The Needle’s Eye
Can India fashion a policy to weather the existential crisis it faces?

30th Sep 2019, The Economic TimesLeave a comment

Greta Thunberg’s emotional speech at the UN Climate Action Summit on Sept 23 was followed by Donald Trump’s mocking tweet: “She seems like a very happy young girl looking forward to a bright and wonderful future.” But we all know that the 16-year-old Swedish schoolgirl-activist is right. The warnings are crowding in, fast and ominous.…

The Needle’s Eye
A $5 trillion economy is a stretch; do we have the running legs?

12th Jul 2019, The Economic TimesLeave a comment

In 2018, India’s per-capita gross domestic product (GDP) was $2015.60, 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 United States ($62,641) and not even a fourth of China’s $9,770.80. The Bank’s data show that India’s…

The Needle’s Eye
EC needs more rope to get to the bottom of campaign spending

18th Apr 2019, The Economic TimesLeave a comment

Money is making Election 2019 go around. Currency with the public totalled Rs. 20.64 trillion on March 15, five days after the elections were announced. This compared with Rs. 12.48 trillion on March 7, 2014, two days after the previous Lok Sabha election was announced. Where is the less-cash economy that demonetisation was supposed to…

The Needle’s Eye
Will Ayushman Bharat do better than its predecessor schemes?

9th Aug 2018, The Economic TimesLeave a comment

Sometime over the next few weeks, most likely in his Independence Day speech, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will formally launch what has already been billed as the world’s biggest public healthcare programme, Ayushman Bharat, or the National Health Protection Mission (AB-NHPM). The scheme was announced in the 2018-19 Budget and approved by the Cabinet in…

FAMILY PLANNING – Injection Of Hope 

15th Feb 1983, India TodayLeave a comment

Family planning in India has always been dogged by a debilitating combination of moral, sociological, superstitious and even political complexes. Post-1977, however, while the nation’s population control effort has acquired the coy appellation of ‘family welfare’, encouraging work has been done towards adopting newer and safer techniques of birth control.  Last fortnight Dr Badri Nath…

Rajiv’s hands freed to improve relation 

2nd Jan 1985, Arab Times KuwaitLeave a comment

Uneasy ties with neighbours  By Chaitanya Kalbag  NEW DELHI, (Reuter): Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi’s massive victory in the Indian general election has given him new freedom to tackle his country’s un-easy relations with its neighbours, especially Pakistan and Sri Lanka.  Rajiv, armed with a huge parliamentary majority, declared immediately after the election that good relations…

Train to Uzbekhistan

16th May 1976, For YouLeave a comment

Fortnightly Take off on Bestsellers  A short, spicy travelogue-cum-novel, “Train To Uzbekhistan” is replete with descriptions of the locomotive that hauls the assortion of bogies, one of which holds Dukhwant Singh. The author has drawn obvious inspiration from Agatha Christie and we find him attempting half-heartedly to describe the distribution of the compartments, just like…

Slavery at Noon

13th June 1976, For YouLeave a comment

Our fourth bestseller take-off this fortnight is the controversial ‘Freedom at Midnight’, a book that sold the maximum hardcover editions in India in the past ten years.   SLAVERY AT NOON by Harry Rollins and Feminique Rapierre. Published by Lucas. 555 pages, Rs. 55.   The authors attempt to present fiction as pulp history. Rollins and…

After biting the dust of the Gangetic plains, Modi needs to come home and stay home

11th Sept 2015, Quartz IndiaLeave a comment

For prime minister Narendra Modi, 2015 has been an annus horribilis, bracketed by the Bhartiya Janata Party’s (BJP’s) waiting loss in the Delhi elections in February, and now the even more humiliating and momentous loss in Bihar.  Bihar has been bruited about, mainly by the BJP, as a referendum on Modi’s popularity. Modi heavily invested…

St Xavier’s College – Fight For Democracy

15th-31st Dec 1977, OnlookerLeave a comment

Authoritarianism may have professedly ended with the Emergency, but it continues to afflict many walks of our life. It has raised its ugly head, from time to time, in the country’s premier educational institutions. Young people, supposedly “tomorrow’s leaders”, are systematically subjected to stifling control, unenlightened concepts of discipline, and any protests they raise are…

Godspellbinding

4th Jan 1974, Hi NewspaperLeave a comment

On four Rock evenings beginning Christmas Eve, a few hundred Bombayites Filled the Bhulabhai Desai auditorium to watch, and to listen to, the Theatre Group weave two and odd hours of phantasmagoric GODSPELL. The musical presentation of the Gospel according to St. Mathew was produced and directed by Pearl Padamsee. GODSPELL, conceived by John Michael…

Don Chandra

Apr 1976, Hi NewspaperLeave a comment

Kem Chho, Chandra Bhai? Fine, I see. Thought I’d discover what makes you tick. Tell me what’s doing.  Chandra Barot does not answer at once. He’s busy buttoning his cuff. And then:   I’m directing Don. And this is keeping me on my toes right now. It’s a fun experience, shooting with Amitabh and Zeenat…

The Needle’s Eye
Lok Sabha polls 2014: A saga of sweat, toil, blood and tears

11th Mar 2019, The Economic TimesLeave a comment

The end of campaigning in Amethi in a cacophony of anger, derogation, and obloquy was briefly leavened by “Twitter joining Rajinikanth.” The Superstar’s followers piled up at the rate of 20,000 an hour. Not even Narendra Modi, one of the Thalaivar’s first followers, could have matched that. Fantasy had trumped politics. As if in affirmation,…

The Needle’s Eye
Lok Sabha elections 2014: Narendra Modi may have to don new avatar to take along allies, new & old

11th Mar 2019, The Economic TimesLeave a comment

One word summed up the five-week election: certitude. From the very beginning, most of us were certain that the National Democratic Alliance would win power. It is fairly certain that the Congress party will suffer its worst defeat in 16 general elections. Over 300,000 kilometres, 440 rallies, 1,350 holograms, 4,000 chai pe charchas, and a…

The Needle’s Eye
Can Narendra Modi give a great government to this country?

11th Mar 2019, The Economic TimesLeave a comment

The Rajyabhishek in the magnificent Rashtrapati Bhavan forecourt was a sight for sore eyes, and understandably some of us went ape even if we were not among the 4,000 people attending Narendra Modi’s oathtaking. It was still a modest event compared with the 1.8 million people who attended Barack Obama’s January 2009 inauguration. Talking about…

The Needle’s Eye
PM Narendra Modi is not China’s Deng Xiaoping and he will never be

11th Mar 2019, The Economic TimesLeave a comment

To begin with, Modi is under microscopic watch and Deng never was. Modi has a good majority in the lower house of Parliament, but that does not mean lawmakers will blindly rubber-stamp his legislative efforts. If you do the arithmetic the National Democratic Alliance stands little chance of a majority in the Rajya Sabha, even…

The Needle’s Eye
Despite BJP’s majority, rowdy scenes in both houses undermine Parliament’s productivity

11th Mar 2019, The Economic TimesLeave a comment

Our members of Parliament sowed the wind in the 15th Lok Sabha and are reaping the whirlwind in the 16th Lok Sabha. The last Lok Sabha worked only for 61 per cent of its scheduled time, the worst in the past half-century. The Bharatiya Janata Party was in very aggressive opposition to the United Progressive…

The Needle’s Eye
PM Narendra Modi and FM Arun Jaitley seem to have meekly accepted targets set by UPA

17th July 2014, The Economic TimesLeave a comment

Somewhere, through the unbearable din of television and anti-social media this week, I saw one tweet that plaintively asked why we were hearing so much from everybody but not enough from Narendra Modi at the BRICS summit in Brazil. Our prime minister met the leaders of China, Russia, Brazil and South Africa, but coverage back…

The Human Tragedy

30th Sep 1982, India Today, Reportage98 Comments

It is a war without end, a no-win situation in which nobody can provide answers to some questions: How long will this go on? Which side will eventually prevail? What is the cost to the nation in money, matériel, men?

This was has no name. It is more an endless series of skirmishes than a sustained military confrontation. Yet, this war has been raging intermittently for 26 years in Nagaland, Manipur and Mizoram.

India aide says Pakistan missile triggered n-tests

14th May 1998, Reportage, Reuters4,504 Comments

New Delhi, May 13 (Reuters) – Pakistan’s test launch of its longest-range missile last month triggered this week’s series of underground nuclear tests by India, a senior Indian official said on Wednesday.  

In a briefing for Western news agencies hours after India stunned the world with two more underground nuclear blasts, the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, set forth the rationale for the tests in unambiguous terms.  

“No more tests are planned,” he said.

L. K. Advani

Interview, Sep 1977, Trans IndiaLeave a comment

INFORMATION & BROADCASTING MINISTER L.K. ADVANI 

‘I Am Not Happy with The Pattern of Newspaper Ownership’

Transindia: Mr. Advani, many people feel today that the Janata Government’s image is quite clean, and that it is innately decent, but that its performance has been quite poor. Would you comment on that?  

L.K. Advani: This impression is erroneous, though if people hold that impression, I wouldn’t blame them because we came into office in a situation in which the people expect- ed wonders from us.

Janata Party President Chandra Shekhar 

Interview, Sep 1977, Trans IndiaLeave a comment

Transindia: Mr. Chandra Shekhar, do you think you have one of the most thankless jobs in the country today, what with having to build up a party composed of such varied components as the Janata is?
Chandra Shekhar: I agree that we have had to create a party from scratch. But I would not say that my job is thankless. There are certain advantages which one cannot ignore and there are many difficulties, too.

R. K. Narayan

May 1977, Reportage, Trans IndiaLeave a comment

The Man From Malgudi It took me some time to discover Rasipuram Krishna Swami Narayan’s house. Yadavagiri, the suburb of Mysore City, where Narayan stays, is an incredibly quiet area, with long, neat streets, tree-shaded bungalows lining them. It was late afternoon, and the neighborhood was just emerging from its siesta. “R. K. Narayan?” asked…

PROF. C.N. VAKIL 

Apr 1978, Interview, Trans IndiaLeave a comment

The Government Is Helping Create A Privileged Class!’   Professor C.N. Vakil, eminent economist, formerly Director, School of Economics and Sociology, University of Bombay, and Director, Central Board, Reserve Bank of India:  “The Janata government was suddenly thrust into power, and there was hardly any coherence between the various constituents of the Party. So decisions were…