My uncle had heard that a “miracle” was underway, but he didn’t know how to drive a scooter. I was a teenager, with exams behind me, and a Chetak under me, pressured to cart him under the scorching June sun halfway across city.
Sri Sathya Sai Baba may have been an avatar, a god, a social worker, a healer, an educator and a whole lot of inspiration to millions of devotees in 178 countries — prime ministers, presidents, judges, bureaucrats, cricketers and millions of lay people.
Let the briber giver go scot free, punish the bribe taker. Could this simple model from India’s chief economic adviser and brilliant economist Kaushik Basu end one sort of corruption — harassment bribery? Gautam Chikermane writes.
To me corruption is an emotive issue — my entire being burns with fury when I face it. It is an issue of injustice — it has the potential of turning us into political cynics. It eats into the dignity of an individual — makes him feel less of a man.
Gautam Chikermane writes.
The next time someone seeks your advice on whether to get her daughter married to this man, ask one question: does he come from Jhajjar in Haryana? If the answer is yes, tell him to reject the proposal.
Seeking out the billionaires rode in the Rs. 5.5-crore Maybach in 2004. The Rs. 3.8-crore Bentley followed in 2007. And through a journey that saw Rolls Royce and Porsche (both over Rs. 2 crore) and the biggest of them all - the Rs. 16-crore Bugatti Veyron last year - vroom into India, could the Rs. 2.2-crore Ferrari be left behind? Gautam Chikermane writes
Which is better: market fundamentalism or welfare economics? Which comes first: growth or redistribution? Which is an accurate depiction of economic transactions: efficient markets or behavioural economics? Can there be an economic policy to fight corruption? What is the role of tomorrow's Reserve Bank of India? Can India leverage its knowledge? Gautam Chikermane writes.
When India’s GDP first touched the $1-trillion mark in November 2007, it left most analysts surprised. The India story then was just about beginning to gather momentum. Lost in the deluge of the credit crisis, perhaps, the event passed us by.
Last week, dictatorships in three Islamic nations faced a common global enemy — inflation. With one difference: instead of suffering silently, the people hit the streets — we saw riots in Tunisia, Algeria and Jordan. Gautam Chikermane writes.
As the Group of 20 (G20) summit begins at Seoul today, a warning for Prime Minister Manmohan Singh: don’t let the bibimbap —a delicious South Korean dish I discovered in Seoul last month and found to be the most appetising meal I’ve ever had — distract your attention towards what the country’s President, Lee Myung-bak, has been lately pushing for. Instead, concentrate on the economic crisis that has not yet ended.
What is the link between the controversy rocking Indian Premier League (IPL) cricket and this year's Nobel prize for economics? Plenty, it would seem.
The first time I noticed it was a few months into my first job when I began tracking the financial and equity markets. It’s been many years since, but the psychology of households who are wrongly labelled “small investors” has remained the same.
Climbing the Niyamgiri Hills is a unique experience, most of which does not belong to the realm of logic, rationality — and this column. I thought I would get some insights into the raging controversy and the resultant debates currently on around the area.
Gautam Chikermane writes.
Last week, in the back-to-back swarm of meetings with heads of auto firms, there is one that is still ringing in my mind. Gautam Chikermane elaborates.
By clearing mismanagement charges against National Securities Depository Ltd (NSDL) on February 2, capital markets regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has opened a Pandora’s Box involving conflict of interest in public life, reports Gautam Chikermane.