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POLL: Have Tatas, Birlas, Ambanis let India down?
Hell hath no fury than an industrialist scorned. The naming of Kumar Mangalam Birla, the youthful chief of the Aditya Birla group, in the 14th first information report (FIR) filed …
If there’s a traffic jam, it’s most likely cause is…
It’s probably a cruel thing to say, given that Ratan Tata has hung up his gigantic boots and is enjoying the fruits of recruitment. But, surely, it is no exaggeration …
Mukesh Ambani’s salute to the poor & homeless
As if to underline the adage that you should never believe something until it is officially denied, Ratan Tata, the chairman of the eponymous corporate behemoth, has officially denied that …
CHURUMURI POLL: Who is next in 2G arrest list?
Make no mistake, 20 May 2011, is a red-letter day in contemporary Indian politics. A serving politician, the daughter of a mighty regional satrap who is a partner in the …
How does a ‘journalist’ offer a Rs 2 crore bribe?
The stereotypical image of the Indian journalist is of a lean, mean, hungry-looking, bespectacled jholawala, with a bag slung around his scrawny neck. But that’s just for public consumption. In …
From 2G into 3Gs before you can read this line
Ratan Tata, the chairman of the Tata group, a trained pilot like his predecessor J.R.D. Tata, steps into a supersonic McDonnell-Douglas, now Boeing F/A 18 Hornet (above), and sits pillion …
Now, Greenpeace has a question for Ratan Tata
Grandstanding on ethics and principles is a perilous path to take for Indian businessmen—even for a corporate biggie with the kind of image as the House of Tatas. Ratan Tata …
Ratan Tata’s open letter to Rajeev Chandrasekhar
Generally speaking, Indian business is a nice, cosy club of stuffed shirts and suspenders. There are a set of rules and everyone plays along happily. No one ever says anything …
Rajeev Chandrasekhar’s open letter to Ratan Tata
In the kerfuffle over the Niira Radia tapes in the 2g spectrum allocation scam, the sanctimonious outpourings of Ratan Tata have been little short of breathtaking: speaking of a bribe …
Has Ratan Tata ruined the Tata brand image?
Although it has a finger in every pie, the Tata group has enjoyed a sterling reputation as a cut above the rest. Unlike the Ambanis and Birlas and everybody else, …
BARKHA DUTT on the allegations against her
After lying low for a week following the Outlook* and Open magazine cover stories on her conversations with the lobbyist Niira Radia, the NDTV anchor Barkha Dutt has provided her …
Everybody loves a good car, not a good filter
The announcement of the launch of Tata Nano, the small car produced by the Tatas, saw the media falling over itself heralding the arrival of the “People’s Car”. The fact …
Tatas, turtles and Corporate Social Responsibility
The Tata Nano is so yesterday. SHOBHA SARADA VISWANATHAN, in New Delhi, forwards a copy of an advertisement (above) taken out by Greenpeace in the Financial Times, London, and the …
CHURUMURI POLL: Can India survive the Nano?
“The world’s most awaited car launch” is slated for Monday, 23 March 2009. Tata Motors one-lakh-rupee wonder, the Tata Nano, will be unveiled in showrooms across the country for booking, …
Behind two giant personalities, two small cars
Ahead of the “most awaited car launch in the world“, Ahmedabad-based social scientist Shiv Visvanathan spots resemblances between the man behind the Maruti and the man behind the Tata Nano, …
Will you switch off your phone on January 30?
The impromptu endorsement of Narendra Damodar Modi as the Next Prime Minister of India by the chieftains of two major cellphone companies—Anil Ambani of Reliance Communications, and Sunil Mittal of …
When the mind was free and the body was willing
Ratan Tata claims he was inspired to think of the one-lakh-rupee car when he saw a young family trying to brave the rains on a scooter. But can even a …
Who would you like to see on the moon mission?
E.R. RAMACHANDRAN writes: After the exciting launches of Chandrayaan I and II, the government quickly announced the dates for a manned spacecraft to land on the moon in the third …
‘The rising political attraction of street activism’
Nobel laureate Amartya Sen in The Telegraph, Calcutta, on the Singur controversy: “That politics might change over time once the terrible consequences of industrial and economic stagnation are more widely appreciated …
But then T.N. Seetharam just loves the M factor
“Beware of the three Ms: Mamata, Medha, and Mayawati.” —A shareholder’s advice to Ratan Tata at Tata Steel’s annual general meeting in Bombay yesterday True? False? Sexist stereotyping? Also read: …
CHURUMURI POLL: Should Tatas scrap the Nano?
There are two ways of looking at the news coming of Calcutta that Ratan Tata has threatened to pull the Tata Nano project out of Singur if the violence and …
What role should swamijis, religious gurus play?
NIKHIL MORO writes from Mount Pleasant, Michigan: The alleged use of “mine power” by the Bharatiya Janata Party to lure newly elected legislators from the Congress and Janata Dal (Secular) …
Will you pay Rs 120 per day to park your car?
While the auto world goes wah-wah over the Nano and every new car released in the market, neither Ratan Tata nor any “expert” has yet explained how our roads and …
How Nano is different from the software boom
Ajit Balakrishnan, founder of rediff.com, on the Tata Nano: “It is early January here in New York and the weather had no right to be as warm and sunny as …
When an outsider is the only insider who counts
E.R. RAMACHANDRAN writes: Former minister M. Mahadevu and former deputy chief minister Siddaramaiah are busy ‘dropping’ names and slugging it out both literally and vocally. Siddu, after nearly a year …