Postscript

Protect media freedom

Love of luxury and ostentation in a country where nearly a billion citizens struggle for two square meals per day eking out nasty, brutish and too long lives, often — perhaps not often enough — leads to downfall.

The precipitate fall of KC Chandrasekar Rao, who successfully carved Telangana out from the composite state of Andhra […]

History apathy

A crass remark or provocative statement can change the outcome of a general election. In 2014, Congress worthy Mani Shankar Aiyar’s too clever by half witticism that Narendra Modi, the son of an OBC tea vendor at a railway station who had worked his way up the social and political ladder and served three successful […]

Don’t blame capitalism

Ex facie it is shocking and a severe indictment of free market capitalism. A thin upper crust of 1 percent wealthiest Indians cornered 22.6 percent of national income in 2022. Income inequality was never so great in the good ole days. In 1951, the top 1 percent bagged 11.5; in 1980, the heyday of neta-babu […]

Inglish hypocrisy

The dawn of the Internet Age and spread of OTT cinema is one of the positive outcomes of the digital revolution. It has radically transformed Indian cinema and movies, and freed the intelligentsia interested in this story-telling medium from having to compulsorily watch Hollywood and esoteric European cinema, depicting narratives of alien societies and contexts. […]

Public sector oppression

There’s something rotten in India’s public sector enterprises (PSEs). Although by definition they are owned by the public and all citizens are shareholders, in reality they are the private sector of commissions-hungry politicians and bureaucrats, and those who work in the 256 Central PSEs and an equivalent number owned by state governments.

Failure to deliver promised […]

Resurgent ethnicity confidence

Green shoots indicate that Indians, who had to endure the rule of pale-skinned foreigners for 500 years, are recovering their self-confidence and ethnic pride. According to a Nielsen IQ 2023 market research study, volume sales of ‘fairness’ creams have declined for the first year ever.

Brainwashed for centuries by light-complexioned invaders including unprepossessing Brits that their […]

Self-destruct government

The Congress government of Karnataka which was unexpectedly elected to power in the state legislative assembly election of 2023, is destroying the future of this high-potential state (pop. 67 million) by populist pandering. As soon as it was sworn into power last summer, it set about fulfilling five promises it had somewhat recklessly announced in […]

Remembering Palkhivala

The passing of senior Supreme Court lawyer Fali Nariman on February 21 provoked fulsome tributes paid to him by the Chief Justice of India, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and several eminent commentators in the media and society. This also brings to mind another extraordinary now forgotten counsel of the Bombay Bar — Nani Palkhivala — […]

Advice to Adani

Seems like billionaire infrastructure to consumer products tycoon Gautam Adani heeded repeated EW advice to mount a counter-offensive to the Hindenburg Research report of January 24, 2023 which plunged the market cap of Adani Group companies listed on the National Stock Exchange from Rs.192 lakh crore on January 24 to Rs.68 lakh crore on […]

Bad ad for Raymond Man

Although the media has adopted a neutral position on the issue of the widely reported divorce drama between Gautam Singhania, big boss of the Mumbai-based Raymond Ltd — billed as the world’s largest men’s suiting manufacturer — and his wife of 32 years Nawaz Mody, there’s undoubtedly a nasty streak in this textiles tycoon who […]

Ram Rajya Paradox

Undoubtedly after consecration of the resplendent new Ram Temple in Ayodhya preceded by inauguration of the new Parliament building in Delhi and several high-profile infrastructure projects all over the country, 21st century India is experiencing a long overdue renaissance. Prime Minister Narendra Modi believes that with the Ram Temple constructed in Ayodhya the nation […]

Dynasty fatigue

Some people never learn. Despite the Congress party — and certainly the economy, if not country — having been destroyed by the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty which on and off ruled over post-independence India for half a century before being sentenced to the doghouse of Indian politics, there is no shortage of politicians intent upon thrusting greatness […]

Trojan horse

There’s something rotten about Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar who under one stratagem or another has ruled India’s poorest and most illiterate state for 17 years. Even as the coalition of opposition parties grouped under the INDIA alliance are engineering an electoral strategy to field a common candidate in every constituency to ensure that the […]

Rising contempt

The quick suspension of 143 opposition Members of Parliament for the last four days of the Winter session of Parliament — including 45 from the Rajya Sabha, the upper House of Elders — doesn’t bode well for Indian democracy. During the four days when the opposition benches were depleted to a mere 38 MPs, the […]

Prophecy foretold

A glaring blindspot of the much-heralded National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 is the large number of supervisory and regulation committees it prescribes. Based on the recommendations of the nine-member Dr. K. Kasturirangan Committee which submitted a 484-page report to the BJP government at the Centre in 2019, the report was distilled into the 66-page NEP […]

Belated response

Ever since January when the damning report of the US-based Hindenberg Research — a self-confessed short-seller firm in stock markets around the world — was published, prices of the equity shares of Adani Group companies listed in the National and Bombay Stock exchanges, have plummeted and continue to search new lows. The Hindenberg Report alleged […]

Nationalisation fallout

One of the biggest disappointments of the purportedly pro-business and private sector BJP which is set to complete its second term in office, is its failure to privatise India’s 28 public sector banks, foolishly nationalised by then prime minister Indira Gandhi in 1969. Since then over the past half century, nationalised banks managed by risk-averse […]

EWISRA blues

Staged in grand style on October 13-14 in New Delhi’s J.W. Marriott Hotel, the EducationWorld India School Rankings (EWISR) 2023-24 Awards Nite — proclaimed as the greatest education felicitation and celebrations show on earth — has come and gone. The two-day event attracted over 2,000 leaders (and their uninvited guests who blew the budget) […]

Unrepentant baba log

Some people never learn. Instead of being repentant that the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty which led post-independence India down the socialist road that bankrupted the country destroying the modest material aspirations of one — perhaps two — generations, Rahul Gandhi, the latest scion of the dynasty, seems determined to use the wrecking ball to destroy Gautam Adani, […]

Beyond Bridgerton

The appointment of Rishi Sunak as prime minister of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and his durability in office for over a year, is a reality way beyond the imagination of the most inventive writers of the fantasy television serial, Bridgerton. This popular sitcom set in the 19th century which was a big hit in […]

Sea of troubles

One can’t help feeling sorry for the trustees of Ashoka University (AU), Sonipat (Haryana) India’s first crowd-funded university established at vast expense (estimated at Rs.2,000 crore) with successful members of the Indian diaspora mainly in the US chipping in Rs.5-25 crore each.

Ashoka U generated great excitement within the country’s expanding middle class when it was […]

Respect MSMEs

The loud forecasts of prime minister Modi that India is all set to become a major 21st century superpower are likely to prove illusionary unless the country beefs up — sorry, politically incorrect — improves its manufacturing sector. Currently, manufacturing contributes a mere 15 percent of annual GDP with services contributing over 55 percent and […]

Curious reluctance

With assembly elections looming in several states including Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Telangana, the minute one switches on the idiot box these days or flees to a magazine, one is assaulted with blaring state government ads and splashes of Prime Minister Modi inaugurating mega projects in Uttar Pradesh or another BJP ruled state. And […]

History agnostic leadership

Evidently the top leadership of the BJP/NDA government at the Centre doesn’t comprise students of history. If it did the BJP would cease and desist from brazen attempts to ram Hindi — the lingua franca of the most economically backward and lawless states of India — down the reluctant throats of hundreds of millions of […]

Short-changed spectators

Financially, Indian cricket — and cricketers — have never had it so good. In the past quinquennium, BCCI (Board of Control for Cricket in India) has earned a revenue of Rs.27,400 crore, transforming into one of the richest sports governance bodies worldwide, rivalling NBA, USA and the English and European Football leagues. Last year, it […]

Gift horse examination

That the left hand of the gargantuan 18 million strong neta-babu brotherhood that micro-manages the country through thousands of superfluous laws, rules and regulations, doesn’t know what the right hand is doing, is hardly a national secret. A case in point is schizophrenia about foreign investment in the Indian economy required to increase the number […]

High-flying gougers

Although they are an unmitigated blessing which have reduced long-winded train journeys to a sepia memory, there’s something wrong about the hyper-commercialism of the men (in the words of a learned judge, the word embraces women) who run India’s airlines. The pejorative “price gouging” doesn’t seem to be part of their vocabularies. Recently when the […]

Under-valued professionals

Among the most dedicated, but also under-appreciated professionals are Indian hospital nurses. Perhaps for reasons connected with the country’s obnoxious caste system, these silent professionals are not accorded the social respect that they are given in enlightened countries globally. They are also pathetically under-paid. Some five years ago, when I was felled by one of […]

Overhyped wizards

The imminent collapse of the Bangalore-based edtech start-up Think & Learn Pvt. Ltd aka Byju’s, makes one wonder about India’s talking-heads stock market and financial experts who drove up the sky-high valuation of this online tutoring company which rose to $22 billion (Rs.1.8 lakh crore) at its peak in 2020. Common sense and logic should […]

Fear, not love

Although Prime Minister Modi gave a good account of himself in his recent state visit to the US and perhaps even charmed President Biden and the general populace, Modi bhakts should resist the temptation to interpret this bonhomie as blanket endorsement of BJP rule over India during the past decade. That the word ‘democracy’ was […]

Capitalism works

The reason why India’s landmark economic liberalisation and deregulation initiative of 1991 has not delivered double digit rates of annual economic growth it should have during two decades past, is because closet commies and bolshies within the Academy are not yet convinced that capitalism aka free markets, is the best prescription for rapid economic growth. […]

Disappointment twice over

News that HDFC Bank and HDFC (Housing Development Corporation) Holdings have merged to form HDFC Bank, the fourth largest lender in the world by market cap, is a great leap forward for an economy whose housing stock is arguably the worst worldwide. Over 80 percent of the country’s 260 million households live in dilapidated homes […]

Blanket silence

According to top brass of the State Bank of India, May 15 was a red letter day for the bank and the country. Full front-page ads splashed in the Times of India and several other dailies informed the long-suffering public of the silver jubilee (25th anniversary) of SBI credit cards. For your editor, it was […]

Last tycoon

The death in London on May 17 of Srichand Parmanand Hinduja at age 87 received grudging paragraphs and cursory coverage in the Indian print and television media, given to saturation coverage when politicians and movie stars with relatively modest achievements go the way of all flesh.

The seeds of the global Hinduja family were laid by […]

Arbitrary ceiling

The Adani case gets curious and curiouser. Now that the Supreme Court has absolved SEBI (Securities & Exchange Board of India) of any lapses in investigating whether there was any truth in the Hindenburg Report of January which accused infrastructure — airports, marine ports, cement, grain silos and edible oils, media — developer Gautam Adani […]

Better be close

Aspiring prime minister Rahul Gandhi often asks why business tycoon Gautam Adani is so “close” to prime minister Narendra Modi. A better question would be: can any industrialist or businessman afford not to be on the right side of any politician, especially the prime minister.

The plain truth is Rahul’s great grandfather Jawaharlal Nehru, a professed […]

Musical chairs

A merry game of musical chairs is being played in the country’s top-ranked schools. In wake of the belated liberalisation of Indian education, including the K-12 sector, global multinational school chains entering the moribund education sector and greenfield schools springing up everyday, principals/headmasters and well-qualified, competent subject teachers have become hot property. Therefore, the scramble […]

Who’s the loser?

Hardly two months have elapsed since the Hindenburg Report of a shady outfit of confessed short-sellers with no fixed address and five ‘researchers’ on their payroll, wiped out a staggering Rs.9 lakh crore of the market value of Ahmedabad-based coal, ports, green energy, grain silos and airports tycoon Gautam Adani on the Indian stock market. […]

New lumpen bourgeoisie

That India is ranked #80 out of 150 countries on the Berlin-based Transparency International’s Corruption Index 2022, well below Botswana, Chile, Taiwan and Cabo Verde, doesn’t seem to bother India’s politicians and middle class — “we are like that only” — who love to proclaim India’s greatness from every available roof-top. Yet for man’s sheer […]

Inflection point? Nah

All of India has gone gaga over two Indian productions — knockout song Naatu Naatu from the blockbuster hit RRR and documentary short film The Elephant Whisperers — winning top honours at the 95th Oscar Academy Awards held recently in Los Angeles. However, it’s pertinent to note that but for OTT (over-the-top) major Netflix co-producing […]