'When you come through the hassles and struggles of business life, your mind is wired differently.' 'You are more connected to reality,' Akali Dal MP Naresh Gujral tells Rahul Jacob and Archis Mohan
'India, by virtue of its gigantic population and geography, stands at the very front line of this climate catastrophe.' 'But this is a threat that our easily distracted national mind is ill-equipped to think about, let alone plan for,' says Rahul Jacob.
GST, a much needed reform that widens the tax net, promises to strangle many legitimate businesses while they wait for the tax administration and systems to catch up, says Rahul Jacob.
'We are all members of a tennis paradise that this year improbably promises to last forever -- and we owe it in no small part to the two champions' parents,' notes Rahul Jacob.
'Our grandparents' generation knew one another.' 'In our generation, you could go a lifetime without meeting someone from the other country,' British Pakistani novelist Kamila Shamsie tells Rahul Jacob.
Distressing as the first month of the Trump administration -- with its missteps on matters of governance, ethics and protocol -- has been, it has been a comic opera of buffoons by comparison to the horrors that await us, fears Rahul Jacob.
'The American fear of the Chinese military is overblown. The countries that should be concerned are China's neighbours,' Jeffrey Wasserstrom tells Rahul Jacob.
'Despite a quarter century since India began the uphill battle of moving away from its peculiar hybrid of imperial-feudal-socialism, it remains distressingly -- and sometimes reassuringly -- the country I left in 1986,' says Rahul Jacob.
The primary problem is that India's garment factories are too small and they typically have 150 people and about 80 machines.
'Not only are four of the top five fathers, but Federer famously injured a knee, weakened by years of twisting and turning on tennis courts, early this year while giving his elder pair of twins a bath.'
'In one mansion we visited, I was told the doors in the back courtyard had to be kept closed because to have the front and back doors open at the same time would result in Chettiar wealth flowing away,' notes Rahul Jacob after a memorable visit to Karaikudi.
'In contrast to the generally buoyant tone of the Economic Survey in January, he sounds uncharacteristically pessimistic, saying that forces in the world economy -- slowing global trade, protectionism, robots -- will limit India's manufacturing to levels well below what propelled East Asia's economies decades ago.'
On Wednesday, the Chinese authorities extended a ban on sales of shares by large shareholders.
Chinese govt has itself to blame for first trying to slow down the property market and later propping it up.
The two nations share a problem of corporate debt gone bad that is so large and opaque.
GIFT is a financial centre almost entirely devoid of bankers and, indeed, of people.
'Chinese real GDP growth is 7.1% and India's is 7.4%'.
Sadly, for hundreds of millions in India, that inequality from their birth and the utterly inadequate schooling and health care they receive thereafter mean that the lottery is stacked against them.
With a middle class still so small and no apparent leaps in productivity on the farm or in manufacturing on the horizon, India faces its own age of diminished expectations.
IndiGo is arguably more a financial services company than airline.
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Being public sector employees, they still saw no reason to stir themselves unduly.
China's economy is worse than it really is, but then these are emblematic of the baffling self-congratulatory mood that exists in India today.
India must first improve working condition, then it can concentrate on Make in India concept.
Whether India can create labour-intensive factory jobs instead that it needs to put millions to work in the next few years looks very unlikely.
If this Budget was not packaged and sold as a Budget for the poor and for farmers, Narendra Modi would have lost the next election.
The BJP would seem just the sort of party that would embrace Aadhaar. Every other page of its manifesto makes some reference to changing governance in this country. So why is there no discernible difference in the positions of the BJP-led government towards Aadhaar and the dysfunctional approach of Chidambaram under the United Progressive Alliance, asks Rahul Jacob.
PM Modi's China visit may strengthen ties between both the countries.
The agrarian crisis must be met with similarly speedy responses.
To look for lessons from Nehru's life to find a way out of the Congress' quagmire is probably futile, says Rahul Jacob
The Chinese billionaire and founder of Alibaba is said to be planning a significant investment in business to business e-tailing as well as payment services and logistics companies.
China's obsession with exports and electronics assembly can also be attributed to having learned from the Singaporean textbook.
Has Make in India's mascot, the metal lion, begun to rust?
The IMF's predictions for India's near-term growth may seem rosy, but the usual caveats apply - that is, we are apt to under-perform.
India has undermined its own credibility.
The city is becoming more democratic as the past embraces the future says Rahul Jacob.
If Narendra Modi could tame his obsession with the Congress and the Nehru-Gandhi family, Arvind Kejriwal resist polishing his halo and Rahul Gandhi find his voice, we could begin a debate about the future of this country that actually addressed the seriousness of its problems, says Rahul Jacob.
From a ruling party's perspective, the BJP is in a sweet spot; editorial independence and analytical coverage of governance is rapidly declining
The prejudices the Chinese carry with them mean they are not natural global managers.
Rahul is fascinated by history and ancient texts
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