Incredible India 15; Beggar Capital of the World

Lo, here comes the 15th instalment of Incredible India with those only-in-India stories. * Beggar Capital of the World – India’s capital New Delhi has 58,000 beggars, most of them children, according to the Voice of America. * Laddu Explodes in Cow’s Mouth: No kidding, folks. Read this story in Times of India. * SSC […]

Americans – Prisoners of Prison Industrial Complex

This is an American tragedy. A new study by the Pew Center has found that 7.32 million American adults were in prison, on parole or on probation in 2007, a tripling over the last 25 years. Folks, that makes it 1 in every 31 American adults in prison, on parole or on probation. For Blacks, […]

Incredible India – 7

India is truly fertile soil for a cornucopia of those weird only-in-India stories. Here’s instalment 7 of Incredible India. * A sick man in the South Indian state of Kerala died after the dilapidated stretcher on which he was placed broke into two and he fell to the ground. If the end result wasn’t so […]

Intel Capital to Invest $23m in Indian Startups

Adding to its investments in India, Intel Capital (the VC arm of the chip giant) is putting $23 million in three startups in the country. The startups are One97 Communications, a provider of value-added services like ring tones and games for mobile phones, online B2B marketplace IndiaMart and vocational educational institute Global Talent Track, according to […]

Of 25-Cent Windows, $1 Photoshop & the Indian DNA

Some time in the 1990s, an Indian friend who used to visit Ukraine frequently (for reasons of the heart) told us about software like Office, Windows and AutoCAD being openly sold in Kiev and elsewhere for 25 cents. Today, we were reminded of that conversation when we read a piece in CNET that Adobe Photoshop […]

Bhaiya, Aaramse Maar Meri Gaand

For over four decades now, it’s been apparent to all but the completely blind or the utterly senile that India is a blundering, doddering mockery of a democracy that has totally lost its way. A soft state, to borrow Gunnar Myrdal’s terminology, where the government institutions have become so weak and corruption so endemic that […]