'This obsession with 'one' is not good for a country like India.'
'The word equity means so much more to the dynamic world India today is in than the word 'socialism'.'
'When I was toying with 10 different ideas, my father was diagnosed with lung fibrosis and his condition deteriorated so badly that we lost him in six months. He was very unsatisfied with the lack of proper diagnosis.' 'It made me think will anyone do a biopsy if there is no symptom? Why is it that we do not have any non-invasive diagnostic method?' 'This idea was the strongest out of the ten, and with Snahlata Singh with her cancer biology background joining me, the idea got a real boost.'
'Ajit Pawar and some other people felt it was better to be supporting the BJP and have a coalition with the BJP than support the Congress.' 'But Sharad Pawar did not want to be a party to this kind of an opportunistic alliance.'
We asked colleagues, present and past, to reflect on a man who has made such a difference to their lives and careers. Here it is then, a rich collection of memories that offer enchanting glimpses of the enigmatic Ajit Balakrishnan.
'...for at least 6 months and give them peace of mind to get back on their feet.' 'Entrepreneurs are suffocating and not able to run their companies peacefully.'
'One thing about ISRO is that all the people who work there are passionate about their work.' 'They did not mind spending day and night over there.' 'Even today it is like that.'
'When I said the Gandhi family had to step aside, it was because we have consistently seen that the public has not accepted them.'
'It will impact the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.'
'The general elections in May 2024 may not have any impact on the Census.'
'I have saved your name on my phone, but I cannot read or pronounce it.' 'I am able to recognise my wife's name today because after seeing it for so long, it has been imprinted in my mind as a picture and not the letters.'
'The finance ministry and the RBI will never admit to the difficulties in the economy because if they do so, it will adversely impact the financial markets, etc.' 'They like to present a rosy picture that everything is fine and under control.'
'We have to think of the repercussions if public sector banks are privatised and if they go to foreign hands.'
'Nobody is talking about the inequality that is going to come.'
'If you look at the entire 60-day period of March and April, you see that temperatures were soaring more than 3.5 degrees Celsius above the maximum temperature.' 'Normally, events like this happen only for a short period.'
'We continue to believe that the global economy will narrowly avoid a recession, despite expecting the US, Canada, and most of Europe to fall into recession at some point over the next year or so.'
'Because of the callous attitude of the railway administration, they don't take care of safety.'
'The Constitution of India is a stumbling block. So, they want a Presidential mode of election.' 'This is the sole purpose of the BJP to go for one nation, one election.'
'If Manipur is divided on ethnic lines, similar demands will come in other states also.'
Arun Kumar is at home after his dramatic escape from violence-hit South Sudan. But he is preparing to return to his business, his life, his 'everything'.
'Laws have been used in a way to serve the needs of the current regime and its authoritarian ideology.'
'The China opportunity, the digital opportunity and the end of geography opportunity are the three pieces of luck India got due to Covid.'
With Pinarayi Vijayan set to be chief minister, what will be the role for party patriarch V S Achuthanandan? And what are the key takeways from the election results in Kerala?
'It has taken 7-and-a-half years for this government to understand the fundamentals of economics.' 'If the prime minister wants to leave an imprint, he has to see to it that this succeeds.'
'Industry realises we cannot overly depend on imports from anywhere including China.'
'Even though we are very religious and God fearing, we do not subscribe to the kind of Hindutva they practise, a very hierarchical, Brahmanical, Hindutva.'
'We cannot capture the mind space of today's youth by evoking past sacrifices. Politics is about hope; hope for the future. The Congress hankers about the past too much.'
'When the average growth in the last three years was just 2.5%, how does that make us the fastest growing country?' 'They only tell you what has happened in the last 2 years; they are not taking into account what happened in FY21 on account of their mistakes.'
'The presence of Rahul Gandhi and his campaigning for the Congress will make a general difference, but whether it will make a saving difference, not sure.'
'I am requesting Sonia Gandhi to listen to her inner voice again.' 'Then, she will know this is the time for the family to step aside.'
'Since the Covid virus has a tendency to mutate, we can continue to expect new variants of the virus to emerge and keep circulating and recirculating in the communities.'
'How does it matter to me if a foreigner comes, starts an industry and makes India a $5 trillion economy when I am dead?'
'What the UP administration wanted was political mileage, and they also had the silent approval from the central government.'
'We will bring up students with an imperfect understanding of their own history and a superficial understanding of science.' 'This is not what we should be doing to future generations.'
'The State uses identity politics as part of divide and rule; the militant groups too use identity politics and civil society groups are also divided along ethnic groups.'
'When they completely surrender to the BJP or the BJP has completely taken over the party, what's the point in the AIADMK surviving and doing business in the state?'
'Yesterday, I was at a seed meeting where we gave outright grants up to Rs 20 lakhs or loans up to Rs 50 lakhs for new start-ups under 2 years.'
'He will go to any extent, and he will have the full support of the Union government as they may not like a Left government to continue here.'
'Nobody is attacking the company or the vaccine.' 'The concerns are about the process and the lack of transparency.'
'We may be weak now, but the importance of the Congress cannot be denied.'
