Girish's Blog

As the countdown to the Greatest Democratic Exercise In The Known Universe kicks off, it's great to see that there are some candidates who have excelled in the private sector and are now throwing their hat into the election ring. The most prominent of these candidates, of course, being Nandan Nilekani, co-founder and former CEO of Infosys, Chairman of the Unique Identification Authority of India, newly minted member of the  Indian National Congress and candidate for the 2014 Lok Sabha election from Bangalore South constituency. There's no doubt that Mr.Nilekani had a successful stint as the CEO of Infosys. He took over as CEO of Infosys in 2002 when revenues were $500 Million and in 2007, when he handed the baton to Kris Gopalakrishnan, revenues had crossed $3 Billion.His book, Imagining India, covers the many complex issues facing the Republic of India and also lays out some solutions. Nr.Nilekani has now thrown in his lot with the  Indian National Cong...

As Jaipur limps back to normalcy after the gruesome bomb attacks earlier this week, the Central government has been on the overdrive making inane statements. India’s junior home minister, Sriprakash Jaiswal, said , “ One can’t rule out the involvement of a foreign power....From time to time, we complain to our neighbours about their linkages with the terror attacks here, and are in turn repeatedly assured by them that they share our concerns and would not allow any anti-India activity from their soil... .” On the explosives: I can say it was a dangerous mix, possibly the most dangerous that can be used by terror outfits for carrying out blasts . And our Foreign Secretary, Shiv Shankar Menon had this gem: We are still in the process of investigating. When we come to some conclusions, we will see where the sources are, where the roots are, where it's come from, how it happened; and then we will decide what to do . Not as striking as Don Rumsfeld's As we know, there are known kno...

The state elections start in a few days in Karnataka, and the political parties have started promising not just the moon, but the entire solar system. The JD(S) [where S stands for their "Secular" credentials] has been promising: All debts of farmers and unorganised labourers written off within one year 30 per cent reservation for Kannadigas in IT and Biotechnology companies Free cooking gas and stoves for the poor Free treatment for all kinds of diseases for BPL cardholders Fill up all government vacancies Model the development of Bangalore on Beijing and Shanghai Provide houses for all homeless within five years Age limit to SC/ST candidates would be increased by five years and that of others by three years Government would pay the fees of children of BPL cardholders for admission in private educational institutions And in the ultimate proof of their "secular" credentials, Peshimams and Mouzans of mosques would get a monthly pension of Rs 500 from the WAKF board a...