Real estate may be the epicentre of Dubai’s debt crisis, but it is the Indian commodity trade that will feel its aftershocks for months to come. Two reasons make Dubai important to Indian companies. One, Dubai is the hub of most-traded commodities, from pearls, Gold and diamonds to tea, cotton, basmati and sugar. Crucially, it is gateway to west Asia. All the top players in the region, especially Gulf Cooperation...

Debate at Annual Press Freedom Round Table centred on revenue-content divide HYDERABAD: As the print medium faces a steep decline in advertisement revenue in the wake of the economic slowdown, the debate over whether business interests or editorial content should dominate the content in newspapers continues to take centre-stage. The issue — which formed the core of the Annual Press Freedom Round Table on the theme “Free Press: what good is...

Twenty-five years ago this week, a gas leak at a Union Carbide chemicals plant in Bhopal released 40 tonnes of poisonous gases over the Indian city, killing thousands and injuring tens of thousands. To this day, many of the survivors live in crowded shacks in the slums that line the old factory walls. The people here are not the only ones who have been affected, however. The leak, which is often...

There is a new excitement in the air concerning higher education. It has been decided by the powers that be, warmly supported by the academic community, that turning selected colleges into universities will open the gates to a Valhalla of knowledge. A commission entrusted with the qualitative improvement of higher education has recommended that on top of some 350 universities and/or equivalent institutions, another 1,500 will be created by upgrading...

Around a third of India Inc’s investment plans are in states affected by Naxalism. Anyone who’s been reading Mahesh Vyas regularly, including his piece on today’s OpEd page, knows India Inc’s investment juggernaut has rolled on relatively unchecked, despite the global crisis, for the past five years. The investments on hand, the CMIE (Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy) chief’s calculations show, have the potential of increasing India’s GDP by 50 per...