By Niloufer Khan / Mumbai
Manju Bhatia, Joint Managing Director of Vasuli Recoveries, talks about setting up an all-women team of recovery agents who extract money the humane way. Many entrepreneurs would tell you that they started small. However, I did start small. After finishing school in 2003, I had to immediately look for a job. I was in Indore, my home town, and worked as a receptionist at a pharmaceutical firm owned by a family friend.
By Dr. Rashmi Sanyal / Delhi
The MERS-CoV virus, closely related to the coronaviruses found in bats, has moved from the Middle East to other parts of the world. The WHO’s Director General calls it her greatest concern. It is a short walk between the parking lot at Mumbai Airport and the Arrivals lounge. Yesterday, at 2 am, it seemed like the thin edge of a Mass Extinction Event.
The whole wedge? Seven billion and counting, desperately short on food and water. Today’s extreme weather is Robert Frost’s clichéd prophecy: fire or ice, take your pick, the world’s going to end anyway.
By M H Ahssan / Hyderabad
The country has seen the graphic visuals and substantial descriptions of the horror after the cloud burst in Uttarakhand. It has also seen the disciplined conduct of the victims who waited in queues to board the Indian Air Force helicopters, perhaps thanks to the presence of the Indian Army.
The verbal and physical scuffle between politicians to corner glory, accuse each of politicising – what else to expect when the media is ready to suck in their comments that they were more important than the rescue and subsequent relief, and play it up – have not been few and far between.
By Reshma Khan / Dubai
Stories about rags to riches are well-documented, and there exists a decent list of people who started with nothing, but with hard work, talent, grit, and of course a bit of luck, managed to rise to the very top ranks. Then there are stories about big business going bust, people who ruled the roost were made redundant one day because of circumstances and bad luck, but there are very few stories that speak of a well-heeled person willingly living the life of somebody on the street, just to experience what it actually is.
One such person dwells in Dubai. His address is one of the most famous in the world – a destination that needs no introduction. Yes, he lives the high life in Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest tower, but what makes him different is that he has recently finished a 30-day stint sharing accommodation with six blue-collared workers of the city in a small one-bedroom shack.
By M H Ahssan / Hyderabad
On the afternoon of 16 June, local resident Manav Bisht watched dozens of constables leaving the paramilitary Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) Academy, which stood between his house in Shakti Vihar, a locality in Uttarakhand’s Srinagar town, and the Alaknanda river that had started swelling from 10 am. The waters threatened to enter the academy building after 5 pm and more jawans were shifted to Pauri, the district headquarters.
SSB IG S Bandhopadhyay was aware of the torrential rainfall up in the hills. There was also the flood warning issued by the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD). As night fell, the Alaknanda breached the meagre embankment and ravaged the academy building. Sometime after midnight, after drowning the 500-metre stretch of the SSB campus, the torrent rose above the 10-feet-high boundary wall on the other side and entered Shakti Vihar.
By Rajdeep Sardesai (Guest Writer)
For the political journalist who thrives on caste arithmetic, Bihar is perhaps the last refuge. Even on a whistle-stop visit to Patna to interview the Bihar chief minister, every conversation veers to the impact of Nitish Kumar’s decision to part ways with the BJP. For the rest of India, the battle maybe couched as a Nitish versus Narendra Modi personality clash; in Bihar, it is seen through the prism of caste. The big question being asked is: can Nitish sustain the social coalition he has so assiduously cultivated in the last decade or will the break-up with the BJP create a new caste and community matrix?
By Nimesh Bhardwaj / Mumbai
Tata Teleservices is going through a churn. The company, which offers mobile telephony under ‘DoCoMo’ brand name, is not only in financial difficulties, it is also faced with a hostile joint venture partner NTT DoCoMo which wants to leave.
Now, Tata Tele has begun facing enough trouble on the employee front too. Telecom industry sources tell us Tata Tele has already let go of about 200 people in the last few months and 800 more employees will be asked to leave to reduce the total headcount by 1,000 this fiscal. They say manpower is being rationalised so that the loss making telco can become EBIDTA positive this fiscal and prevent DoCoMo’s exit.
By M H Ahssan / Hyderabad
After the severe tongue-lashing that the Supreme Court gave the Central Bureau of Investigation last month, noting that the investigating agency was conducting itself like a “caged parrot” that was echoing its master’s sentiments to a nicety, the heat has been on the UPA government, the “master” in this case, to unfetter the bird.
Late on Thursday, ahead of the upcoming hearing in the Supreme Court to determine precisely what the goverrnment has done in the matter, the Cabinet approved a Group of Ministers proposal to give the CBI a lot more freedom, but fell well short of the “autonomy” that critically determines how free and fair the agency’s investigations will be.
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