As a journalist, you get to meet a lot of people. And there are some who leave an impression on your mind. Dr Nitish Sengupta, erstwhile chairman of the board of reconstruction for public sector enterprises (BRPSE) who died on Sunday, was one of those in my life. I had just started on the public sector enterprises (PSE/PSU) beat for the magazine in May this year and had no clue
The story goes that free passes for Sachin Tendulkar’s last Ranji match, largesse from Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda to his political clientele, have been freely traded for cash. Some went for Rs 10,000 apiece. Are you surprised therefore that the Lahli stadium emptied no sooner the master took just 7 balls to be bowled by a rookie called Mohit Sharma o
As secretary to the government of Arunachal Pradesh, Gaken Ete is holding charge of two departments: information technology and water resources and development. When he joined as the IT secretary in 2012, Ete meticulously planned the execution of e-governance and telecommunications projects. In the past, the IT department had run into trouble for allocating work of few e-governance projects to
The author is a government officer who prefers to remain anonymous. It is quite amusing to note that on one hand government policies are framed after much deliberation and that too after much passage of time, from the date such an idea emanates in certain minds to the date of issue of such a policy for implementation. On the other hand, after declaration of a polic
Us jaded media consumers can tell from a mile away when a star or star-pair is due to have a film released. As the stars acquiesce to promotional and PR tours, the interviews, general interest, red carpet-sightings, romantic rumours swirl toward a crescendo, and reach an enduring frenzy if the film is a success. So, we knew from afar that ‘Gravity’ was coming. I also began to sen
Tariq Anwar quit the Congress in 1999 to join Sharad Pawar in founding the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP). Today he is the only representative of Bihar in the union council of ministers (he hails from Bihar, though currently he represents Maharashtra in Rajya Sabha). In an exclusive interview with Bhavdeep Kang, Anwar discusses the NCP-Congress ties, the Bihar scenar
Engineering from Mumbai University, MBA in finance from London Business School, corporate honcho in Siemens and Google, and then a straight dive into municipal politics. Now 38, Municipal Corporation of Gurgaon councillor Nisha Singh zooms in on the outsider-turned-insider perspective of politics and tells Srishti Pandey why and how sitting on the cryptic fence is not going to change our lives.
Am I the only one who feels they are overdoing the choreography for the Sachin finale? Like, not only adding pressure on to the man but making his final showing into a kind of a circus? The venue, the hype, the 200th Test record, the suitably arranged home ground choice, the return of the tired Windies – all of it is a bit unfair and not in the finest traditions of the sport. Bet
Talking to large rallies of people with scores of everyday problems, pains and sorrows -- to a farmer, a labourer, an unemployed youth with so many dreams -- is no easy work. It is all the more difficult if you are a descendant of a ruling family whom everyone looks at with awe. Rahul Gandhi is looked at with such awe – when he talks with people in villages and on streets or lifts a load
India has moved two spots up on the global hunger index (GHI) released on Monday worldwide compared to last year’s ranking. The new ranking may cheer Indian policymakers but the problem of a huge chunk of children below the age group of five being malnourished persists. "India and Timor Leste have the highest prevalence of underweight children under five more (which is) than
Growth “wallahs” (the Reserve Bank of India and the finance ministry) routinely underestimate the interlinked role of land, water and housing in development. In the Indian context, these are critical for a long term growth strategy. Our growth czars are disingenuous in routinely deriding the use of equity markets and foreign investment as valid indicators for economic health but are
The National Optical Fibre Network (NOFN) is an attempt to bring broadband connectivity to the remotest corners of the country by connecting 2,50,000 gram panchayats in a network. To oversee the project, a special purpose vehicle, Bharat Broadband Network Limited (BBNL), was created. Under it three agencies, BSNL, Power Grid Corporation of India and Railtel, were chosen as the implementing enti
Disruptive innovation (DI) is a force multiplier in business and technology. Value creation is all about getting there ahead of the competition. DI annihilates the competition, not by doing the same things better but by doing them differently, thereby changing the rules of the game. The recent greats in this line of business are Steve Jobs, Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg. The Mahatma an
There is a lot that Rahul Gandhi, a.k.a. The Prince, is doing right. Despite the cruel, crass hashtag world of social media, where he will continue to be referred to as #Pappu at least in near, foreseeable future, the Congress party vice-president is batting for quite a few things that are righteous, and democratic (read the latest issue of Governance Now for more on “Our insider in the s
The goonda raj, unleashed in Delhi from 1975, pulled the rug from under the principled politics of the previous three decades. Even the followers of Gandhian turned Socialist, JP Narayan and Lohiya succumbed to achieving ends without giving a thought to the means adopted, assiduously emulated and enhanced the bad practices of the sole national party of the times. This has been the leitmotif of
Just 285 km from Kargil, Kupwara was in news over the last two weeks amid a host of other headline-worthy items – Lalu Prasad’s conviction, the battle over and now against Telangana, Rahul Gandhi’s intervention to do away with the ordinance on criminalization of politics, former army chief VK Singh’s claims that the army pays certain Jammu and Kashmir ministers for certa
Elections are round the corner. Babus are petrified of taking decisions. But the government is burning the midnight oil to grant “relief”, under the guise of “protecting consumer interest”, to Reliance, Tata and Adani to compensate for the poor planning and foresight of these companies. The central electricity regulatory commission (CERC) decided in April
Abhayanand, who took over as Bihar police chief in August 2011, has been looking at some out-of-the-box ideas to curb crime, corruption and black money. In an interview with Pankaj Kumar, he explains his theory: if economic crimes are committed for sake of money, and criminals get away with it by exploiting loopholes, then the solution is in making crime unprofitable. He has fo
Why vote? It is not unusual to find this sentiment being expressed. When we use the expression `not unusual`, there is no exaggeration because even for a high voting percentage of 75, one out of every four subscribes to this line of thinking. Of the three who do vote, discounting the ones who vote on caste lines, religious overtures and patriarchal dictates there isn`t much left to be counted a
Citizens of India are losing trust in politicians, and this finding comes at a time crucial assembly elections have been announced and general elections are not far either. India is placed 115th among 148 countries on this count in the Global Competitiveness Report 2013-2014. The report, released by the World Economic Forum (WEF), notes that public trust in politicians has been e
