Hegde’s think tank – Four years ago, Ramakrishna Hegde, the chief minister of Karnataka, setup the Economic and Planning Council (EPC)

Bangalore is a Happening City. We’ve heard it so many times. But what does that mean? Did the people of Magadha say it was a happening city? Or the citizens of Awadh? Or nearer in time, did Bombayites think their city was happening? And did this actually start getting said because the city in some […]

WORLD Elders Day came and went as a feeble reminder that even though India as a whole is getting younger, senior citizens are growing rapidly in absolute numbers. Yet others, such as the ever-elegant 77-year-old Lalita Ubhayaker, are busy knitting safety nets for their less fortunate peers. Ashvasan Foundation, set up more than a decade […]

R. K. Hegde wins a small victory against the dissidents and pulls his favourite ‘resignation’ stunt again. If 28 March had been the day of the dissidents in Karnataka, 3 July unexpectedly belonged to the loyalists. In March, the Janata rebels had nearly spiked the elections of the party candidates to the Rajya Sabha. View […]

Why then hasn’t micro-financing taken off? Ms Nilekani has funded, Sanghamitra, which is a micro-financial institution that’s targeted at the urban poor. If you’re still wondering what such an institution does, well it’s actually pretty simple; It offers loans to the poor at decent rates. View PDF