue to grow in 1987 after a modest upturn in 1986, but a major revival depends on an end to political uncertainty, bankers, economists, diplomats and businessmen said. Economic Planning Minister Solita Monsod has said the gross national product (GNP) grew 0.13% in 1986 after declining…
Chaitanya Kalbag, Reuters When Corazon Aquino pledged retribution Tuesday for the latest coup attempt against her, she also proclaimed the finality of her transformation from hesitant housewife to leader of a tumultuous nation. For a woman who said her family was her greatest pleasure and agonized over entering politics in the shadow of her slain…
Chaitanya Kalbag, Reuters News Service MANILA — The Philippines, once Southeast Asia’s second-richest nation but now its second-poorest, claims it is poised for an economic boom in 1987 after three years of precipitous decline that has drained millions in poverty. Government officials, buoyed by rising foreign exchange reserves and single-digit inflation, have begun the new…
Chaitanya Kalbag, Reuters MANILA: A government-appointed special prosecutor yesterday ordered the filing of corruption charges against Philippine Central Bank Governor Jose Fernandez, who said he would contest them. Ombudsman Raul Gonzalez said there was evidence to indicate that Mr. Fernandez had misused his office in ordering the closure of the private Pacific Bank in July,…
The Assam agitators have taken a lot of inspiration from the RSS, reports Chaitanya Kalbag The RSS’s position on the North-East has been enunciated very clearly in a 104-page book titled What ails India’s North-East? written by Bhanu Pratap Shukla and published by Suruchi Sahitya, the Sangh’s propaganda wing. In a preface titled As I…
Almost everyone who saw Sholay liked the ‘Mehbooba’ dance number immensely. Apart from Jalal Agha singing in R. D. Burman’s voice, there was Helen-swooping, whirling, and twirling all those scarves. I thought she looked every inch a gipsy dancer. And Mani Rabadi thinks so too. Mani designed Helen’s costume for that song. Her telephone’s busy…
India’s Public Sector Steel Industry “Our steel industry is gigantic, but still not large enough for our needs. Steel plays a very vital and little understood role in our lives and in our economy. What is steel? How is steel made? Where is it made? Is one steel plant exactly like another? Is the technology…
OBSCENITY. Vulgar display. Indecent exposure. Suggestive gestures. We’ve been hearing a lot of such phrases, ever since the Cinematograph (Censorship) Act was passed in 1952. Even today, they look back with nostalgia to the days when there were kissing scenes in Hindi films, and Himansu Rai is an often-mentioned name. Ever since 1952, the audience…
Government pushes for monetary easing despite central bank doubts While India swelters in record high June temperatures, senior officials in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government are sweating for another reason. The heat is coming from a debate over whether the country is poised for a V-shaped recovery after last November’s shock demonetization or if it…
When CHAITANYA KALBAG arrived for this pre-arranged interview at Janata General Secretary RABI RAY’s residence at 12, Safdarjung Lane, New Delhi, an assistant of the latter’s informed him that he had been summoned urgently by the President, Mr Neelam Sanjiva Reddy, to Rashtrapati Bhavan. Half an hour later Mr Ray returned, to inform our correspondent…
NEW DELHI — India’s economy is doing well despite slower growth in the first quarter of fiscal 2016-17, but moribund private investment and a mushroom cloud of huge bad loans over banks are worries, according to the chief economic adviser to the Indian government. “In the short run, our biggest challenges are private investment and…
By Chaitanya Kalbag, Contributing writer NEW DELHI — India’s northeastern border state of Assam is waiting with trepidation for the results of a citizenship census that could have major political, sectarian and diplomatic consequences just months before the country’s next general election. The National Register of Citizens, which will identify mostly Muslim immigrants from Bangladesh…
It was a pleasure to attend the Ninth Upendra Vajpeyi Memorial Lecture on April 1, 2016, delivered by Balmiki Prasad Singh, who is a respected administrator, scholar, author and thinker. Mr Singh, a former Governor of Sikkim, is familiar with the absence of peace – he was a senior official in Assam when the anti-foreigner…
The Sai Baba controversy is utterly irrelevant and merely proves that Indian newspapers and magazine are hard put to finding topic worthy of discussion. An article on the occasion if Satya Sai Baba’s 50th birthday which was celebrated on November 23. “I Wonder,” remarked a Professor of Political Science at an American university when I…
Government must create jobs, not just offer cash: renowned Indian economist Chaitanya Kalbag, Contributing Writer NEW DELHI — Narendra Modi’s government unveiled an ambitious budget last week with huge handouts for India’s poor, a move that could certainly win him votes in the upcoming elections but will do little to alleviate poverty in the long…
Indian bank governance is in the spotlight amid the ballooning $2.1 billion fraudulent-loan scandal at Punjab National Bank. © Reuters NEW DELHI – The crisis in India’s state-owned banking sector is deepening, but the government may be preparing to give a key oversight body, set up two years ago to improve governance at bank boards,…
By Chaitanya Kalbag The Philippines is poised to write a new and dangerous chapter in the global debt crisis, bankers and economic analysts warned on Monday. Over the past week, a combative Congress has set in motion plans likely to pit the heavily indebted nation against its foreign creditors and rupture economic recovery. The analysts…
The external environment has “deteriorated,” Subramanian said. “Interest rates have gone up globally so there is a capital outflow, and now the major new development is the prospect of trade wars, especially if China converts it into something bigger, like a currency war. We could see very unsettling times. So just to hold the fort…
What drove Aziz Haidari to return to his native Afghanistan to witness the final agony of the Taliban regime in November 2001 was his unshakeable belief that reporting the news, accurately, faithfully, truthfully, can make all the difference. It was that same belief that made Aziz’s nine-year association with Reuters such a profound one, and…
Early this month I travelled to Agra to walk barefoot around the Taj Mahal, the only wonder of the world that stands in honour of a woman. Make no mistake. That mausoleum was built three and a half centuries ago in memory of a very powerful woman. She was a confidante and counsellor to Shah…
From the Editor Then we had to find the rule and the string again, and a new hole was made; and, about midnight, the picture would be up — very crooked and insecure, the wall for yards round looking as if it had been smoothed down with a rake, and everybody hot and wet and…
From the Editor On June 1, as the mercury hit 47 Celsius and turned Delhi’s roads — or what passes for them in most parts — into pancake griddles, the government released a report that feebly tried to suggest remedies for the human-resource mess in Air India. The same day there was bad news about…
From the Editor Turkmenistan’s “President for Life” Saparmurat Niyazov erected a 50-ft gold-plated statue of himself in the centre of the capital Ashgabat, eight years before he gave immortality the slip in 2006. The statue rotated through the day, always pointing to the sun. We have noted the gold-plating stage yet, but we certainly know…
From the Editor There are times when we at Business Today chafe at being a fortnightly. There is so much happening in business and the economy that we storytellers are fit to burst. It is not just what you see in the printed magazine—our website www.businesstoday.in is up to nearly a million page views. Our…
From the Editor Business Today’s team of reporters was putting finishing touches to the BT–YES Bank Best CFO Survey starting on page 57. The 14 men and one woman who have won this year’s awards, chosen by a stellar jury after a rigorous nationwide search, bring to life the satisfaction of making those numbers on…
These are extraordinary times and we witness extraordinary phenomena. Three weeks before the Union Budget, when finance ministers customarily crawl under their carapaces, the honourable Member of Parliament from Sivaganga delivered a rousing speech on national security. What he said, with feeling and not a little frustration, was that Indians seem to disdain economic growth.…
Many of us are making our fortunes elsewhere John Denver’s 1969 Rendition of this song is famous, but my heartstrings are tugged more by the Peter, Paul and Mary version of 1967. That was just two years after the Hart-Celler Act amended America’s immigration laws and flipped around the overwhelmingly white, European tide to let…
Imphal — A minister in the northeast Indian state of Manipur was sacked this month because he went to a polo match. The minister was not dismissed for taking time off but because he went with only two bodyguards instead of his usual jeep-load of machine-gun carrying policemen. “We are fighting against insurgents in Manipur,”…
Bhopal: A small, red-painted build-in this central in Indian city has become the focus of a grim battle being waged against the after-effects of a poison gas leak that killed 2,500 people last December. In the first weeks after the disaster, the victims were reported to have died as their lungs filled with fluids after…
Chaitanya Kalbag, Reuters New Delhi -Ten months after the army stormed the Sikhs’ holiest shrine, Amritsar’s Golden Temple, Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi has run up against his toughest domestic challenge so far in Punjab state. Gandhi has pledged to give top priority to the Punjab problem. Eight leaders of the main Sikh party, the…
— Continued from Page 1could have dealt with an accident much better died. “Those left behind couldn’t really cope very well and we all spun off in own directions.” Hillary did eventually find happiness again, marrying June, widow of his exploring partner Pete Mulgrew. Despite the tragedies, life has been full of richly satisfying firsts…
Continued from Page 1 Col 7 discover, are fully operational. But they contribute little to Iran’s total refining needs. The oil wells in the Kermanshah region are in Iraqi hands. But the Iraqis have failed to snap two vital links from the captured Khorramshahr and the pulverised Abadan, which go above Susangerd to the biggest…
Chaitanya Kalbag, one of Reuter’s New Delhi-based correspondents, has returned to Bhopal to assess the long-term effects of December’s poison gas leak on the city and its population. Kalbag, aged 28, and a former award-winning writer with India Today magazine, covered the original disaster story. Hundreds of people stand outside the drab, white bungalow, clutching…
By Chaitanya Kalbag Bhopal: Hundreds of people stand outside the drab white bungalow, clutching yellow X-ray folders and medical prescriptions in a line stretching down the driveway and into nearby bushes. A chorus of dry coughs punctuates the slow progress of emaciated men, ragged children and ghost-like Muslim women covered head-to-toe in veils and black…
India, a land where personality cults spring up overnight, is struggling to find a pedestal on which to put its assassinated leader Indira Gandhi. In the year since her murder last Oct. 31, the woman once portrayed by a leading painter as a Goddess has become mainly a face looking out from old election posters. …
US ‘interference’ charges spur soul-searching in Manila MANILA —The recall of a US military diplomat from the Philippines underlines the love-hate ties between the two countries but also points to a new direction in Manila foreign policy, analysts said Wednesday. The US Embassy’s announcement that assistant army attache Lt Col Victor Raphael would depart this…
The troops and the refugees are two knots in a tangle Indira Gandhi’s son and successor, Rajiv Gandhi, must unravel before peace returns to Punjab state. TWO streets from the Sikhs’ holiest shrine, the Golden Temple, a soldier in olive green uniform stands atop a t a tall building, his binoculars trained on the clusters…
The RBI governor refuses to be drawn into the game of popularity stakes Well, I think we’ve still to get to a place where we feel satisfied. We have this saying, ‘in the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king. We’re a little bit that way. We feel things are turning to the…
Philippine investigators recover millions by seizing funds of ex-leader’s ‘cronies’ Chaitanya Kalbag MANILA, Reuters: Former President Ferdinand Marcos and his associates still control vast amounts of funds circulating in the country’s economy, the head of a government panel tracking the ousted leader’s “hidden wealth” said Sunday Ramon Diaz, chairman of the Presidential Commission on Good…
NEW DELHI,— Thurs. Indian security forces rounded. up nearly 300 Sikh extremist suspects today in a race against time to break the back of the extremist movement before elections in Punjab State. Security chiefs, on the defensive after the murder yesterday of Arjun Dass, a top political supporter of Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, Also announced…
New Delhi— Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi has vowed to take tough action to conquer what he sees as India’a political and social ills after basking in a year-long glow of triumph for hauling the country back from the brink of widespread unrest. Cracks have started appearing in the national euphoria swirling around the former airline…
Chaitanya Kalbag, Reuters Bhopal — The poison gas leak that killed 2,500 people last December in this central Indian city has left the future of tens of thousands of people in doubt. The biggest question-mark hangs over the lives of about 125,000 people severely injured in the leak, which occurred at a pesticide factory owned…
Tehran, JAN. 23-Iranian military plans were always offensive vis-a-vis Iraq. it was not surprising, therefore, that the Iranian air force’s first raids on Iraq after the war broke out in late September focused on economically important target The Iraqis, too, have centrated their attacks Iranian economic centres— a situation that seems to invite the acronym…
By Chaitanya Kalbag of Reuters through NZPA Bhopal—The poison gas leak that. killed 2500 people last December in this central Indian city has left the future of tens of thousands of people in doubt. The biggest question mark hangs over the lives of about 125,000 people severely injured in the leak, which occurred at a…
In New Delhi India, a land where personality cults spring up overnight, is struggling to find a pedestal on which to put its assassinated leader Indira Gandhi. In the year since her murder last October 31, the woman once portrayed by a leading painter as a goddess has become mainly a face looking out from…
Chaitanya Kalbag, Reuters NZPA — Thimphu, Bhutan Tucked away in the eastern Himalayas lives the ruler of a fairyland little kingdom who must be one of the world’s most eligible bachelors because he is the world’s youngest reigning monarch. The personal life of the Druk Gyalpo (precious ruler of the dragon people) is not gossiped…
New Delhi, Mar 11. The Soviet Union has tightened its grip on the Indian arms market by offering an array of sophisticated weapons to a Government worried about growing United States military aid to Pakistan, defence analysts said today. Indian officials said that under an agreement reached during the visit of the Soviet Defence Minister,…
Chaitanya Kalbag, Reuters New Delhi, June 1: Indian foreign minister Jaswant Singh said on Tuesday there would be “no relenting” on air and ground operations in Kashmir, and accused Pakistan’s military of connivance with “armed intruders.” “There will be no relenting on any ground operations or air operations until status quo ante is restored,” Mr.…
New Delhi, May 31: Defence minister George Fernandes said on Monday he was sure Pakistan’s military chiefs would not resort to the use of nuclear weapons against India because they would “liquidate” their own country in the process. Asked if the Kashmir fighting, the worst between the bitter neighbours in nearly three decades, might worsen…
Chaitanya Kalbag New Delhi, Reuter: The Soviet Union has tightened its grip on the Indian arms market by offering an array of sophisticated weapons to a government worried about growing U.S. military aid to Pakistan, defense analysts said here last week. Indian officials said that under an agreement reached during the visit of Soviet Defense…
Perhaps the most accurate indicator of how civilised a particular society really is, is the way it treats its social rejects—particularly those who have abandoned their grip on reality and crossed the threshold into the twilight world of the mentally unbalanced. In a poor country like India, which boasts of one of the oldest civilisations…
The Constitution will survive another 600 years The first draft of India’s Constitution was prepared by the Constituent Assembly sixty years ago. As India heads into the second decade of the 21st Century, globalisation, the spread of terrorism, rapid economic growth and the winners and losers it has produced, and the individual’s liberty pose the…
“The Constitution is evolving constantly” As we near completion of sixty years of formation of the Indian Republic, it is crucial to review the workings of the Indian Constitution and analyse how the definitions, principles and guidelines enshrined in the Constitution have evolved in the present context. Former Attorney General for India Ashok H. Desai…
The common image of overcrowded Indian courts deficient in judges, resources and technology may soon be passé. The Government of India has embarked on an ambitious re-engineering programme spearheaded by the Department of Justice. Joint Secretary Ramesh Abhishek spoke at length about the good change coming in an interview with Publishing Director Chaitanya Kalbag. Besides…
By Goutam Das and Chaitanya Kalbag On a sunny October afternoon at an Andalusian-style resort in Southern California with breathtaking views of the Pacific, a senior PepsiCo information technology (IT) executive stopped in mid-sentence to peer thoughtfully into a glass of Chardonnay. The conversation, around outsourcing to India, had paused at Infosys, the poster child…
Yogi Deveshwar’s crack team converted every penalty corner into a goal. Yogesh Chander Deveshwar thinks that ITC Ltd. could be a model for running India’s state-owned companies. That is because banks and public financial institutions hold about 35 percent of ITC and have been a strong counterfoil to British American Tobacco Plc, which owns 31…
Budget 2012 is the final opportunity for the UPA to set the economy on as next years’ exercise will be influenced by the 2014 Lok Sabha elections Five experts on the economy joined Business Today editor Chaitanya Kalbag to discuss Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukerjee’s options as he finalises the forthcoming Union Budget. Yashwant Sinha,…
Ajit Gulabchand was delighted that his second grandson was born on his own 64th birthday. He had just come away from a meeting with a minister and other CEOs who were in the business of building highways. He has spent close to three decades at the helm of the HCC Group, which builds roads, bridges,…
Debu Bhattacharya, Managing Director, Hindalco, discusses the CBI case against his company. By Chaitanya Kalbag Hindalco Industries Ltd.’s Managing Director, Debu Bhattacharya, says that had he known how complex and fraught the process would be to set up an alumina plant and a smelter in Orissa, he would have never put it up. “I really don’t understand where we…
Innovation in India is not just about patents filed but about affordable, scalable solutions. At the NASSCOM India Leadership Forum held in Mumbai last fortnight, Business Today gathered an eclectic collection of thinkers to brainstorm about one topic: How important is innovation in the emerging world order? The hour-long discussion saw Gururaj Deshpande, serial entrepreneur;…
A day after his half-yearly monetary policy review, Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Duvvuri Subbarao met with Chaitanya Kalbag and Anand Adhikari to explain the intent of the bank’s policy actions. He also spoke about the growth-inflation debate and the perceived differences between the central bank and the finance ministry. Edited excerpts: What has…
“You don’t have to be a ‘sting journalist’ to spy on somebody. Camera photographs and video are now ubiquitous, We never know who is recording what we are saying. Every email we send is ‘discoverable’ and we should be prepared to see anything we wrote splashed across a blog or a chatroom.” The audacious hacking…
Where responsibility for troubled histories can be clearly defined, other countries have tried to make amends. Germany has apologised for the horrors of the Holocaust… How far can you reach back in time if you want to right wrongs, real or perceived? Look back through history and nearly every nation can point to traumatic events…
Three warnings from history on the perils of popularity In November 1937, an extraordinary essay titled, ‘The Rashtrapati’, appeared in a respected Calcutta journal. Written under the pseudonym Chanakya, it soon became known that the author was, in fact, Jawaharlal Nehru, who had just led the Congress to victory in elections in a majority of…
You have to be tall to apologise, and taller still to atone The 2019 election campaign was set to be the biggest, costliest, and dirtiest in our democratic history. In this dog-eat-dog atmosphere, no politician can afford to indulge in humility or ask voters to forgive their past sins. Remorse and contrition make you look…
This Parliament should improve its last track record The dust has settled, and a new government will take oath this evening. We have just elected the 17th Lok Sabha. Can we expect a more dynamic Parliament as we head towards New India? There are some encouraging signs: the average age of the 542 newly elected…
The Dalai Lama is the face of a complex refugee problem The Dalai Lama, who completed 60 years of exile in India in March, is usually humorous and candid. Last weekend, however, shortly after World Refugee Day, the Tibetan spiritual leader drew attention for his maladroitness in an interview with the BBC. “European countries should…
Election Commission needs more rope to get to the bottom of it Money is making Election 2019 go around. Currency with the public totalled ₹20.64 trillion on March 15, five days after the elections were announced. This compared with ₹12.48 trillion on March 7, 2014, two days after the previous Lok Sabha election was announced. …
The 48-year-old challenger is flat on his back on the canvas. The crowd is cheering on the champion, who is 20 years older but lighter on his feet. Is the challenger out for the count, or will he go another round? Can Rahul Gandhi breathe life back into his shattered organization? Three weeks after the…
A $5 trillion economy is a stretch. Do we have the running legs? In 2018, India’s per-capita GDP was $2,015.60, according to the World Bank. This makes sense — our economy is currently sized at $2.7 trillion, and our population is around 1.35 billion. This is considerably behind the US ($62,641), and not even a…
Down, down, down. Would the fall never come to an end! ‘I wonder how many miles I’ve fallen by this time?’ she said aloud. ‘I must be getting somewhere near the centre of the earth…’ —Alice’s Adventures in Wales (1865), Lewis Carroll Today marks the first day of the world’s biggest social media Election.…
India is walking into a middle-income trap with its eyes wide open The good news is that every. body — the IMF was the latest to fall in line on Tuesday — agrees with the RBI that India’s GDP growth rate will be a modest 7% in 2019-20. The 0.3 percentage point reduction in its…
How to create a state of suspended animation On August 5, the Indian government declared that Jammu and Kashmir is no longer an exception. On August 5, the Indian government decided to make Kashmir an exception. Why am I saying contradictory things about the same event? Because they are both facts. Bear with me. Removing…
Does this festive season herald fireworks or damp squibs? It is amazing how things come around. I was listening to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Houston speech. After speaking in several Indian languages, Modi said, “Maine itna hi kaha hai: Everything is fine.” Suddenly, I remembered the theme song from 3 Idiots. Eight years have gone…
One week before Phase 1, the votes still hold the cards Loyalty to the nation all the time, loyalty to the government when it deserves it. -Mark Twain After five years of ‘achhe din’, you would think we’d be gazing with happy expectation at the bright lights of even better days, looking forward to a…
How do Naga peace and Article 371A of the Constitution belong together? The abrogation of Article 370 and the five-week-old lockdown in Srinagar have triggered tremors 3,000 km away in Nagaland. Home minister Amit Shah repeated over the weekend at a meeting of the North Eastern Council that Article 371, which bestows special status on…
Nobody speaks in the language of the masses Remarkably, after seven decades of spirited democracy, India has produced only three leaders, who have enjoyed nationwide popularity — Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi and Narendra Modi. I am not considering Lal Bahadur Shastri or Rajiv Gandhi (whose only electoral win was on the rebound from his mother’s…
The name ‘Ram’ rolls easily off the tongue, whichever corner of India you come from, whichever Indian language your mother taught you. Although Rama and Krishna are the best-known gods in human form in our mythology, Rama is recognised across swathes of Southeast Asia. I have watched Ramayana ballets on Bali island, wayang shadow puppet…
Will the amended Lokpal and Lokayuktas Act happen just before the polls? We must not make a scarecrow of the law, setting it up to fear the birds of prey, And let it keep one shape till custom make it Their perch and not their terror. -Measure for Measure, William Shakespeare In Measure for Measure, Shakespeare…
Modi has been handed a blank cheque. He must ensure it doesn’t bounce Narendra Modi’s pulverising victory has wiped out every semblance of opposition in Parliament’s lower house. The Congress’ humiliation is so total that it will fail to be recognised as the main Opposition party in the Lok Sabha for the second time in…
India has crossed just one battle line, but many more lie ahead Political power grows out of the barrel of gun. More precisely, it grows from the air-to-air missiles mounted on an upgraded, but aging, MiG-21 Bison interceptor flown by the intrepid Wing Commander Abhimandan Vardhaman, who took on US-made Pakistani F16s on February 27.…
Stop taking CRPF for granted & get real about how we police our nation Chalte Raho Pyare Fauj. That is what the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) is fondly called in police parlance. Cynics would call them cannon fodder. The CRPF is the dogsbody of India’s internal security. They are sent to the aid of…
The government is performing a risky high-wire balancing act Let me put it simply: the government is performing two balancing acts simultaneously. In order to get to this perilous position, it has time and again turned precedent on its head, laying it open for the next administration to also throw caution to the winds. This…
The truth is, India isn’t rich enough to be a welfare state William Safire must be turning in his grave. The language maven and Richard Nixon speechwriter came up with the ‘nattering nabobs of negativism” phrase that US Vice- President Spiro Agnew used in a 1970 speech. Finance minister Arun Jaitley first used ‘nawabs of…
If you are of a certain age, and not one of the millennial Indians who will turn 18 this year and be eligible to vote, you might remember watching The Net, the 1995 thriller starring Sandra Bullock as a cybersecurity expert who gets into a whole lot of trouble with cyberterrorists, who erase her identity…