'The heat shield technology for re-entry vehicles was first mastered in DRDO for the Agni missile.' 'This is why the Americans were so opposed to Agni in the 1980s, unlike other missiles -- it was a re-entry vehicle.'
How the UN's flagship climate summit lost its direction and what's at stake.
Though Nobel Prize nominations have been a secret for 50 years, speculation abounds over the contenders for this year's prize in economics.
Former Reserve Bank of India governor Dr Raghuram Rajan -- the Katherine Dusak Miller Distinguished Service Professor of Finance at the University of Chicago -- walked with Congress leader Rahul Gandhi during the Bharat Jodo Yatra in Sawai Madhopur, Rajasthan, on Wednesday, December 14, 2022.
Rediff.com spoke to Raghuram Rajan about his book, what enthuses him about the Indian economy, and what are the concerns he has with India's chaotic progress . . .
Giving details of Rajan's 'course schedule' for 2016-17, Chicago Booth School said this course will explore the challenges of corporate finance and investment in a more integrated global economy.
Indian economy, dubbed the fastest growing major economy in the world, is faced with the single most important pressure point of job creation, says former RBI Governor Raghuram G Ranjan as he makes a strong case for improvement of human capital through skill development. Talking about the book 'Breaking the mould: Reimagining India's economic future', written jointly by him and Rohit Lamba, assistant professor of economics at Pennsylvania State University, Rajan said one of the greatest strength of India is its human capital of 1.4 billion and the question is "how do you make it strong?" The nation needs to create jobs at every level going along the path of development, said Rajan, presently Katherine Dusak Miller Distinguished Service Professor of Finance at Chicago Booth, USA.
Former RBI governor Raghuram Rajan has asked why SEBI has not yet got to the bottom of ownership of the four Mauritius-based funds who are said to have parked 90 per cent of their $6.9 billion in Adani group stocks, saying does the market regulator need help of investigating agencies for this? The funds -- Elara India Opportunities Fund, Cresta Fund, Albula Investment Fund and APMS Investment Fund -- have been under cloud for last couple of years after allegations that they may be shell companies. They came into focus once again in January when a US short seller alleged that Adani Group used offshore shell companies to inflate stock price.
What stood out in his 15-year journey as a member of the political executive at the Centre was his glowing record as India's most successful and effective finance minister. Both as prime minister and finance minister, he understood the importance of gradualism, except when the economy or the polity was in a crisis.
A top Finance Ministry source, however, said no discussion has taken place in the government so far on whether to extend Rajan's tenure or not.
When asked if he sees himself back in Chicago, he said, "Yeah, Chicago has been kind to me over my history".
Rajan says, this is a time where countries should be focusing on getting the macro stability in order
Sounding a note of caution, former Reserve Bank Governor Raghuram Rajan has said that India is "dangerously close" to the Hindu rate of growth in view of subdued private sector investment, high interest rates and slowing global growth. Rajan said that sequential slowdown in the quarterly growth, as revealed by the latest estimate of national income released by the National Statistical Office (NSO) last month, was worrying. Hindu rate of growth is a term describing low Indian economic growth rates from the 1950s to the 1980s, which averaged around 4 per cent.
Veteran doctor and educationist from Karnataka Belle Monappa Hegde and archaeology legend B B Lal were also given the Padma Vibhushan awards.
Nowadays, our politics is habituated to sitting on a high pedestal, hobnobbing with world leaders, generating impressions of a superpower and returning to earth for the purpose of winning elections. In contrast, the yatra never left earth, observes Shyam G Menon.
"I would hope that the government would very respectfully request him to continue for one term or my preference would be two terms," Narayana Murthy said.
"I think the Governor has been doing a great job for the country and we would certainly see it as a very positive move if he were reappointed," Naushad Forbes, president, CII.
The RBI working group's proposal to allow corporate houses to set up banks is a "bombshell" and at this juncture, it is more important to stick to the tried and tested limits on involvement of business houses in the banking sector, according to an article jointly written by former RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan and ex-Deputy Governor Viral Acharya. They also said that the proposal is "best left on the shelf".
Members of the Vivekananda International Foundation are thrilled that the national security advisor and principal secretary to the prime minister are from its ranks, reports Vicky Nanjappa.
'Welfare schemes are not a necessary evil, they are a necessary good.'
'At this stage, you should distribute money and food.' 'Like you queue up to vote, let people queue up to collect this.' 'This will arrest the decline in demand which will have a multiplier effect on the demand side for the economy as a whole.' 'The government should earmark about 2% of the GDP for this.' 'And this should be the first step to revive the economy.'
There is much work to be done to design a good GST.
'We are going to have a recession this year, maybe next year too...'
The revival of long-term growth is highly dependent on the revival of private investment.
'The autonomy of essential institutions is clearly under question as the Modi government seeks to influence them politically.' 'The credibility of institutions such as the EC, the CBI, the CVC, the UPSC, the RBI, media, and universities, has been compromised,' notes Zoya Hasan, the distinguished political thinker.
India's new policy commission has received a makeover and a dream team has been formed to head the Think Tank, NITI Aayog.
Economist Dale W Jorgenson declares that India is doing "very, very well" and forecasts that India might continue to outrun world economies, including China over the next many years.
There is ample fuel in the computer revolution to do many useful things.
The truth is not that Chandrababu Naidu's centre-right policies led to his defeat but rather almost the reverse: his defeat, and for that matter that of the NDA at the Centre, was widely -- but falsely -- interpreted as a rejection of their economic policies, rather than put down to bad luck and conventional anti-incumbency., say Vivek Dehejia and Rupa Subramanya.
While chips have become ubiquitous, Moore's Law has remained a self-fulfilling prophecy even half a century later. Not bad for an industry where the time scale is not measured in decades and centuries, but in annual quarters, says Shivanand Kanavi.