December 31, 2015 India missed the Industrial Revolution of the 18th and 19th centuries. We did not do that badly in the first half of the 20th century. Textile mills in Bombay, Ahmedabad and Coimbatore, besides many other places, jute and engineering factories in Howrah, even an advanced steel plant in Jamshedpur (about a half […]
November 4, 2014 Pulitzer-winner Vijay Seshadri is a worthy intellectual and artistic descendant of Melville. Prizes are universally looked down upon by those who have a self-imposed sense of intellectual arrogance. After all, Orwell or Auden never got the Nobel — the best argument in our armoury. But I am now retracting a bit. Prizes […]
August 18, 2014 We can easily build toilets. The problem is that our system does not allow for easy operation and usage. Vikram Lal is a prominent and well-regarded businessman. He is one who has proved that by relentless focus on quality, India does have a role to play in the global manufacturing scene. Now […]
June 10, 2014 Tough decisions made by Modi in Year 1 will pay off handsomely in Year 5. Conventional wisdom is that the new government should focus on reducing the fiscal deficit. This writer would like to take a contrarian view. Ronald Reagan ignored the deficit hawks . He went for bold tax cuts and […]
March 14, 2014 In 2014, Russia began to make a significant renaissance. Tsar Vladimir, of the newly founded Putin Dynasty, finally summoned up the grit, determination and will power of his illustrious forebears from our country’s distinguished past. Tsar Vladimir proved himself a worthy successor of the beloved icons of Russian history For more details […]
January 20, 2014 The government of India, it seems, has decided that factories must not be allowed to come up or to run. Uday Kotak said a few months back, in the course of an interview, that he was amazed that in his new office in Mumbai, not one of the furniture or fixture items […]
January 10, 2014 In return for a Green Card, all you have to do is provide evidence against your prominent employer Dear Foreign Housekeeper/ Babysitter in New York: I am writing to give you some good news. I am the president of Do-gooders Foundation in New York City. We are affiliated to the Sanctimonious Eastern […]
November 14, 2013 A letter Rahul Gandhi didn’t write to Manmohan Singh but could have. I want to bring to your attention the current nonsensical travel policy of our government. Our great scientific genius, Shri Jairam Rameshji, after consulting various hysterical NGOs rather than scientists, has come to the conclusion that Bt Brinjal should be […]
September 9, 2013 The government seems determined to create a de-industrialized moonscape across India. We have seen a spate of rights-based welfare schemes being started by our omniscient and honorable Sultanate in Delhi. I am sure I am getting the names of our new laws wrong. But, what’s in a name? Right to Poor Quality […]
April 8, 2013 Can we agree to vote only for parties that promise to implement the police reforms? Dear readers: I congratulate those among you who do not have their children in the police force of this great country and I commiserate with those parents whose children have become policemen and policewomen either through legitimate […]