The shahtoosh shawl is the most prized of all, beloved of Mughal emperors. It is very warm, yet to soft and fine that it passes through a ring. But buying a shahtoosh shawl today is illegal, and the industry is […]

Bihar is among the poorest, most misgoverned states. More Plan funds or public sector projects are not remedies. The state was India’s industrial heartland in the 1950s, boasting the giant Tata complex at Jamshedpur and Dalmia-Jain complex at Rohtas. Bihar

The price of oil has hit a record $ 68/barrel. But even worse news for India is that the US price of natural gas skyrocketed to $ 10/mmbtu last week, double the price a year ago. This jeopardises the revival

I am not keen to see the blockbuster film “Mangal Pandey”. I find jingo-patriotic themes tiresome and hypocritical. Rudrangshu Mukherjee in a recent book has demolished the notion that Mangal Pandey was a patriot leading the Indian struggle for independence.

India has enough oil trapped in shale and coal deposits in Assam and Arunachal Pradesh to produce 140 million tones per year for 100 years, say former geologists of Oil India Ltd including ex-Chairman and Managing Director Chudamani Ratnam. This

The BJP and Left Front have accused Manmohan Singh of making India a junior partner of the US. Is that so bad? I suspect, they mean India has become an American puppet, but that is absurd. For many decades, India

After the first oil shock of 1973, there was much talk of how to achieve energy security in India. That\’s happening again today, with oil at $ 60/barrel. But in the 1970s everybody agreed that energy security meant maximizing the

There is much rejoicing (and some groaning) over the Bush-Manmohan agreement giving India full access to nuclear fuel, equipment and technology. US Congress may stall Bush\’s request for waiving the existing legal hurdles. But Russia and France have long been

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said at Oxford University last week that the British Raj, despite its ills, had a beneficial side. It brought good governance and new institutions that Indians value even today. Predictably, the BJP and Marxists are outraged

Under the influence of my teenage son, I saw much TV coverage of the Live-8 music concerts across four continents last week to focus attention on Africa\’s problems. Live-8 hoped to make Africa the focus of the G-8 meeting of