'When I was young, I used to look around the village we lived in.' 'There was a lack of resources -- no proper health centres and schools.' 'I felt that becoming an IAS officer would help solve those issues.'
The middle class's long push to force the state to retreat from the economy may be reversing, says Ajit Balakrishnan.
Or, what will the Indian policy process allow it to be, says Ajit Balakrishnan.
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Shuddh Desi Romance conveys a simple but underrated philosophy in the most fun way possible.
'Students tell me their parents are fine with them either joining a start up or even starting one. This was not the case 10 years ago.'
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is in Tanzania where he held talks with Tanzanian President John Pombe Joseph Magufuli.
'What's the point in lamenting widespread toxic work culture, and the capitalist system that gives rise to it if there is no alternative?' 'Actually, there is,' says Ashish Sharma.
Successors work hard, and many of them succeed and stay for many years. 'But when they don't it is best to be civil and part ways than seek confrontation which might prove acrimonious and futile.'
'Reflex responses to Dalit student Rohith Vemula's suicide are band aids that stem the current hemorrhage but do precious little to the festering wound beneath,' says Vivek Gumaste.
'Imran Khan might actually get some initial leeway from the generals to pursue better ties with India -- but not beyond a point.'
Public Money, Private Agenda -- The Use and Abuse of MPLADS by A Surya Prakash provides a comprehensive look at the Members of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme, which was launched 20 years ago in 1993. Excerpts from the book.
A group of retired civil servants also called upon the PM to reach out to the families of the victims in Unnao and Kathua and "seek their forgiveness on behalf of all of us".
The data-generation ability of technology can not only provide real-time feedback on its return on investment but also evaluate education programmes.
New ventures are emerging to take the stigma out of this garbage sorting business.
Why are the 'secular' parties silent about the lynchings on our streets? Are they so busy forging political alliances that they ignore the numerous distortions of Constitutional values?
'Our prime minister manifests a vision for India to be great and powerful, but the modernity required -- of thinking, attitudes, behaviour -- seems alien, if not abhorrent, to his constituency and associates,' says Ambassador K Shankar Bajpai.
Private firms' offer to print Aadhaar details on plastic card a breach of law
Had the slain Indian-American engineer stayed in India, he would have earned less but his life might have been spared, Sunanda K Datta-Ray says, pondering the question of where one belongs.
Hours to kill and 'nothingness' to contend are driving many urban, affluent women to depression, finds Anjuli Bhargava.
Creating many more half-decent jobs for the 10 million plus new entrants to the labour force each year must surely constitute the primary development challenge for India today.
Authorities shut down schools and other educational institutions in north Kashmir as a precautionary measure for maintaining law and order.
In an online chat with readers overseas consultant NNS Chandra offered advice.
Constantly evolving rules and anomalies over tax treatment have constrained corporate programmes in the first year that the government's CSR mandate has been in force.
Why Dalit leaders cross over to the BJP
'Is standing in a queue any bigger sacrifice than that of a soldier's family?'
Hong Kong is the world's freest economy according to the Index of Economic Freedom 2015.
'We should build a military with the capability to fight today's war on priority -- balancing it with the requirements of the future,' says Lieutenant General Anil Chait, one of the Indian Army's most cerebral thinkers who recently retired as chief of the Integrated Defence Staff, in his agenda for the new defence minister.
Not only is Modi's India not the shining land of dynamism and prosperity that he promised -- though it may be that, for some people, in a few years from now -- but socially it has the positively regressive tendencies that were entirely predictable.
Addressing the plenary session of the 11th Asia-Europe Meeting Summit here in the Mongolian capital, Vice President Hamid Ansari said, "all our societies today face unprecedented levels of threat from terrorism in all its manifestations. The most recent example is what has happened, most unfortunately in France."
Borrowing from BRICS bank will help India avoid other kinds of politics emanating from the West. Overall, the BRICS institutions will necessarily adopt alternative ways of doing things based on their own cultural and socio economic needs, says M K Venu.
Some questions cited concerns that larger warnings can hurt tobacco farmers and boost illicit trade.
The book Effective People by Dr TV Rao features inspiring examples of success icons from across the world.
Physical security for women, the first step towards getting them into factories and offices, is all but absent in most Indian cities, notes Kanika Datta.
'Parents are like customers and the customer is king.' 'As a result, disciplining by teachers is also frowned upon.' 'One of my teachers gave a student a C in some subject and the father says to me: "I didn't send my son to an expensive school like this for him to get a C!"'
We are all 'Chasing the Monsoon', notes Ajit Balakishnan.
Pravasis have created a great impression among Americans about their maternal country, India, says Dr Joy Cherian, the first Asian American to be appointed to a sub-cabinet level position in the US government.
'I can tell you, Mr Chairman, from personal experience that there is nothing sadder than witnessing a close one, a loved one with mental illness at close quarters.' 'I have lived with a victim of mental illness. Like many in that condition, very often such people are in a state of denial.'
'If unchecked, by 2017, the global volume of discarded e-waste will weigh almost equivalent to 200 Empire State buildings.'
The president outlined the government's agenda in the coming financial year in his customary address to the joint sitting of both the Houses of Parliament.
Stories about the harrowing experiences of young artistes are common lore.
