Asian Lite News Archive

Category: Lite Blogs

  • PSSSSST, THERE’S A FIRE… I THINK

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    Daily Dose by Bikram Vohra One of the odd things you notice in our day to day life is the complete lack of sanctity to a fire alarm bell in an office or residential block. I am sitting in this Manager’s office when the clanging starts. No one moves. The Manager continues sipping his tea.…

  • Show is normal on cultural front

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    Shilpa Raina analyses the Indo-Pak ties in the backdrop of strained diplomatic level relations India may have called off the Aug 25 foreign secretary-level talks with Pakistan, but this hasn’t dampened the enthusiasm of trade associations and businessmen who are bridging the dented relationship through exhibitions and cultural exchanges to promote bilateral trade between the two…

  • Attenborough plans another film in India

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    Raymond Kharmujai says the late British director had plans to make a documentary on Meghalaya’s matrilineal system Tribal Khasi philanthropist Honsen Lyngdoh, who was closely associated with Richard Attenborough’s Oscar-winning film ‘Gandhi’, said the late British director had plans to make a documentary on Meghalaya’s matrilineal system. The filmmaker died in London at the age of 90.…

  • SPECIAL REPORT: Gold prices

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    Aparajita Gupta says Gold likely to regain sheen in second half of 2014′ Despite the possibility of deficient monsoon casting a shadow on the rural demand, riding on overall better sentiments gold is expected to recover its sheen in the second half (July-December) of the year, Somasundaram P.R., managing director (India), World Gold Council said.…

  • Vietnam woos Indian tourists

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    Ranjana Narayan says Vietnam is keen to tap India’s Bollywood tourism India and Vietnam could see a welcome jump to the poor tourist figures to each other’s countries with direct flights set to take off from November even as this pretty Southeast Asian country plans to tap Bollywood to shoot films and host its glitzy…

  • The Khan factor of blockbusters

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    Uma Ramasubramanian looks into the the Khan factor of 2014 Bollywood blockbusters Box office calculations indicate Bollywood made a decent start with the young kids on the block such as Varun Dhawan and Alia Bhatt. But the onus is on superstars Shah Rukh Khan and Aamir Khan to turn an average year into a blockbuster in…

  • Special Report: India’s institutions

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    Amit Kapoor and Sankalp Sharma look into Modi’s move to dismantle India’s institutions like Planning Commission When Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke to the people from the ramparts of the Red Fort on this Independence Day (August 15), he mentioned the need to do away with the Planning Commission as it does not reflect the realities…

  • ANALYSIS: BJP’s by-poll debacle

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    Biswajit Choudhury says high prices derail Modi factor in bypoll With explanations like the missing Modi factor or local conditions unable to fully explain BJP’s by-election losses in light of its recent overwhelming win nationally, the phenomenon of inflation, especially of food prices hurting people everywhere, has emerged as a possible answer to this poll puzzle.…

  • SAEED NAQVI: Friends & foes

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    Saeed Naqvi says even during India’s non-aligned phase, there were groups and individuals who saw Israel as a model for the wrong reasons It is widely known that New Delhi tilts towards Israel in its dealings with West Asia, particularly since the 1999 Kargil war when the Jewish state provided the ammunition required for India’s…

  • RBI & Customer rights

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    Venkatachari Jagannathan says RBI is just taking baby steps on customer rights’ Customers expected the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to leap forward with a strong regulation for consumer protection than taking baby steps with its draft charter on customer rights, a consumer activist said. “The RBI could have learnt from insurance regulator IRDA (Insurance Regulatory and Development…

  • Poor Taj!

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    Brij Khandelwal says growing human load seen as threat to the Taj More than 200,000 people visited the Taj Mahal in two days over the weekend, causing alarm among conservationists who feel the ever-increasing human load on the fragile white marble wonder on the banks of the Yamuna could prove detrimental to the health of…

  • Nazi Noir and more

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    Vikas Datta in his column Bookends focus on Philip Kerr’s Bernie Gunther series  Is it a feasible idea to set a series of noirish detective novels in a totalitarian state like Nazi Germany which itself practised violence intensively against its own citizens, or even in the midst of the viciously bloody conflict that was World…

  • Indian states to overhaul tax rates

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    Biswajit Choudhury says Indian states drop compensation hurdle for proposed Goods and Services Tax  With state finance ministers having dropped the issue of compensation in lieu of a cut in the central sales tax from the agenda of their upcoming meeting on implementing the Goods and Services Tax (GST), the major hurdle appears to have…

  • Can you ignore Rajan’s call?

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    Vatsal Srivastava looks into Indian Reserve Bank Governor Raghuram Rajan’s call for coordinated global monetary policy a distant dream . Rajan earlier predicted the meltdown in the US banking sector which triggered the global recession  RBI governor Raghuram Rajan has been constantly urging major central banks, particularly the US Federal Reserve, to keep in mind…

  • Smart Cities – Engines of growth

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    Amit Kapoor & Sankalp Sharma say Competitive cities as fundamental drivers of prosperity  Cities have been the engines of growth and prosperity since time immemorial. In fact, it may be surprising to note that the rise of Europe before the industrial revolution was, in part, driven by port cities like Genoa and Venice which competed against other…

  • India need 20-20 vision to win Test

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    Veturi Srivatsa says Indian players should have 20-20 vision of Test cricket  Ask any player anywhere in the world and he will say Test cricket is the ultimate. But today – though he may not openly admit it – he knows in his heart that his Twenty20 performance is far more important. It may sound…

  • WHY WE HATE TO CHEER?

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    Bikram Vohra comments on the lack of “warmth” of Indian audience As a people we are lousy when it comes to applause. We hate giving it with generosity. I was watching the Modi speech and the thousands gathered could not muster enough enthusiasm for applause… just a smattering here and there, nothing wholehearted and collective.…

  • Saeed Naqvi on Modi’s I-Day speech

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    Outside of India I have seen men and women find privacy behind the sand dunes in, for example, the Sahara desert Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s courageous elaboration in his maiden Independence Day speech, on the nation’s need to build toilets had in it a touch of Acharya Vinoba Bhave. It also brought back a Devi…

  • Why I don’t want to celebrate…

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    Bikram Vohra says only a handful of super-patriots risked their lives to take on the colonists while the majority did nothing but aid and abet the invaders Every year I put out this article or a form of it hoping someone will agree. Lonely me. So far no one has patted me on the back and…

  • Modi – the orator

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    M.R. Narayan Swamy  says Modi takes India by storm with Red Fort speech Indians across the country Friday heaped praise on Prime Minister Narendra Modi after his stirring and maiden Independence Day address — for capturing the nation’s imagination. In city after city, and on the social media, the young and the not-so-young universally hailed Modi’s over…

  • Cricket: What’s wrong with Indian cricket?

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    Bikram Vohra says Indian cricket wrecked by instant wealth… And Caesar said to Mark Anthony: Let me have men about me that are fat. Sleek-headed men and such as sleep a-nights. Yon Cassius has a lean and hungry look, such men are dangerous. He clearly did not have India’s cricket team in mind. For when…

  • Selector’s Logic – Heads I win, tails you lose

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    Veturi Srivatsa looks into selectors’ logic – Heads I win, tails you lose Selectors in most sports insist they are invariably correct while picking teams. Sometimes they take the rankings into account and on other occasions they argue about the potential of a player for picking him or her — it is a case of heads they win,…

  • Amulya Ganguli on Modi’s I-Day speech

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    Amulya Ganguli analysing the impact of Modi’s Independence Day speech on the Saffron Brigade. Will saffronites heed Modi’s I-Day counsel of restraint?  Perhaps the most important part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Independence Day speech from the ramparts of New Delhi’s Red Fort was his call for a 10-year moratorium on caste-based and communal violence.…

  • Red Tape hurdles investors

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    Fakir Balaji says regulatory hurdles keep away foreign retailers from India Regulatory issues over the entry of foreign brands and luxury goods are keeping international retailers from investing in India in a big way, says a new study by the US-based global investment management firm Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL). “Though international retailers have shown a…

  • Global Cricket and Indian Money

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    Veturi Srivatsa looks in to the power of Indian money in global cricket  It is immaterial whether they lose the five-Test series at the Oval 1-3, 1-2, or tie 2-2, India will still return to England to play another five-match series four years from now. That’s the power of Indian money in global cricket. It is…

  • SO WHAT’S THE NEW INDO-PAK EQUATION

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    Bikram Vohra analysing the issue of “war and proxy-war” as India and Pakistan prepare to celebrate 68th Independence Day Indian Prime Minister Modi deflected from the importance of the scheduled Indo-Pak Foreign Secretary talks by resetting the parameters of the relationship between two neighbours who have not been neighbourly for 70 odd years. And, besides…

  • Erosion of NHS values

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    Prof. Rajan Madhok says the NHS’s current arrangements for delivering race equality have been found seriously wanting. Best practice needs to be implemented in appointments, education, rewards and discipline April was one of the most eventful months of my professional life in the NHS. We had a judicial review case that the British Association of Physicians…

  • Special Report: Indian Real Estate

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    Vinod Behl writes about Indian Real Estate sector. Will real estate investment trusts go the right way?  With markets watchdog Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) finalising the long-pending guidelines for the creation and regulation of Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) and Infrastructure Investment Trusts (IN ITS), the stage is set for the launch…

  • Special Report: Chinese Economy

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    Vatsal Srivastava in his weekly Column – Currency Corner turns focus on Chinese economy. Does China really need to rebalance its economy?  Over the past few months, China has been under the economic spotlight over the People’s Bank of China’s intervention in the foreign exchange markets, the first ever corporate bond default, and Beijing’s mini stimulus package in response to…

  • British politics in turmoil over Gaza

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    The British-Asian voters will decide the person who will hold the key to No 10 Downing Street…writes Anasudhin Azeez British Prime Minister David Cameron is heading for a route in the general elections scheduled to be held in May 2015 over the rumblings in the coalition, problems in the party and the mood of the…

  • I am not Mowgli!

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    Prantick Majumder says that he is from northeast… but he is not Mowgli! “Does the Rajdhani Express go to Assam?” I thought I had heard something wrong. When the question was repeated, I knew I heard it right. My blood came to a boil. But my conscience got the better of me as I realised that the…

  • Lifespan shorter for Asians in UK

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    By Dr Kailash Chand Asian communities in UK are likely to have a heart attack 10 years earlier than their white counterparts in the UK. These are bare and startling facts about our heritage and way of life – the risk of dying prematurely from coronary heart disease is 50 per cent higher in the South…

  • New Silk Road Beckons Asia

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      By Parjanya Bhatt Central Asia is more confident in their independence – moving beyond nation building to economic development. A new great game is emerging in Central Asia. As the world shifts from bipolar to multipolar system – focus of the emerging superpowers and the developing economies has started to shift to the region. The…

  • Indian Electorates are now matured

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    Manchester-based Dr Kailash Chand OBE is the Vice-Chair of Indo-UK Forum, Chair of Health-watch, Tameside. Dr Chand is the first Asian Deputy chair of British Medical Association (BMA).  Narendra Modi, the current poster boy of the Indian polity, has cast to the winds all prognoses about the outcome of the recently concluded general elections. Instead…

  • AAP- too naive to succeed?

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    Delhi-based journalist Ahmad Shariq Khan looks in to the performance of Aam Aadmi Party in the recent elections – Its high time Kejriwal should sit up and take notice of these changing paradigms in Indian polity So the much awaited verdict is out – Mr. Narendra Modi is all set to become India’s 14th prime minister.…

  • Advani & Sushma should mend their ways

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    Dubai-based journalist Jawahar Chhoda comments on the developments in the ruling party BJP leader LK Advani might have tried to be sarcastic by mentioning that Modi did a great favour to BJP by choosing to lead it but by retorting to him and then breaking down in an emotional outburst, Modi made it clear that…