Google Chief Executive Sundar Pichai has some straightforward life advice for students at his alma mater: loosen up and have some fun. The India-born Mr. Pichai, speaking Thursday at the elite Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur outside Kolkata, told university students who asked how they could emulate his success to pursue their passions, take risks, and be creative. That is unconventional advice in a country where parents […]
India is headed for a long and critical election season that will span five states, just as many weeks and 160 million voters. The polls will be seen as a test of whether the appeal of Prime Minister Narendra Modi–who won a landslide election in 2014–endures after his move to remove 86% of bank notes from circulation led to a severe cash shortage. The first ballot will […]
In one of the first signs that India’s crackdown on tax evaders is helping swell the government’s coffers, it this week lowered its borrowing plan by 4.2%. The government says it now plans to reduce the amount it borrows by 180 billion rupees ($2.64 billion). It had budgeted to borrow a net 4.25 trillion rupees in the current financial year. The Reserve Bank of India, which acts […]
PICKS are stories from many sources, selected by our editors or recommended by our readers because they are important, surprising, troubling, enlightening, inspiring, or amusing. They appear on our site and in our daily newsletter. Please send suggested articles, videos, podcasts, etc. to [email protected]. Western Economist Fingers Russia as “Panama Papers” Source (Gerry) The hackers who released the huge cache of files known as the Panama Papers […]
Google has rolled out carrier billing option to two of India’s largest telecom operators, making it easier for more Indians to purchase apps, music and other items from marque Google Play Store. Users on Airtel and Vodafone, two carriers with over 460 million subscribers between them, can now pay for their purchases on Google Play using credit on their mobile phone. The company had told developers about […]
India’s stock market lagged behind most of its emerging-market peers in 2016. The benchmark S&P BSE Sensex ended up just 1.9% at the close of a year that analysts said was difficult for making money. This year’s prospects look just as challenging, with factors from the cash crunch to a stronger dollar looking likely to decide the fate of shares. Here are five things that will shape […]
Days after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi unleashed chaos in the country by announcing the immediate withdrawal of the country’s largest notes, he made an emotional plea to his countrymen to give him 50 days. Before the end of the year, Mr. Modi said in a Nov. 14 speech, the benefits of ridding India of cash would be visible. That deadline expires today. Since then, images of […]
Dec 30, 2016 11:20 am IST From an incarcerated pigeon to luxury car owners who have nowhere to drive, here are some interesting articles from India that you could have missed this year. Why the Vast Majority of Women in India Will Never Own a Smartphone Eric Bellman and Aditi Malhotra reported on why technology, promoted as a social equalizer, is having the opposite effect in one […]
India’s former central bank chief Raghuram Rajan was once described as a “rock star” economist but the Reserve Bank of India’s new deputy governor has actually written an album of songs. Viral Acharya, a New York University professor, was on Wednesday named as a deputy governor of the Reserve Bank of India. Not only does Mr. Acharya have an impressive professional and academic record, he is also […]
Two years ago, James Garstang, a brewer at the Kernel Brewery, one of London’s most popular microbreweries, was approached by a friend about an opportunity abroad. “He said: ‘If you are interested in some karma and curry, then I have a potential job for you,’” Mr Garstang recalls. Less than a month later, the Londoner was living and working in Gwalior, a midsized city in India five […]
India’s ongoing war on cash, elections in one of its most populous states and the march of e-commerce firms as they try to harness the country’s cyberspace potential are just some of the developments to watch in the South Asian nation in 2017. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s reputation rests on a number of these things and their outcome will provide hints at whether he can secure re-election […]
Submitted by Mike Krieger via Lberty Blitzkrieg blog, Today’s piece should be seen as a bit of a followup to yesterday’s post, India’s Demonetization Debacle Highlights the Dangers of Monetary Monopoly. While yesterday’s piece was more philosophical/strategic in nature, today’s zeroes in on some of the devastating real world impacts of Narendra Modi’s insane and inhumane cash ban. It’s hard to overstate the damage this policy has done to […]
India’s Parsis are one of the most successful minority and migrant groups in the world. They make up less than 0.005% of India’s population but three out of the country’s top 10 billionaires. They fled Iran and settled in India in the 10th century and have since played an outsized role in the evolution of India’s economy as pioneers of trade and industry. For centuries, prominent Parsis […]
Dec 27, 2016 12:54 pm IST A Mumbai-bound Jet Airways plane carrying 161 people skidded off the runway on Tuesday at Goa’s Dabolim airport in western India. The Boeing 737 aircraft with 154 passengers and 7 crew members on board veered off on the runway minutes before it was scheduled to takeoff early morning from Goa, a popular holiday destination to travel to India’s financial capital Mumbai, […]
Well before India’s surprise ban on using 86 per cent of its cash supply, rightwing circles were abuzz with speculation about prime minister Narendra Modi taking such a step to fight so-called black money. Mainstream economists paid little heed to the chatter — deeming it “too preposterous” to take seriously, given the economic damage it would inflict. But with India now reeling from the acute cash crunch triggered […]
India’s government is making an increasing number of requests for data on Facebook’s users, but the social networking site is blocking less content as a result of fewer requests from authorities in the South Asian nation. According to the social media giant’s most recent report on government requests from January to June 2016, Indian authorities made 6,324 requests for user data from Facebook, 23% more than the […]
India has one of the world’s most lopsided female participation rates in its labor force, an imbalance global chains want to change as they establish foothold in the world’s second-most populous nation. Here is a look at the numbers. (via WSJ)
On April 7, 14 large blue letters quietly disappeared from the outer walls of an office building in an exclusive neighborhood in northern San Salvador. One by one, the letters came down from the blue and beige stucco walls, leaving behind faint traces of the name of the law firm that had been working there just days before: M-O-S-S-A-C-K-F-O-N-S-E-C-A. Employees of the El Salvador branch of Mossack […]
A hundred years ago, an arms race between the dominant global superpower the (British Empire) and a rising power (Kaiser Wilhelm’s Germany) culminated in the mass slaughter of World War One. The deep mistrust between the United States and the People’s Republic of China has all the potential to spawn a traumatic chapter in international relations. Despite its “pivot” to Asia, the Obama White House was cautious […]
After India took the radical step of voiding the majority of its currency overnight to cut corruption and the nation’s reliance on cash, other countries with similar problems have been watching closely. Venezuala already followed suit by taking nearly half its bank notes out of circulation and now some politicians in Pakistan, India’s rival and neighbor, want their country to do the same. The upper house of […]
As Uber Technologies Inc. battles to conquer India’s ride-sharing market, it is aiming to add a million new drivers to its platform, as detailed Thursday in a Wall Street Journal article. The ridesharing industry in the South Asian nation is already worth over a billion dollars a year between Uber and its main rival, Ola, and that figure could more than double in the next three years, according […]
Dec 22, 2016 12:33 pm IST India’s business world has had its share of scandal and success this year and that has been reflected in headlines and during heated discussions on nightly news shows. From Cyrus Mistry’s unceremonious ousting as Tata Sons chairman to Vijay Mallya’s ongoing battle with Indian authorities from the U.K., there has been plenty to write and talk about. To quantify the business […]
This year could go down as the one that turned everything on its head, India’s popular central bank governor Raghuram Rajan was ejected from his post, Prime Minister Narendra Modi voided 86% of the country’s currency overnight and Donald Trump became U.S. president elect. India Real Time’s most-read stories show what readers were looking at as they tried to make sense of it all. Any insight into […]
A unit of UAE-based KEF Holdings has launched a $100 million manufacturing park, spanning one million sq ft, to cater to the infrastructure needs in India and GCC markets. With 10 manufacturing lines featuring the latest technology, KEF Infra One in Krishnagiri, Tamil Nadu in India, promises significant cost and time savings in building hospitals, homes, schools, hotels and specialised infrastructure. Faizal E Kottikollon, founder and chairman, […]
