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Computer-based admission tests critical to build managerial pool
Sept 16 Nearly a million starry-eyed young Indians last week waited keenly for announcements on the start of the process of admission to the hallowed portals of leading management schools.
India’s middle class waits for tee time
New Delhi, Sept 14 When Arjun Atwal became the first Indian citizen to win a PGA Tour event, at the Wyndham Championship in North Carolina last month, newspapers here trumpeted his victory. India’s golfers are still basking in the reflected glory.
Jairam Ramesh: India’s crusading green minister
New Delhi, Aug 26 Jairam Ramesh, India's green Minister, has found new power in saying no to big industrialists and multi-million dollar projects if he thinks ecological balance is at stake.
Haryana's grassroots democracy scores many firsts
Kurukshetra (Haryana), July 28 When nearly 68,000 elected representatives, including 24,800 women, from Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) stood up in this Haryana town to take their oath, it was the first time such a huge congregation had gathered to be part of India's grand experiment in democratic devolution.
India expands role as drug producer
India’s drug industry is on track to grow about 13 percent this year, to just over $24 billion. India, seasoned in the basics of medicine making, is now starting to take on a more mainstream role in the global drug industry, as a result of recent strengthening of patent law here and cost pressures on name-brand drug makers in the West.
For NRIs, India has now arrived
'Oh nooooo!' groan many non-resident Indians (NRIs) as they stood in long queues for immigration after arriving at Delhi airport. Battling jet lag after a long-haul flight and then waiting in an almost immobile queue becomes their first experience of coming to their motherland. No more. India has caught up as T3 ranks among the top 10 in the world.
Defining moment expected for corporate mergers
There is widespread anticipation regarding possible revision of the threshold limit for mandatory open offers for the purpose of takeovers from current level of 15 percent to 25 percent. If that eventually happens, interesting shareholders' activity can be expected in several listed companies.
Net-by-text-message service could bring millions online in India
Tens of millions of Indian mobile-phone users could gain a gateway to the internet through a cloud-based service developed by Hewlett-Packard's research division in the country.
‘Scope for cooperation in IT changing’
New Delhi, June 29 The scope for cooperation is changing in the IT industry in new markets, according to former NASSCOM chairman and IT heavyweight Kiran Karnik.
‘When Manmohan speaks, people listen’
Toronto, June 28 Praising the statesmanship of Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh and the rise of India, U.S. President Barack Obama on June 27 said he was 'looking forward' and 'excited' about visiting India with First Lady Michelle later this year.
India's interest in Latin America must go beyond World Cup
There is an important reason why enthusiasm for South America should persist beyond the World Cup: The Mercosur countries of Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay are global agriculture superpowers as well. They are already shipping their surpluses worldwide and, as farm outsourcing hubs, have the potential to meet India's food needs in the coming decades.
Direct Tax Code proposal has welcome respite
Many suggestions were made in response to the draft Direct Tax Code on issues impacting individuals. It is quite encouraging many of the suggestions have been incorporated in what the Finance Ministry calls the revised discussion paper on the code.
When people made rural health mission work
New Delhi, June 19 The nooks and crannies of India, rural people desperate for better healthcare are finally making the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) work through a community monitoring programme.
The journey of Kalanidhi Maran
New Delhi, June 14 When Kalanidhi Maran, who late on June 12 sealed a $200-million deal to buy majority stake in budget carrier SpieceJet was named among 40 richest Indians by Forbes last year, it was testimony to the mercurial rise of this first-generation entrepreneur at such a young age.
Football fidelity: An Indian's dilemma
I applauded and cheered when Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay, the three countries of my accreditation as India's ambassador, qualified for the World Cup in South Africa. But this diplomatic honour has now come under challenge from the football rivalry of the three countries.
India's train to Taipei: Business, Bollywood, Buddhism
Taipei, May 31 The three Bs of business, Bollywood and Buddhism are set to bring India and Taiwan closer as the self-ruled island and tech mecca — encouraged by the thaw with China — looks afresh at India as a rising Asian power and burgeoning market.
Fertiliser sector reforms will attract investments
The fertiliser sector in India has been through difficult times in recent years. Stagnant production, no fresh investment and poor financial health of the units were accompanied by high level of import, imbalanced use of nutrients and deteriorating soil health. Mounting subsidy bill posed a serious fiscal management problem to the government.
Telecom companies revive value of paisa
Visiting us during her vacations, Manjari, my teenage niece, asked me if I would help her with a summer project. I agreed. It involved the study of coins. The curious kid wanted to know what a one-paisa coin looked like. Her next question: 'What can one paisa buy?'
Office 2010: Did Microsoft get it right?
Washington, May 14 Will Office 2010 rescue Microsoft's ubiquitous productivity suite in the same way that Windows 7 resuscitated the reputation of Windows?
Youth needs to be made aware of Tagore
Kolkata, May 10 There is an urgent need to increase awareness among youth about the vast works of Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore during the bard's 150th birth anniversary celebrations, intellectuals feel.
Tagore left a legacy for the world
May 8 Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941), the first Asian author to have won the Nobel Prize in literature, still remains an inspiration around the world. A poet, playwright, performer, musician, essayist, philosopher, and one of the finest storytellers from India (eight novels, four novellas and numerous short stories), he also had over 2,000 paintings and doodles to his credit.
The creative genius called Tagore
May 7 Six feet two inches in height, Rabindranath Tagore had to strive hard to hold his head high. The 14th child in a family of 15, he alone was sufficient reason why India should not worry too much about family planning. And 150 years after his birth, he continues to grow in stature as the subcontinent's greatest creative genius.
Mumbai’s rail network is its lifeline
Mumbai, May 5 It carries a sea of humanity — over seven million commuters — to and fro daily. Mumbai's suburban rail network, the city's lifeline which is used by people come floods, terror attacks, or accidents.
Speeding through life
Pondicherry, April 15 They appear out of the dark, right at the edge of the road from Chennai to Pondicherry at 3:30 a.m.: a dozen women in purple saris sitting in a circle, carefully fixing their hair for the day. A man, likely their foreman, watches. In an hour or so, he will lead them to the fields to begin work before the heavy sun of the Indian south rises. They’ll get the equivalent of a little more than a dollar for the day; it will feed, with rice and not much else, a family of four.
Africa is destination next for India Inc
The move by India's top telecom player Bharti Airtel to acquire the African assets of Kuwait's Zain marks the biggest foray of a domestic company into the continent. The landmark deal, estimated at $10.7 billion, raises the level of Indian investments in Africa to $16.7 billion.
Bollywood treatment gives India its very own 'Superbowling'
It is already big and brash. It is about to get substantially bigger and brasher.'If you thought the first two seasons were the ultimate cricket-meets-entertainment blockbusters then you haven't seen anything yet,' enthused the Financial Express newspaper.
Zooming auto industry needs more space to grow
The Indian automobile industry has come under global focus, ranking second only to China as the fastest growing market in the world. The spate of new launches by the auto majors and rising sales graphs over the past few months indicate that the fiscal stimulus seems to have worked wonders for this industry.
Bollywood soars towards Hollywood
Little about “Kites” suggests “Rush Hour”. An extravagant Bollywood romantic thriller, “Kites” features the Indian star Hrithik Roshan and the Mexican actress Barbara Mori as mismatched lovers who can’t speak each other’s language and end up on the run in New Mexico.
What the new Indo-Saudi partnership aims at
New Delhi/Riyadh, March 3 A new Indo-Saudi strategic partnership set in place during Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh's visit to Saudi Arabia February 27-March 1 is set to redefine issues of terrorism, energy security and trade and investment between countries that were once removed not just by geography but history and politics.
Should India talk to Pakistan? Why not
New Delhi, Feb 17 It is necessary for India to talk to Pakistan and raise its concerns with the civilian government there because that very move can help isolate the forces that spread hatred and terror, former diplomats and experts here opine.
Oz relation with India should be more intense
Sydney, Feb 9 A long-term major focus of Australia’s international relations has been on East Asia, predominantly the economic giants of Japan, China and South Korea, while there has been lesser focus on the nations of the Indian Ocean.
Obama's jobs policy will hurt US MNCs
Politics, like fashion, is all about the 'here' and the 'now'. In Washington, the current spotlight is on American jobs or the lack thereof and rightfully so. But what will be its impact — on Indian companies and US multinationals?
Mahatma Gandhi still remains big draw
New Delhi, Jan 30 More than six decades have passed since Mahatma Gandhi was killed, but his philosophy and thoughts continue to attract people from across the world.
India has much to be proud of
Soon after the Indian National Congress, at the forefront of the country's independence movement, adopted the 'purna swaraj' or complete independence resolution at its Lahore convention on New Year's Day in 1930, Mahatma Gandhi called for a day of celebration on January 26, which till 1947 came to be observed as Independence Day.
Recovery and Globality: The Commodities Chase
Jan 13 Although the fourth-quarter 2009 statistics weren't yet in as I wrote this, some predict that the U.S. economy may have expanded in the second half of last year by more than 3 percent. Europe appears to be lagging, but the economies of China, India, Singapore, Indonesia, and South Korea, among others, are growing robustly again. The Great Recession of 2008 and 2009 may be over in most of the world.
Bicycles to scooters to small cars
Approximately a billion people, one-seventh of the world's population, have moved out of poverty in recent years and entered the marketplace en masse as consumers. These new consumers—still poor, but no longer merely surviving, as in the past—come mostly from China and India, but also from Brazil, Mexico, Poland, Russia, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Vietnam, Egypt, Turkey, and many other countries. If these low-income people were a nation, that country would have the world's third-largest population and tenth-biggest gross domestic product.
Developing infrastructure: trillions
This leads to the second point: infrastructure. Such migration, along with the urbanisation and industrialisation of the rapidly developing economies, has prompted increased investment in housing, roads, railways, electricity, and other infrastructure projects. To whatever degree this may have increased or decreased in specific countries during the recession, infrastructure investment is sure to rise in the years to come.
Opportunity: the 'next billion' market
All of these factors—the emergence of an unprecedented low-income consumer cohort, increases in infrastructure expenditures, and the growth of the global middle class—will keep pushing commodity prices higher.
Reviving Bangladesh's secular polity
The rekindling of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman's secularism in Bangladesh will mark a dramatic transformation from the present doom-laden atmosphere of terrorism in the subcontinent as well as in the larger Islamic world.
Let us preserve a white Christmas for future generations
World leaders have just returned to their respective countries after hard bargaining at Copenhagen to arrive at a consensus on reducing carbon emissions.
Is the recession over for the Indian economy?
Are the clouds of recession lifting over the Indian economy as they seem to be over the rest of the world? That is the big question everyone is asking today, whether they be economic analysts or policymakers in the central government and the financial institutions.
Making right to education a reality through technology
The application of IT is fairly widespread by now in India in the private sector. However, when it comes to public governance, India has been a laggard in the utilisation of IT.
We need a new mission: Clean India
'Will you return to work in India?' I asked Aresh. Here was a teenager studying at one of the best schools in the world, at Winchester in Britain. With sports, extra-curricular activities and academics blended harmoniously in the curriculum, he was a future leader. 'No, the filth puts me off. I get sick!'
H1N1: Media causing undue anxiety
What started as an epidemic of swine flu in Mexico in March 2009 has now spread to 100 countries. The World Health Organization (WHO) has been alerting countries for the past eight years to get prepared for a major influenza outbreak. It seems to have finally arrived.
Madan Lal Dhingra: A forgotten martyr
Madan Lal Dhingra was perhaps the first Indian freedom fighter to be executed on British soil. He died in London on August 17, 1909. It is strange that no one in the Indian government has paid any attention to the need to commemorate the event.
Sad for Yahoo, gain for Microsoft
A sad day for Yahoo! That's the consensus -- a rare one -- across both global technology and investor communities. Yahoo stock dropped 10 percent, Microsoft rose one percent. For once, the markets may have got it right. The decision to work together on their search engines is a big mistake for Yahoo, and a small gain for Microsoft.
24X7 news TV is murdering English
The English language has stood India in good stead before and after the success of the independence movement. Mahatma Gandhi wrote 'My Experiments with Truth', which remains a classic. And India's first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, created a worldwide awareness of the country's struggle for independence through a series of books, including his landmark autobiography, and in his interactions with world leaders.
Anand Model should be replicated for growth
Traditional growth models are the legacy of the industrialization era that started a couple of centuries ago. The approach meant leveraging lowest cost resources with an aim of maximizing benefits to the owners of the enterprise.
Expectations high on Budget
Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee faces a tough job July 6 as he rises to present the first budget of the newly-elected United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government, during which he will have to try and keep fiscal deficit under check while meeting the many promises made by the Congress party and its coalition partners during the elections.
Anand Model the replica for growth
Traditional growth models are the legacy of the industrialisation era that started a couple of centuries ago. The approach meant leveraging lowest cost resources with an aim of maximizing benefits to the owners of the enterprise.
No overdose, when money to be made
If there is a theory doing the rounds that the Indian team for the Twenty20 World Cup may be weary because of an overdose of cricket in the run-up to the tournament, there is another school of thought which believes, not without good reason, that the weeks of hectic action that they were involved in IPL-2 in South Africa have helped them keep their competitive edge razor sharp. The theories will be put to test shortly.
NE in the age of coalition politics
The new council of ministers, with a predominance of Congress representatives, shows a fascinating compromise that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi as well as their chief aides, not least Rahul Gandhi, have manoeuvred.
Tamil Tigers were mortals after all!
The dramatic collapse of the Tamil Tigers, accompanied by white flags and surrenders even as some suicide bombers kept exploding themselves, is a sad commentary on the politics of uncompromising mayhem the rebels pursued for so long in Sri Lanka.
Sri Lanka finally in peace?
The dramatic albeit gory footage of a dead Velupillai Prabhakaran with a bullet hole through his forehead marks the end of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) as a feared terrorist organisation.
Needed: PM with vision for new India
Nations get the presidents and prime ministers they deserve. With a national election just over, it is time to scan the prime minister that India needs and delineate the vision, values, principles and qualities he or she must possess.
Kings XI, Mumbai in must-win position
Centurion, May 11 Both Mumbai Indians and Kings XI Punjab are in a must-win situation as they face each other in the Indian Premier League (IPL) at the Centurion Park here on Tuesday.
Indian hockey owes a lot to Dilip Tirkey
Dilip Tirkey is one of those rare gems that any country would be proud to have. Tirkey's milestone of becoming the highest capped hockey player in the world during the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup in Ipoh, Malaysia, last month went almost unnoticed. He equalled the world record of 401 internationals, held by former Dutch captain Joren Delmee.
Go for long-term vision
As the world's biggest exercise in democracy gets underway, there is a sense of expectation and anticipation. With an electorate of 714 million people eligible to vote, there is a tremendous opportunity for the people of India to elect a government that will deliver results and improve the growth trajectory of the country.
Sun will rise again with Oracle
Unlike IBM's failed attempt to acquire Sun Microsystems, the $7.4 billion tendered by Oracle to buy the Santa Clara-based enterprises solutions firm makes good sense for all three companies. It is also gives an honourable exit and hope of a new dawn for a setting Sun, in danger of being gobbled up and swallowed.
Elections as fiscal stimulus
In these times of financial gloom, the process of elections in the world's largest democracy is bringing with it some sort of silver lining for the economy as large sums of money are being spent by political parties and candidates to ensure victory at the hustings.
The Matriarchs of India
NEW DELHI — When the Indian composer A. R. Rahman accepted two Oscars for his work on “Slumdog Millionaire,” he saved his most effusive thanks for his mother.
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Vayalar Ravi, who assumed office as Minister for Overseas Indian Affairs on January 30, 2006, was born in 1937 in Vayalar village of... 
In cheering news for wildlife conserva- tionists, tiger poaching dropped nearly 60 percent...