Interview

Is Gujarat an enemy nation?

As the UK decided to resume diplomatic relations with him, Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi thundered on Thursday, telling an election rally that the whole world is looking up at the state but not the Manmohan Singh goernment. Last year he told us the central government was treating his regime like an enemy nation. We reproduce here that interview.

“Energy is the main constraint for a second green revolution”

The first Norman Borlaug award, instituted by the Rockefeller Foundation in the memory of the Nobel laureate who fathered the green revolution, was given to a young scholar from India. Aditi Mukherji, a social scientist with the International Water Management Institute, New Delhi, was selected from among several candidates for her research on the usage of groundwater resources in West Bengal wh

“Freedom of expression is subject to defamation, contempt of court, to different forms of public interest…”

Google has refused to take down the controversial “Prophet” video (which has sparked extensive violence in the Middle East) from YouTube in the United States, but continues to block it in India. Do you see that as a positive sign? Recent developments have sensitised even the social media networks to the fact that there are issues which need to be addressed,

“It is very bleak for news... there is appalling crisis of vision and alarming poverty of talent”

Star India CEO Uday Shankar is the only one who has straddled news and entertainment genres at the highest levels and hence uniquely positioned to fill in the gaps in our understanding. Sharp, incisive, intellectual, self-incriminating and brazenly bold, Uday gave us a deep dive into the difficult world of news media and what ails it. And why it will continue to ail. Here is the transcri

“Sending SMS alerts is not m-governance”

Established in 2000, Handygo is a leading wireless solution provider of mobile entertainment, mobile governance and value added services (VAS). It offers services in rural education and healthcare. Its solutions are spread across platforms like IVR, SMS and WAP. Pravin Rajpal, CEO, Handygo Technologies Pvt Ltd, spoke to Samir Sachdeva about various initiatives of the company. Edited excerpts:

“Doha Round has to be resolved bit by bit”

Harsha Vardhana Singh is the only Indian among the top brass of the World Trade Organisation (WTO). Before his current assignment, this Rhodes Scholar with a PhD in Economics from the University of Oxford held a series of critical positions: secretary-cum-principal advisor with the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), consultant with the Bureau of Industrial Costs and Prices, the gover

“Industry is eagerly awaiting passage of microfinance bill”

Some key leaders of the microfinance sector came together in October 2009 to set up Micro Finance Institutions Network (MFIN), a self-regulatory national organisation of the RBI-regulated MFIs. MFIN strives to promote the key objectives of microfinance and establishing guidelines for responsible lending and client protection in this sector. Alok Prasad, CEO of MFIN, is a veteran public

“Rs 20,000 crore can be saved every year if RSBY card is used for PDS”

Anil Swarup is director general, labour welfare, with the ministry of labour and employment. He heads the Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (RSBY), the flagship programme of the ministry. In an interview with Samir Sachdeva, Swarup, an IAS officer (Uttar Pradesh cadre, 1981 batch) speaks about achievements of RSBY and how the use of information technology and smart cards has helped beneficiaries.

“Open source is an opportunity, not a challenge”

Working for over 10 years in various technical and leadership roles with Microsoft India, Mandar Naik currently holds the position of director, platform strategy, with the company. In his this role, Naik has been working on the emerging open source ecosystem on Microsoft’s client, server and cloud platforms. In an exclusive interaction with Samir Sachdeva, Naik talks about Microsoft&rsquo

“Without helpful approach of govt, revival of a PSU is impossible”

When Kallol Dutta took over as chairman cum managing director of the Andrew Yule group, the public sector unit’s accumulated loss was around Rs 432 crore. In the headquarters and at other units run by the group, there was palpable despondency and dejection. Dutta, an engineering graduate from Kharagpur and a quintessential Bengali who loves football more than any other game, made an exemp

“Pirated copies facilitate software addiction”

Richard Matthew Stallman, often called the father of the free and open source movement, is the founder of the Free Software Foundation. He has launched the GNU project, aimed at creating a free Unix-like operating system. He is also the pioneer of the CopyLeft concept and is a social activist campaigning against software patents and copyrights. During his recent visit to India he spoke to Samir

“We are awaiting cabinet nod for financing smart grid pilots”

Satyanarayan (‘Sam’) Gangaram Pitroda wears many hats: he is currently advisor to the prime minister on public information infrastructure and innovations (PIII) and chairman of the national innovation council. He has served as chairman of the national knowledge commission. He is also the founder of C-SAM, Inc. Among other things, he is also chairman of the India smart grid task

“No parliament is supreme. Only citizen is supreme”

Professor Christopher Lingle, an American economist who now teaches at Universidad Francisco Marroquín in Guatemala, has two views on India. Whenever he is not here, he is an optimist about India, but he becomes a pessimist as soon as he lands here. An acclaimed authority on public finance in Asia, Lingle predicted the Asean financial crisis of the late 1990s. As

“Absence of audit plagues e-waste management in India”

Diversified A2Z group in collaboration with UK-based e-waste management company Dataserv recently announced a joint venture A2Z Dataserv to provide e-waste recycling services in India. Its managing director, Amit Sardana, in conversation with Brajesh Kumar touches upon a number of issues including how his company offers its clients a complete solution in the field of e-waste management, its ass

“India is not stealing water”

Water is the driving force of all nature, said Leonardo da Vinci. But in case of the strained India-Pakistan ties, the exact opposite is true: it has been the stalling force. With a cloud of distrust always hovering above, even the best intentions have been misconstrued and hostilities alleged. Take the case of Tulbul navigation project (what Pakistan refers to as the Wullar barrage).

“e-Office rollout will be fast”

Ramesh Chandra Misra, an IAS officer (Odisha cadre, 1976 batch), is secretary with the department of administrative reforms and public grievances (DARPG). He has worked with the ministries of culture, information and broadcasting and information technology. In an interview with Samir Sachdeva, Misra discusses administrative reforms and e-governance implementation across the country. Edited exce

“Business correspondent is the most important link”

After 100 years of existence, a bank does not remain just a bank. Please tell us about the bank’s mission, vision and where you have reached so far. Central Bank of India was a national bank born  purely out of the Swadeshi movement in 1911. At that time all banks were supported by English or European banks. Our founder, Sir Sorabji Pochkhanwala, a chartered accountant working

“Govt is the biggest customer for business analytics”

SAS India, the India arm of the largest privately held software company with focus on business analytics and business intelligence, considers dealing with the government as the biggest challenge in the analytics business. Ironically, the government is its biggest customer. Sudipta K Sen, CEO & MD, SAS India, in an interview with Shubham Batra discusses recent projects and future plans of th

“Indian foreign policy is behaving the American way”

Ayesha Siddiqa was the first Pakistani woman to work as director of naval research with Pakistan Navy. After serving 11 years as a civil servant, she worked for 11 years before making headway into academics where her expertise in military technology, defence decision-making, nuclear deterrence, arms procurement/production and civil-military relations in South Asia is now most sought after.

“Growing middle class is the most exciting social transformation”

Tom Palmer, a senior fellow at the Washington based think-tank Cato Institute, first heard of India when he was a kid. Whenever he refused to eat, her mother would say, “Eat your food, there are children starving in India.” Times have of course changed since. During his many visits in recent years Palmer has had to look hard to find the India of his mother’s description. He wa

Visionary Talk: Amitabh Gupta, Pune Police Commissioner with Kailashnath Adhikari, MD, Governance Now


Archives

Current Issue

Opinion

Facebook Twitter Google Plus Linkedin Subscribe Newsletter

Twitter