TRENDS
Unending agony of the Indian football fan
India is a lowly 106 on FIFA’s ranking of countries. At a time when sports in India has been going through a purple patch, football has been the one sore spot.
BUSINESS
Indian regulators finally start to regulate
After years of being pilloried for being soft on the firms they have oversight over, the central bank and the markets regulator, it seems, have decided to intervene before another major scam causes systemic damage of the kind that we have seen in the past with IL&FS and DHFL.
TRENDS
Kolkata's Ho Chi Minh Sarani, Delhi's Janpath: why India renames its streets
The renaming bug has indeed spoilt many wonderful streets in the popular consciousness.
BUSINESS
Is Facebook too big to change?
Public outcry, critical review, regulatory censure, even steep fines, nothing seems to be able to turn the Facebook juggernaut from the path it has chosen
BUSINESS
In Zee saga, shareholders are reduced to bit players
This strange battle for control is increasingly taking on the curious narrative of pitting the company’s management against its own shareholders
TRENDS
When economists’ numbers don’t add up
Forecasts are the bread and butter of economists, the kind of thing they do in their sleep. Indeed in hindsight, many recent forecasts appear to have been made while they were grabbing a few precious winks.
BUSINESS
Air India may be Tata’s only chance for success in aviation business
It is in getting the product and its positioning right that the new owners will face their biggest challenge.
BUSINESS
Markets can be cruel: The key lesson from the Zee episode
If Zee’s promoters had not pledged their stake to fund their investments into unrelated businesses, they would not be in this position today
TRENDS
Should Tom Peters write his memoir?
The truly moving memoirs, the ones that inspire, frustrate, amuse or depress us, are few simply because they call for a very high degree of honesty and detachment.
BUSINESS
IT market leaders help disrupt industries, but highly resilient themselves
Low debt and exposure to other industries allow big tech companies to sense changes in the environment much faster than others
TRENDS
Online isn’t the answer to lost schooling
Exacerbation of the digital divide is one of the downsides of online learning in a country like India.
BUSINESS
The confusing position of the chairman emeritus
Investors don't mind retiring promoters staying on as a chairman emeritus but are drawing the line at paying hefty fees for an extra-constitutional position
TRENDS
How Coronasomnia disrupted our sleep
A 2021 survey showed that Indian adults experienced new sleep challenges like difficulty falling asleep (37 percent), difficulty staying asleep (27 percent), and waking up during the night (39 percent).
BUSINESS
Opinion | As investors fight back, Indian promoters are feeling the heat
Large shareholders seeking greater accountability from promoters and the management of their investee companies and not loath to eject them from their positions in case they don’t see commensurate returns on their investments
BUSINESS
Ford's exit, while inevitable, denies India access to its future auto technologies
Ford's exit is a loss for India, not in terms of its past performance but in terms of its promise. As we move into the era of smart vehicles and clean energy, India needs the technologies to power the new generation of vehicles
TRENDS
Speech to text isn’t the answer to writing the next 'War and Peace'
The speech recognition software has to reckon with the accent, the pitch, the speed with which we speak, the lilt and the pauses or their absence. The garbled end result is understandable.
BUSINESS
India’s top executives face shareholder scrutiny over their salaries
With salary cuts and layoffs becoming the order of the day across Corporate India, the inequity and injustice of well-heeled executives trying to push through enhanced packages for themselves even as their companies posted declining sales and profits has brought the issue to a boil
TRENDS
Our political leaders don’t believe in work-life balance
Forget vacations, India’s politicians don’t even take an evening off.
BUSINESS
Drones get a major policy boost in India
Drone usage in areas like mining, construction, film making, commercial delivery, mapping and search & rescue, could potentially alter entire industries ranging from agriculture to logistics
TRENDS
India has no time for its elderly
With hardly any social security net to take care of India's 60+ population, it is building up to a crisis of monumental proportions.
BUSINESS
Needed, a plan to handle ripple effects of electric vehicle boom
When the inflection point arrives in terms of pricing, the switch to EVs at the expense of conventional vehicles will be dramatic
TRENDS
Meditation goes official as RBI stamps its approval
Meditation is like a spritzy cooler when you step off the rollercoaster and literally catch your breath with a quick cleanse of the million things that prick your mind at all times.
BUSINESS
Can Akasa learn from the mistakes of airline pioneers in India?
Akasa has a solid team and has large investors backing it. However, aviation is not an easy business. History is replete with crashes of many Indian airlines with similar pedigree and ambition
TRENDS
Test cricket has become an anachronism, old chap
Let’s face it, test cricket has become an anachronism, a relic of the past preserved precisely because it is a slice of history and needs to be preserved.
