Dheeraj Kalgutkar

In Raghuram Govind Rajan, we have lost not only a finest mind in the world of economics today but also a free-thinker who minced no words in calling a spade a spade. What you’ve heard enough is that Rajan predicted 2008 global financial crisis three years before in his 2005 paper, Has Financial Development Made the World Riskier? But what you’ve not heard is how he holds the record for being the youngest-ever Chief Economist at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) apart from IIT as well as IIM degrees. Time magazine recently included him in their coveted ‘The 100 Most Influential People’, it wrote , “ he steered India through the global crisis and fallout, playing a large role in making it one of the emerging-market stars of the moment”. Remember how social media was full of rupee-on-free-fall jokes? That’s when Rajan took the job of Reserve Bank of India Governor. Those were the days when rupee used to fall each day to new lows, jokes on ‘finest economist’ (then) PM Manmo...

Can I ask you something? Will you listen to me without any prejudice or malice or a quick label for me? Will you? I'm feared where we are heading. Are you? Just tell me what sort of protests are allowed? What pranks are allowed? Can I make fun of the ruling class? I ask this for I'm feared and worried. If a student leader in JNU can be arrested, I too can and you too. Everyone one of us is potentially at risk. Do you realize this? Do you realize where we are heading? Do you know what differentiates a India from Pakistan or Arab countries? Is whats happening today point to that difference or are we becoming one of them? Everyday someone or the other comes with, if you had done/said it there, they would have done like that! Now, have we scooped such low to compare ourselves with them? Are they our yardsticks now? I'm worried. I'm worried for you and me. I'm worried for this nation of ours! Leave everything aside, think. Think what is going wrong. JNU has always b...

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India's (TRAI's) much awaited Prohibition of  Discriminatory  Tariffs for Data Services Regulation, 2016, is being hailed for its support of Net Neutrality. In fact, some have gone on to christen it as the law that is all powerful than what the FCC passed in the US. The order comes nearly two months after TRAI floated a paper asking whether differential tariffs should be allowed for data services linked to specific content. This paper was linked to one of the key principles of Net Neutrality - that all data should be treated equally, with no preference in speed of pricing to any particular set of contact. But does it achieve all that, and is it really that strong a law as few want us to believe it to be? First and foremost, sorry, hold your horses, it is just an order not law and in the absence of law the aggrieved parties (read telcos) can question the order in High Court under section 227 of the Constitution. And for...

An odd 'like' on Facebook and you are on door of a shadowy police lock-up, an odd tweet and you are beaten on a ghastly night-street. A fire-ball comment over some old-but-always-in-news-issue and you're slapped in your own office! The largest democracy of world, the one that taught non-violence and peace to wider audience has travelled all this far to a gleam position where it's all about 'them' and 'us'. In India of today, you are no more allowed to have a opinion of yours nor are you allowed to not have any opinion and be a fence-sitter either! Impatience and intolerance have become keys that define our lives. The vicious 'them vs. us' attitude has plagued the very conscience of India that once gave call for eternal harmony of one and all. We have started to overlook the ideas 'they' have or the 'solutions' they possess. Be it Prashant Bhushan who is facing public ire today over his comment in 2011 where he suggested t...