The Indian Express - September 15, 2007
Another one bites the dust, walking shamelessly down Mr Karat’s “pro – imperialist” path, and that is none other than Vietnam, run by his comrades. The latest emerging market that is being deluged with attention from America Inc is Vietnam. The Wall Street journal has frequent Vietnam stories; and in true American Inc. fashion, there is a rush to hold emerging market conferences and strategy sessions in Ho Chi Minh city, with well arranged tours of the hinterland, so that the American senior management team can understand what it takes to capture Vietnam, so to speak. And as a bright young man who works in the region was explaining to me on a flight back from Saigon, whenever there is an American business leader of Fortune 100 CEO rank visiting Vietnam, the visit carries all the courtesies extended to highly placed political figures, which includes the top brass from Hanoi […]
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The Indian Express - January 2006
I am a great fan of Pavan K Varma. In a recent interview about his book “Being Indian: The Truth about why the 21st Century will be India’s”, he says that we Indians are a bundle of contradictions. “We are focused and will work towards a goal despite formidable obstacles. So we are resilient , ingenuous, ever hopeful”. If you have trouble believing this, just look at the epic proportions to which we take the saga of standard 10, 12 and college admissions. Rich or modest in income, the drama is the same. It’s a discourse which we all are a part of, that says “just do it, never say ‘can’t’, at this time of life, ‘chalta hai’ is not an option”. And guess what? Very few of our children rebel against it. Otherwise the coaching class and entrance test industry would be out of business. In fact Verma agrees […]
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The Indian Express - November 24, 2005
I remember a discussion a few years ago at a strategic planning session of a multinational consumer goods company on how people of India were changing. A lot was said about the positive effects of liberalisation and all its spin-off effects, on the attitudes of the people of India. Until someone suddenly broke the spell by asking, “If all this is true, then why do millions of people vote for Laloo in Bihar? Do we even know for sure?” An expat sitting through the meeting asked for clarification on Laloo and Bihar. And, with huge relish, got told all the Laloo and Bihar jokes and war stories, starting with an introduction to the word Bimaru. The joke about how we would happily hand over all of Kashmir to Pakistan, provided they took Bihar as well; the one that said that Laloo asked the people of Bihar why they needed roads […]
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