INTERVIEWS
‘The little guy has never been so safe in the stock market’
More ordinary Indians engage with the stock market than ever before. They are egged on by government policies, influencers on social media and television, bankers acting as agents for funds and the freedom to make instant decisions through apps. Technology makes it super easy now to put savings into shares.
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‘The World Bank-IMF crowd has nothing new to offer India’
Anyone witnessing the presentation of the Union Budget would have noticed how much of an industry-related exercise it is. The government bends over backwards in pleasing corporations. Businessmen flood TV channels, trying to outdo each other in fawning over the finance minister and the prime minister. Since reforms began, India’s
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‘Labour Codes have missed opportunity for real reform’
Relations between employers and workers in India have for the longest time been governed by a bundle of opaque laws. Neither side has benefitted. Both have wished for more rational regulation. Recently, the Narendra Modi government introduced four Labour Codes to simplify things. Investors needed to be reassured that entering
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‘Political intrusions putting public varsities at grave risk’
A robust education system should be the foundation of a rising economy. Children need to get the basics in school and, as young adults, they should leave college with degrees that equip them for the jobs they will do. India struggles on both counts. Now, to improve higher education, the
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‘I have always seen 24 Mantra as a people’s movement’
When Rajashekhar Reddy or Raj Seelam, as he is more widely known, set out to build a business in organic foods, it was with the vision that he could help farmers give up chemical farming and earn more for their produce and also deliver to consumers products that were healthy
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‘Rs 47,000 cr for construction workers lying unspent’
The construction industry is an important driver of the economy. Workers at sites, however, don’t seem to have a share in the prosperity they help generate. Arriving as migrants from rural areas, they cling on to employment in dismal conditions. For want of safety measures, accidents happen all the time.
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‘Judges are neither gods nor lords. It’s just a job’
IT is to the courts that citizens turn when all else fails. The standards of members of the judiciary therefore have a direct bearing on the quality of justice. How judges perform and the seriousness with which they take their role reaffirms the faith people have in democracy. Increasingly, however,
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‘To deal with pandemics, a global effort is important’
Even as a Covid-19 variant makes news in India and some other countries with a spurt in cases, a Pandemic Agreement has been endorsed and adopted by consensus by members of the World Health Organization (WHO). The agreement has taken all of three years to put together because of the
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‘Border villages should be given special insurance’
When the border with Pakistan heated up after the massacre of tourists in Pahalgam, people in villages on the Line of Control (LoC) were badly affected. They have long been accustomed to cross-border exchanges of fire and their lives have always been fraught with risk. But the drones, missiles and
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‘Sourced at Rs 85, we have glasses for everyone’
When The Nudge Institute first took up presbyopia as a public health issue it put out the startling data that millions of Indians have problems with near vision. It reduces the quality of their lives and makes them less capable of work. At that time, we interviewed Amit Gupta, the
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‘High-speed rail should be the big move India makes’
MORE Indians are flying than ever before. But in the process is air travel getting too clunky and burdensome? Perhaps it is time to balance the emphasis on flying with fast and efficient train services over short inter-regional distances. An opportunity beckons in linking up cities big and small and
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‘300 doctors in districts trained as specialists’
When patients in rural areas need specialty medical care, they invariably have to seek it in cities. How then can district hospitals be upgraded to handle such cases? While improving infrastructure is important, it is equally necessary to enable MBBS physicians in rural areas to acquire specialized degrees where they
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‘Science shows a major quake is overdue in the Himalayas’
From imploding glaciers to landslides, floods and torrential downpours, natural disasters have been happening one after the other in the Himalayas in recent times, making life in the mountains seem more vulnerable than ever before. These unsettling episodes have made news by leaving a trail of destruction in their wake.
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‘Solar is now the cheapest power you get in India’
WITH global warming, pollution and wildly unpredictable fossil fuel prices, renewable energy is the answer. India has played a leading role in the International Solar Alliance, but how successful has it been in facing up to the challenge of increasing solar power production capacities and bringing down the cost of
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‘Urban heritage should have wide ownership’
As urbanisation spreads, how can heritage be saved? In the rushed transformation that Indian cities are undergoing can traditional homes, monuments, old engineering, rare water systems be conserved? One such effort in New Delhi has produced outstanding results. Humayun’s Tomb has not just been restored, but now serves as an
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