If you happen to have a fairly large landed property, and haven’t been able to check for sometime what has grown in the northeast corner of your garden, head straight to Google Maps. Chance is you’ll get the latest image of the spot and can bark instructions to your startled estate manager if necessary sitting […]
Getting rich the stock market way
Week before last the looming political storm almost took the market for a ride as the stocks nosedived. I find it fascinating to watch the same analysts fluctuating alternately between optimism and pessimism as the goes on a roller coaster. One cannot blame them because they cannot be seen as singing different tunes when obviously […]
Nuclear deal, and the left conundrum, part 2
In his press declaration this afternoon to announce the decision arrived at earlier in the day by CPM’s central committee, Prakash Karat, the party’s general secretary, sounded reasonable. He said the phrase ‘withdrawal of support’ to the present government was never uttered since the controversy started. Karat also said that let there be a mechanism […]
Nuclear deal, and the left conundrum
If there is one trait the Indian left can be easily identified with, it is anti-Americanism. Those like me who have spent greater part of life in Kolkata would recall the left’s popular slogan, markin sambrajyabad, nipat jak (let the American imperialists perish!) that would rent the air till recent past in any meeting or […]
Millionaires, yet no respite from hard work
How do you think a man with $2 million in bank, living in a fully paid-off $1.3 million villa overlooking the Pacific, and having a net worth of $3.5 million with his wife will be leading his everyday life? Well, if you’re Hal Steger, a Silicon Valley resident, you’ll continue to work hard 12 hours […]
On the holy trail of knowledge
Consider this. A scientist on hearing that the government has decided to increase grants by 50% to those who do research in laboratories is concerned that with increased money researchers would be inclined to spend it outside laboratories, meaning they would have less time on research. See GS Mudur’s article in today’s TT. The argument […]
Cashing in on stock market boom
If you ask me I’d say there are 2 ways to judge where India is heading. I’d rate them as ‘more visible’ and ‘less visible’. More visible are those that are so obvious that you just need to open your eyes to see them. The roads are choc-a-bloc with more and more cars, number of […]
Amartya Sen on industrial Bengal
Prof Amartya Sen has done the ruling Left Front a big favor. In an interview given to Sambit Saha of The Telegraph, he has argued that ‘prohibiting the use of agricultural land for industries is ultimately self-defeating’. [Image source] This is a virtual endorsement of the LF’s pro-industry drive by one of the leading luminaries […]
Topsy-turvy stock market
My nephew, a 20-something professional in interior decoration, is lately enamored with stock investing. Not that he has studied much as to why stocks move either way because he doesn’t need to, for stock investing is not his game as he’s pretty much immersed in his trade in which he has earned good name. But […]
No anonymity for Chinese blogger
If you’re in China and happen to post comments on a blog, be prepared to disclose your identity, which must be your real name as it appears in your whatever identity card you’re carrying. This has become mandatory for some 100,000 websites registered in Xiamen, a Chinese getaway for the wealthy. The reason? Recently, Xiamen’s […]