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Interviews |
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That India isn't moving faster to eliminate hunger is shameful
, Mark lynas, Visiting Research Associate, Oxford University - Business Standard
In the 90s, Mark Lynas was a most vocal critic of genetically modified (GM) technology. An author of books such as High Tide, Six Degrees: Our Future on a Hotter Planet and The God Species, he shocked the world when he later said he was wrong in opposing GM technology. In a lecture at the Oxford Farming Conference earlier this month, he apologised for vandalising field trials of GM crops. |
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I think most would rather have India's problems than the West's
, Anshu Jain, Co-Chief executive, Deutsche Bank - Economic Times
India, staring at the slowest pace of economic expansion in a decade, can afford to lose a few percentage points of growth to greater public activism if the end result is better governance, says Anshu Jain, co-chief executive at Deutsche Bank. |
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Political class has lost all credibility
, Rajnath Singh, BJP President - Mail Today
Cutting the umbilical cord with the past is not going to be easy for the BJP's new president after an intrigue-laden Tuesday. Rajnath Singh, who has worked at both the Centre and state levels, hit the ground running on Wednesday aware that the baggage of his own lacklustre presidency and Gadkari's tumultuous three-year term cannot be ignored.
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Rise, fall, rise and downfall
, Om Prakash Chautala - Indian Express
His crime record shows him as having allegedly smuggled watches as a young man, having been indicted as an accessory to murder, and now as being convicted for corruption. His political career has seen him as Haryana chief minister for varying periods, ranging from a low of five days to a full term of five years, with a five-month debut between the extremes. |
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I loathed India from childhood
, David Headley - Hindu
After a couple of days of interrogating David Headley, Behera thought he had more or less figured him out. He knew that Headley would tell him much of what he knew and had done, primarily because he had a boastful streak in him. All Behera had to do was egg him on. So far, the strategy was working beautifully. |
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Dynastic trend is disturbing
, Marti Subrahmanyam, Professor, Stern School of Business - Economic Times
The atmosphere is not as conducive for high economic growth as it used to be a decade ago. The dynastic culture is harming the nation's fabric and there are no new Infosys or Bharti in sight, says Prof Marti Subrahmanyam, Charles E Merrill Professor of Finance, Economics and International Business in the Stern School of Business at New York University, in an interview with ET. |
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We can't get on a 9% growth path if we dont't align energy prices wit global rates
, Montek Singh Ahluwalia - Business Standard
A month ahead of the Budget proposals, Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia says he wants a widening of the tax base, pushing energy prices to align with global levels and favours denationalising of the coal sector. And, sees nothing wrong in trading of telecom spectrum. He talks on these and other contemporary policy matters with Indivjal Dhasmana & Sanjeeb Mukherjee. |
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A trace of 1975's dynastic politics is still there
, Vinod Mehta - Times of India
Veteran journalist Vinod Mehta's book The Sanjay Story explores a political past — and continuing themes. Speaking with Srijana Mitra Das , Mehta discussed the 1970s` Emergency, dynastic politics, crony capitalism — and Narendra Modi. |
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The underrated Mr Chouhan
, Shivraj Singh Chouhan, CM, MP - Business Standard
Driving through Bhopal on Christmas Eve, a bureaucrat was surprised to find Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan’s home wreathed in fairy lights. “What’s happening?” he asked the driver. “Chief minister saab is hosting a Christmas party for Christians”, came the reply. |
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Know the Marans
, Kalanithi and Dayanidhi Maran - Business Standard
On January 11, SpiceJet put for sale 1 million tickets at Rs 2,013 apiece (all inclusive). The window of discount would stay open for 72 hours, and was meant to attract traffic during the lean season (March to June). On a normal day, the airline would sell up to 45,000 tickets; but on those three days, it sold 700,000 tickets. Such was the rush that travel portals were left gasping for breath. |
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Technology's greatest minds say goodbye to Aaron Swartz
, Aaron Swartz - Mashable
Swartz was nothing short of a prodigy: at the age of 14, he helped develop the Real Simple Syndication (RSS) standard, paving the way to services such as Google Reader. He worked on the Open Library, which has a goal of putting one page online for every book ever published. He founded Infogami, which was eventually incorporated into Reddit before the sale to Conde Nast, a move that gave him the means to detach and take up various causes at his pleasure. |
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A Stalinist rewriting
, MK Azhagiri - Outlook
BETWEEN M.K. Stalin, the political heir to the DMK throne, and Kanimozhi, the cultural heir, is there any room for Union minister and Madurai strongman M.K. Azhagiri in the party hierarchy? After DMK patriarch M. Karunanidhi announced that Stalin would be his successor, in the least equivocating manner that he could afford, it was on every mind: the future tumult awaiting Tamil Nadu politics. |
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India's economic growth is driven by the states
, Laveesh Bhandari, Director, Indicus Analytics - Mint
Laveesh Bhandari, director of economics research firm Indicus Analytics, is co-author of a report titled Economic freedom of the states of India 2012 that was released last week. Using indicators such as the level of interference by the government, legal structure and laws regulating labour and business, the report measures the economic freedom in different states. In an interview, Bhandari spoke on the performance of states and the importance of economic freedom to attract investments and fuel growth. Edited excerpts: |
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A ‘complicated prodigy’, online activist and Internet folk hero
, Aaron Swartz - NYT
Aaron Swartz, a wizardly programmer who as a teenager helped develop code that delivered ever-changing Web content to users and who later became a steadfast crusader to make that information freely available, was found dead on Friday in his New York apartment. An uncle, Michael Wolf, said that Mr. Swartz, 26, had apparently hanged himself, and that a friend of Mr. Swartz’s had discovered the body. |
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Oscar nomination, a high note for Carnatic music
, Bombay Jayashri, Carnatic vocalist - Hindu
Carnatic vocalist Bombay Jayashri who has been nominated for an Oscar along with Mychael Danna in the Original Song” category for “Pi’s Lullaby” — in the film “Life of Pi” — tells K.T. Jagannathan that she hopes this will make more people listen to Carnatic music. Excerpts. |
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Good corporate governance cannot be legislated
, Aswath Damodaran - Mint
What is common between Aswath Damodaran and Forrest Gump, one a widely published professor of finance at the Stern School of Business at New York University and the other a naive, unintelligent fictional hero? Well, both got lucky with investments in shares of Apple Inc. Damodaran bought the shares for around $5 each in 1997, which he describes as an emotional investment, selling them eventually for $600 last year. |
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Cash transfer may hurt girls and kids
, Amartya Sen - Hindu
Eminent economist and Nobel Prize winner Amartya Sen has said the Union government’s cash transfer scheme can be a useful system to supplement other ways of making India a less unequal society, “but it is not a magic bullet, and its pros and cons have to be assessed and scrutinized with an open mind.” |
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I’m not sure if tax on super rich will make sense
, M Govinda Rao, Director NIPFP - Indian Express
A tax on the super rich will not garner additional revenues or improve compliance. The Budget should instead lower the threshold for excise duty and rational rates of the tax, believes NIPFP director M Govinda Rao. In an interview with The Indian Express, Rao, a member of the newly set up 14th Finance Commission said the Budget should reduce the threshold for excise duty from Rs 1.5 crore to Rs 1 crore. |
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Akbaruddin, younger and more agressive of the Owaisis
, Akbaruddin Owaisi - IE
In the years since the All-India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM) was formed, the lines have blurred and it is now the Owaisi family rather than the party itself that is seen as representing Muslims of Hyderabad. And in this transformation, marked by aggressively divisive and communal politics from the Owaisi brothers, it is the younger Akbaruddin who has emerged the more extreme. |
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What’s this rape culture we are living in
, Eve Ensler, American Playwright - Mint
Eve Ensler , American playwright, author of The Vagina Monologues, feminist and founder of the global campaign called One Billion Rising (OBR) against violence inflicted on women and girls, is in India for a series of events around the campaign. |
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The name's Drone, John Drone
, John Brennan - Hindustan Times
John Brennan, a 25-year veteran of the CIA, is closely identified with the killing of Osama bin Laden and the US government's drone programme. He said on Monday that it was a "deep honour" to be nominated. |
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'Put the entrepreneur first’
, Anil Agarwal, Executive Chairman, Vedanta - Indian Express
I am not shy but we are not in that kind of business. When we have to go and raise our money, our equity, we have to be in the public, make sure the public knows. But otherwise, we have no consumer product so we do not have to advertise and talk to the media. |
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Heirs of Mao’s comrades rise as new capitalist nobility
, Clare Wang & others - Bloomberg
Lying in a Beijing military hospital in 1990, General Wang Zhen told a visitor he felt betrayed. Decades after he risked his life fighting for an egalitarian utopia, the ideals he held as one of Communist China’s founding fathers were being undermined by the capitalist ways of his children -- business leaders in finance, aviation and computers. “Turtle eggs,” he said to the visiting well-wisher, using a slang term for bastards. “I don’t acknowledge them as my sons.”
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Art must not be a preserve of the stage
, TM Krishna - Business Line
With Chennai’s music season, the famed Madras Margazhi drawing to a close, popular Carnatic music vocalist T. M. Krishna wants to unwind. And lie low. But that may prove hard for this maverick musician who has been instrumental in quite a few path-breaking initiatives. |
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New banking licences make no sense
, Percy Mistry, Director, J P Morgan Emerging Markets Investment Trust - Business Standard
Former World Bank economist Percy Mistry, who authored a widely acclaimed report on making Mumbai an international financial centre, says state-run financial institutions need drastic changes in their working and the government should draw up a strategy to exit these institutions. Edited execrpts from an interview with Dev Chatterjee & Abhijit Lele. |
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LensOnNews, Opinion
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