Archives: All articles - English

Blues legend BB King, who inspired a generation of guitarists from Eric Clapton to Stevie Ray Vaughan, passed away in Las Vegas on Thursday. He was 89. Riley B King, also known as Blues Boy King, best known as BB King, one of the world's greatest — if not the greatest — blues singer and guitar player, is no more. He died in his sleep on Thursday at the age of 89. The great grandson of slaves and having started life as a farm labourer picking cotton in Mississippi, he achieved international fame...

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been, and continues to be, ridiculed by his opponents because of his government's inability to bring black money back to the country. He had repeatedly promised during his election campaign that money illegally held by Indians abroad would be brought back and distributed among the poor. A year in power, in order to convey the impression that he still means business, a law has been enacted which seeks to increase penalties on Indian citizens who have concealed...

In the latest round of tussles between India’s two top English dailies, the Times of India and the Hindustan Times, the two have embarked on a publicity overdrive to prove that each is Numero Uno in the market for English newspapers in Delhi-National Capital Region (NCR). Delhi is the only urban agglomeration on the planet from where as many as sixteen English daily publications are printed and distributed. But the market is highly skewed or oligopolistic because the top two dailies account for...

A year ago, lawyers engaged by the two richest siblings in India, sent notices to me, my co-authors and my associates. It was claimed that we had defamed the Ambani brothers, Mukesh and Anil, in our book Gas Wars: Crony Capitalism and the Ambanis. Over the past 12 months, I have often been asked: “What happened to the case against you?” My standard reaction: “Case? What case?” No legal proceedings Contrary to what some may presume, Khaitan & Co., representing Mukesh Ambani and Reliance...

Why is the long arm of the law as long as it is? Why do the proverbial wheels of justice grind as slowly as they do in India? The phrase “justice delayed is justice denied” has become a well-worn cliché. Why are certain individuals so insensitive to the problems suffered by others? The case concerning Prof. T.J. Joseph, whose right hand was chopped off by a gang of Muslim goons nearly five years ago, has highlighted some of the worst aspects of Kerala society. Yet, it is true that residents of...

Returning to the most recent controversy, the Adani group has been in the news of late after the Australian federal government allowed it to develop what will become that country's biggest (and one of the world's biggest) coal mine, as part of a giant $16 billion (nearly ₹1,00,000 crore) project to build a railway line to export the black mineral from Queensland's Galilee Basin to India and elsewhere through the Great Barrier Reef from an expanded port. The project has been opposed by local...

Has India’s largest bank, the government-controlled State Bank of India (SBI) decided to scrap a memorandum of understanding (MoU) it entered into with one of India’s largest corporate conglomerates led by Gautam Adani? The MoU was to advance a first-of-its-kind loan of US$ one billion or ₹6,200 crore for a controversial coal mining project in Queensland, Australia. One newspaper report suggested that there would be a 'quiet and natural death' of the loan agreement between the SBI and the Adani...

After the Central Bureau of Investigation started inquiring into whether the former chairman of the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority J Hari Narayan favoured Reliance General Insurance Company, the company in the Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group has acknowledged that it had collected an extra Rs 19.25 crore from its policy-holders. The CBI's investigations, which began in September, relate to whether or not the former IRDA chief had misused his discretionary powers more than five years...

The much-quoted sentence, “there are three kinds of lies: lies, damn lies and statistics”, was attributed to the 19th century British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli by American author Mark Twain. Although researchers could never find such a statement in any written work of Disraeli, the sentence gained universal popularity to signify how economists and other number-crunchers use the “persuasive power” of figures to make a political point or debunk an argument, even if the contention rests on...

The term ‘fourth estate’, often used to describe the media, was reportedly coined by the Irish political philosopher Edmund Burke in a debate in the British House of Commons in 1787. Using the term to describe reporters who sat in a gallery, he argued that the press was “far more important” than the three other “estates”, namely, the clergy, the nobility and the commoners. The independence of the media, which is meant to ensure checks and balances in the working of other institutions of the...

It has now become apparent to the Narendra Modi government that the manner in which it sought to amend the law relating to acquisition of land is not politically feasible. There are indications that the government will belatedly compromise instead of standing on prestige. The government is on the defensive on another issue. Despite claims about how more money will now go to the states from the Central government, actual transfers may come down and there would be a curtailment of welfare...

A report of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India on various socio-economic indicators of Gujarat that was tabled in the state assembly on March 31 has highlighted what was common knowledge to many -- which is that the much-talked-about Gujarat Model of Development under the stewardship of Narendra Modi is more hype than substance. With facts and figures, the CAG report has highlighted how Gujarat was far from a role model for states across India, and that the progress made in this...

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal pulled off a David vs Goliath in the capital's much-watched poll, routing the BJP and eliminating Congress. Ten months into the five-year term of India's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, some of the sheen seems to have worn off the new regime in the world's largest democracy. A surprising electoral victory by a young, upstart political party born out of an anti-corruption movement in the country's capital New Delhi...

Media professionals have an important responsibility to society since they are in a position to mould public opinion. But the recent exposures of journalists taking favours from corporate groups have only highlighted once again an old phenomenon in India--codes of conduct are observed in their breach and Chinese walls are usually non-existent in media organisations. Since the 1980s, groups of journalists have tried to straddle the worlds of the media, business and politics, and in the process...

Corporate espionage in India is hardly new. For decades, tycoons have used spies to ferret out information about what is going on behind closed doors in the corridors of power. Access to sensitive information known only to a few powerful politicians and influential bureaucrats is often not just a source of profit but also provides competitive advantage over business rivals. The government is vast and multi-layered — it can be easily compromised by bribing junior officials with relatively small...

Corporate espionage in India is hardly new. For decades, tycoons have used spies to ferret out information about what is going on behind closed doors in the corridors of power. Access to sensitive information known only to a few powerful politicians and influential bureaucrats is often not just a source of profit but also provides competitive advantage over business rivals. The government is vast and multi-layered — it can be easily compromised by bribing junior officials with relatively small...

The Supreme Court of India's decision to scrap Section 66A of the Information Technology Act of 2000 came not a day too soon. The apex court's order not only signifies a big victory for those who have struggled to uphold the right to free expression, which is a fundamental right of every Indian citizen, it has restrained government authorities -- notably the police -- from acting in an arrogant and arbitrary manner against anyone and everyone who 'offends', or does not subscribe to the views of...

The government of the USA is pushing India to revise its existing robust Intellectual Property (IP) framework that effectively protects the national and public interest by balancing the rights of IP owners with their obligation to society. Submitting to the US agenda will adversely impact innovation, production and prices, especially of medicines and medical care. Multinational pharmaceutical companies will reap the benefits of an unfettered run of the Indian market. Indian companies will have...

My problem with Outlook is that I’m addicted to it. And like all addictions which are bad, I develop withdrawal symptoms if I don’t get my weekly fix of left-wing liberalism coupled with large dollops of masala sex and mirchi violence. If one adds to all these mouth-watering ingredients generous doses of conspiracy theory, sensational gossip and eyeball-popping exaggeration, what more can a reader like me want over a weekend to escape from pressing household chores and parental responsibilities...

A legal dispute relating to companies headed by a prominent industrialist close to Prime Minister Narendra Modi has raised an interesting question: Can an Indian company become a shareholder of a foreign company and even offer corporate guarantees abroad without having paid for its shareholding in that foreign company? This question is going to be decided by the Appellate Tribunal for Foreign Exchange (ATFE), New Delhi, in a case relating to the Mumbai-based Welspun group of companies. The case...

Brutally frank about his own follies Vinod Mehta was much more than one of India's greatest journalists. He was one of the most candid and transparent individuals I have ever known, a person who could bare his innermost secrets to the world at large, who could write about a daughter he had but never met, who could confess how his error of editorial judgement cost him his job in the now-defunct Independent newspaper, and how he was humiliated by the late industrialist Lalit Mohan Thapar who owned...

CORPORATE espionage in India is hardly new. It is also common knowledge that the bureaucracy in the country leaks like a sieve. So what is so special about the arrest by the Delhi Police of 14 individuals —including a journalist, an energy consultant, a clutch of corporate executives and a few junior government employees—while investigating the theft of confidential documents from various economic ministries, including the Ministries of Petroleum & Natural Gas, Coal, and Power? The sheer scale...

Finance minister Arun Jaitley’s first full-fledged Union Budget epitomises how optimism can overtake realism. He has tried to answer his government’s critics by promising something or the other to all sections of the population: the poor, the middle classes, the corporate sector, farmers, small businesspersons, the youth and the elderly. The problem in trying to please everyone is that he could end up pleasing no one. How has he been excessively optimistic? He has assumed that inflation in the...

The first full budget presented by India's Finance Minister Arun Jaitley aims at pleasing all Indians, rich, middle-class and poor. It seeks to dispel criticism that Mr Modi's government is pro-big business and favours the affluent who are often accused of evading taxes. While promising to simplify India's complex and convoluted tax structures, the finance minister has laid out a plan to cut corporate tax over the coming years. He has said he will clamp down on the beneficiaries of the country's...

NEW DELHI: The arrest by the Delhi police of a group of individuals accused of illegally obtaining confidential documents from the government of India's Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, has revealed yet again how deep the corrupt nexus between business and politics runs in this country. Among those arrested are an employee of India's largest private corporate entity, Reliance Industries Limited, two so-called consultants, including a journalist, and junior government employees. Who does...

Some financial transactions attract attention because of the scale and nature of the irregularities being brought to light. Others may warrant scrutiny because of the profile of the people involved. The case in this article deserves close examination on both counts. The protagonist of this tale is India’s richest man, Mukesh Ambani, the chairman and managing director of Reliance Industries Limited (RIL), India’s biggest private corporate conglomerate. The supporting character is a former Indian...

The sharp and sudden collapse of international prices of crude oil brings significant short-term gains for the Indian economy. However, in the medium and long run, the fall in oil prices has ramifications that are far from positive for this country. The windfall gains that have accrued will provide temporary relief for finance minister Arun Jaitley and will enable him to meet the fiscal deficit target in the forthcoming Union Budget for 2015-16 that will be presented in late February. However...

Two unconnected developments marked 2014 as a unique year in the history of India’s political economy. The first was the outcome of the 16th general elections, which saw a party win a majority in the Lok Sabha on its own for the first time in three decades. The second was an international phenomenon: the sudden fall in the prices of crude oil which has had an unexpected beneficial impact on the economy. However, beneath the apparently benign surface of the positive developments and the country’s...

While many perceive Atal Behari Vajpayee as among the least controversial of the political leaders who belong to the Bharatiya Janata Party and were part of its earlier avatar, the Bharatiya Jana Sangh, it would be incorrect to state that Vajpayee has never had a taste of controversy since he was initiated into public life while still a student by the senior leader of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, Balasaheb Deoras, in the late-1930s. What is not so well known is that a particular contentious...

Atal Bihari Vajpayee, the first person to become prime minister of India without ever having been a member of the Congress party, has been in the political limelight for most of the past four decades. Though he was a founder member of the Bharatiya Jana Sangh when it was formed in 1951, and a protege of the first president of the Jana Sangh, Dr Shyama Prasad Mookerjee, he was first noticed on the national stage when he got elected to the Lok Sabha in 1957 from Balrampur, having failed in his...

What was unique about him was not just his gritty voice, raspy and rough as gravel. Watching him perform was an unforgettable experience. He would gesticulate with the idiosyncratic intensity of a demented person. His body would move spasmodically. Each yell of his appeared to be ripping apart not only his parched throat but his whole being. In between the screams he spewed out were exquisite strains of sheer melody — therein lay his talent and genius. He didn't compose his own songs. Nor did he...

Given the pathetic state of the Opposition in the country, it is not surprisingly that one discerns the beginning of a trend of political forces opposed to the Bharatiya Janata Party coming together. While there is a certain inevitability about this trend gathering momentum in the coming years, for the time being the BJP can glibly rest assured simply because of the sharp differences that exist between and among major non-BJP political parties. With the BJP becoming the most prominent pole of...

During a discussion on his recently-published book "2014: The Election That Changed India”, senior journalist and television anchor Rajdeep Sardesai was very critical of the working of the Indian media, not only in the run-up to the general election but also because of the unquestioning attitude of many journalists who praise Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The discussion, organised by the book's publisher, Penguin Books India, in collaboration with the Maulana Mohamed Ali 'Jauhar' (MMAJ) Academy...

An unprecedented dispute between India's largest public sector company, the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation, and the country's biggest private company, Reliance Industries Limited, over allegations of theft of natural gas worth nearly $5 billion or Rs 30,000 crore (Rs 300 billion) from the Krishna-Godavari (KG) basin levelled by the former against the latter, is likely to be resolved in coming months. An 'independent' foreign firm will examine the veracity of claims and counter-claims that have...

It’s an all-out war now between Didi and Dada. The chief minister of West Bengal, Mamata Banerjee, had the temerity to question: Who is Amit Shah? The reply came on Sunday, at a public rally in the heart of Kolkata. The president of the Bharatiya Janata Party retorted that he, a small BJP worker, would lead his party to drive the Trinamool Congress out of Bengal. Rhetoric aside, the political tussle between the two portends ill for the state that has seen relatively harmonious Hindu-Muslim...

Prime Minister Narendra Modi may be patting himself on the back because President Barack Obama has agreed to India’s position on food stockholding norms in World Trade Organisation (WTO). However, New Delhi seems to be bending over backwards to accommodate the American government and giant multinational corporations (MNCs) in the pharmaceutical industry, which will work to the detriment of our country’s interests. In less than six months, the Modi government has taken several steps that play...

Book: Off The Record: Untold Stories From a Reporter’s Diary Author: Ajith Pillai Publisher: Hachette Price: Rs 395 Whenever a journalist meets someone who is not part of the media, she or he is invariably accosted and asked to provide tidbits of information that are not supposed to be in the public domain. Journalists are expected to be repositories of facts that they cannot write or speak openly about, vignettes about the foibles and frailties of the high and the mighty, the rich and the...

The room is rather spacious, much bigger than the size of an entire flat occupied by a typical upper middle-class Indian family. Is there something about the biggest room located at the western end of the northern of the two blocks of symmetrical buildings on opposite sides of the great axis of Rajpath that makes its occupants speak more or less the same language irrespective of their political affiliation? After finance minister Arun Jaitley presented his maiden Union Budget on July 10, few had...

As had been anticipated, on October 18, the Cabinet Committee of Economic Affairs chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi decided to decontrol the prices of diesel, the most widely-used petroleum product in the country. Riding on an unexpected fall in world prices of crude oil, the government was able to simultaneously announce a sharp fall in consumer prices of diesel by Rs 3.37 per litre (in Delhi). But the decision to take the price of diesel outside the administrative control of the...

In the picture above, published in the Indian media on 22 May, Narendra Modi is leaving the western state of Gujarat, where he had been chief minister for 12 years, to be sworn in as prime minister of India. As he waves to people seeing him off at the airport in the city of Ahmedabad, the logo of the private aircraft carrying him is clearly visible: Adani. Gautam Adani, 52, one of India's richest men, is a businessman who is not shy of displaying his proximity to India's most powerful person...

The victory of the Bharatiya Janata Party in the Haryana and Maharashtra Assembly elections indicates that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his trusted lieutenant, party president Amit Shah, will now move full steam ahead to marginalise regional political parties while seeking to establish the party’s presence across all parts of the country. On his way towards a Congress-mukt Bharat, Mr Modi has set his sights on making the BJP the tallest pole in the polity for some time to come. His task has...

How did Vinod Rai metamorphose from just another nondescript bureaucrat, albeit an upright one, to a crusader against corruption who acquired iconic status? One reason is related to the fact that he became a constitutional authority, the Comptroller and Auditor General of India. T.N. Seshan, who was reportedly a pliant bureaucrat, starting roaring like a lion after he became the head of the Election Commission. Mr Rai’s present persona is a product of circumstances, a consequence of the...

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has started a preliminary enquiry into allegations that the former chairman of the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (Irda), J Hari Narayan unduly favoured Reliance General Insurance Company more than five years ago. The investigating agency is inquiring into whether there was any mala fide intent in a decision taken in July 2009 by Narayan to reduce from Rs 17,500 crore to Rs 20 lakh the potential penalty that could have been levied on the...

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has started a preliminary enquiry into allegations that the former chairman of the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (Irda), J Hari Narayan unduly favoured Reliance General Insurance Company more than five years ago. The investigating agency is inquiring into whether there was any mala fide intent in a decision taken in July 2009 by Narayan to reduce from Rs 17,500 crore to Rs 20 lakh the potential penalty that could have been levied on the...

The September 24 decision of the Supreme Court of India to cancel the allotments of all but four out of the 218 coal blocks that had been granted by the Union government between 1993 and 2010, mainly to private companies, will have far-reaching consequences for the Indian economy. While it cannot be doubted that there could be some short-term glitches in the supplies of domestically-mined coal which, in turn, could increase imports of coal if electricity generation is not to be adversely...

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is making waves meeting the high and mighty from across the planet. But back at home, many in the party to which he belongs and which is headed by his confidante Amit Shah is no longer exuding the confidence they had even three months ago because of the unexpected outcome of the by-elections in different states. Indians want to hold their heads high in the comity of nations. But in a country where at least one out of four individuals is desperately poor and large...

The Polyester Prince is the title of a biography of Dhirubhai Ambani, founder of the Reliance group of companies, India’s biggest private corporate conglomerate, written by Australian journalist Hamish McDonald in 1998. Among other things, the book highlighted how, during the 1980s, the government changed rules relating to imports of raw materials used in the manufacture of polyester fibre to help the group at the expense of its competitors. Dhirubhai’s arch-rival used to be Nusli Wadia, who...

On August 15, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana, a financial inclusion scheme that will ensure that at least one member of each and every family in India not only has a bank account with a debit card, but is also provided an overdraft facility of Rs 5,000, a life insurance policy of Rs 30,000 and accident insurance cover of Rs 1,00,000. On August 28, the day the scheme was launched, the government announced that 15 million new bank accounts had been opened...

On August 15, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY), a financial inclusion scheme that will ensure that at least one member of each and every family in India not only has a bank account with a debit card, but is also provided an overdraft facility of Rs5,000, a life insurance policy of Rs30,000 and accident insurance cover of Rs1,00,000. On August 28, the day the scheme was launched, the government announced that 15 million new bank accounts had been...

Given the strong language used by the Chief Justice of India Rajendra Mal Lodha in his August 25 judgment on the coal blocks allotment scandal, popularly called Coalgate, few will be surprised if many of the 218 blocks allotted in an illegal manner are soon cancelled. Whereas this may cause a temporary disruption in the working of critical infrastructure sectors of the Indian economy, it will also send out a powerful signal to politicians and their cronies from the world of business that the...