EVERY open space, especially a vulnerable and precious one, requires a gatekeeper; to keep those corrupt at bay, and people within, alert and free. So should the Fourth Estate, especially in this democracy of ours where it acts as a mouthpiece for million—at least Justice Markandey Katju believes ...
The Good GROUND-BREAKER, CHANGE MAKER
“If life could be divided into chapters the most exciting bit would be launching The Sunday Observer. The idea of a Sunday newspaper was one that no one had attempted before. We had the feeling that we were breaking new ground—exciting! Did we know it would work? Of course not! No editor or prop...
Pranab Mukherjee is UPA’s Presidential candidate
POLITICS \\ Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee was named the UPA’s presidential candidate last month. The 77-year-old veteran politician’s name was announced by Congress president Sonia Gandhi at a meeting of Congress leaders and its partners DMK, RLD, NCP, NC and IUML. The decision came af...
Maria Sharapova, Rafael Nadal are the French Open Champions—2012
SPORTS \\ ‘King of clay’ Rafael Nadal and ‘comeback queen’ Maria Sharapova were crowned the French Open Champions in June. This is Rafael Nadal's seventh French Open title as he defeated the World No. 1 Novak Djokovic 6-4, 6-3, 2-6, 7-5 in a match that lasted for 50 minutes. Maria Sharapova ...
DEMISE// Legend Mehdi Hassan dies: Ghazal maestro who lent his voice to Patta Patta Boota Boota and Kab Ke Bichhare expired in June at the age of 84 due to multiple organ failure. The India-born, Pakistani Ghazal singer had been admitted to the Agha Khan Hospital, Karachi, and was kept on a ventilat...
Nine found dead in Vizag Steel Plant Mishap
MISHAP \\ A major explosion and fire broke out at the state-owned Visakhapatnam Steel Plant killing around 15 people. According to plant sources, the explosion occurred at the oxygen control unit near the steel melting shop at the Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited’s plant. While the cause of the explo...
Vishy Checkmates for the Fifth Time
SPORTS \\ Grandmaster Viswanathan Anand beat challenger Boris Gelfand of Israel in a nail-biting tie-breaker to win the World Chess Championships for the fifth time since 2007. Anand won the second game, and drew the other three, to win the title at the State Tretyakov Gallery. The finale ended 2.5-...
Petrol prices hit a new high, with a hike of `7.50
Citizens feel the heat as the oil hike hits hard POLITICS \\ Petrol prices were increased by `7.50 a litre in May, leading to furore among automibile owners in all metros. The hike was inevitable as the rupee fell a record life low of `56 per dollar in May. State-owned oil companies decided to rais...
The message is there under layers of music, action replays, tears and tense drama”
To you, it could be the ‘idiot box’. But to me, growing up in a village (approximately) four kilometres off the coast of Balasore, Orissa, it was so much more. I first heard of a device called television while I was in school, as we read about it in class; about television’s history, its fir...
Micro-Economies Are Here To Stay
Kickstart your own firm with help from these cool portals Psst—got an idea for a product that you think will change the world? If you’d met me a couple of years ago, I would have introduced you to a couple of VCs or angel investors and wished you luck. Luck that you’d need to convince big in...
Dipak Sanghavi followed his business canny to give a tangy kick to his family firm Founded by my father, Late Suresh Sanghavi, in 1962, Nilon’s has come a long way since its cottage industry days. Today, it is the largest producer and marketer of pickles globally. I believe that I have grown up w...
A closer look at subsidy The Dole or Don’t Debate
The rough meaning of subsidy is ‘money granted by the state or a public body to keep down prices of commodities’. The current Indian debate is not on what subsidy is but on whether we need it at all. The subsidy debate has never been as intense as it is now. A section of Indians blame the Centre...
Political horse-trading or pure dynastic ruling—which is the way to be? I WAS IN LONDON at the beginning of June during the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Celebrations and began to wonder if living in India for 20 years has turned me into a royalist. Isn’t such a system, I thought, better than the ...
Mother NGO offers destitutes a second life with a roof above their heads and a space to call their own Mother NGO for the homeless is not a known name nor does it feature high-profile names on its board. And its cause—providing shelter to destitutes—is not a ‘glamorous’ one either. Shakesp...
A pacy thriller filled with clichés that fizzles out right at the end THERE EXISTS a certain category of books best picked at an airport or a railway station right after the plane or train is delayed. The category can be divided into two subs— breezy romances and pacy thrillers, page-turners t...
Time to Start Thinking: America and the Spectre of Decline
An insightful book on one of the most important countries of the current age FOR SEVEN years Edward Luce has been reporting on the United States for British and global audiences for the Financial Times. His observations have been compiled into a book— Time to Start Thinking: America and the Spec...
Walk through the magnificent Roman Empire and sample a bit of bellissimo—Italian style Should I start my Italian adventure with that connecting flight that I missed in Zurich? After all it would be a perfectly tense and dramatic Bollywood-ishtyle moment to start a story. Also, it was how we—an...
In conversation with thespian, dramatist, director and writer Tom Alter Padma Shree awardee Thomas Beach Alter comes across as a patient man. But he does snap. Especially, if one prods him much on his thoughts on “Bollywood and typecasting”. To him, the phenomenon (if it could be called such) i...