Steeped in forbidding history, soaked in blood, but with arms wide open in the traditional Afghan welcome, Kabul is surely the world&rsquo;s most surreal capital city.

Kabul diaries

Business Standard

Like 9/11, 26/11 was an act of audacious imagination, so way out and macabre that it could have driven the plot of a bestselling thriller. But while it is easy to demonise the perpetrators of such destruction, it is difficult to imagine what could have motivated a group of young men, some scarcely older than boys, to go about shooting people, apparently at random. It is especially difficult for us, schooled as we are in Western rationalism and accustomed to looking askance at the spectre of the Islamic fundamentalists, to look for psychological or sociological explanations. No wonder the 9/11 Commission famously called the US intelligence agencies&rsquo; failure to foresee and prevent the attacks as a &ldquo;failure of imagination&rdquo;.

The ghost of 26/11 past

1. First of all my thanks to Business Standard, and to my good friends T N Ninan and Sanjaya Baru, for inviting me to deliver this second Business Standard Annual lecture. This is an honour to which I attach a lot of value.

Dilemmas in central bank communication

Industrial growth dips drastically even as inflation rises faster than expected, blurring policy action outlook.

India economy: Growth stutters

Kerala and UP were factored in. It may be the turn of Assam and Bengal next.

State election math & the Cabinet reshuffle

The state-owned helicopter operator is broadening its customer base, including via joint ventures, and ramping up its fleet.

Pawan Hans has ambitious flight plan

The petroleum minister&rsquo;s three-pronged approach does little to address the real issues of fuel diversion and adulteration, say experts.

Reddy's remedy may not beat the mafia

&ldquo;Oh, she&rsquo;s a lovely girl&rdquo; exclaimed Mani Shankar Aiyar, Congress MP who has known the new Pakistani Ambassador to the United States, Sherry Rehman, for many years. &ldquo;But mind you, she&rsquo;s a Pakistani&rdquo; he added, &ldquo;cast very much in the mould of Mohammad Ali Jinnah of August 1947&rdquo;.

Newsmaker: Sherry Rehman

Once a ghost town, Burnpur is beginning to take-off, thanks to a revived steel plant. Yet, an obscure tribal deity is preventing it from coming into its own.

Jhodabudi takes the sheen off Burnpur

In its battle to save Euro, the beleaguered European Central Bank is now inviting the public to take key economic decisions for themselves.

Europe launches iPad game to save Euro

Press Trust of India

It&rsquo;s been a week since Mallojula Koteswara Rao, alias Kishenji, died in a police encounter in the thick jungles of West Midnapore in Bengal, but the spectre of his movement is still haunting the state government. Six 'concerned citizens' were appointed as interlocutors between state and the armed Naxals. But with Kishanji killed, five of the six people have resigned.

WB's Naxal menace finds no solution

Kapil Sibal has caused a furore by suggesting that internet companies need to &lsquo;pre-screen&rsquo; pages. Here&rsquo;s a peek at some of the chief issues being debated.

Sibal tries to tame the net, infuriates many

Commerce and Industrial Promotion minister Anand Sharma's rise in government has been dizzying, which is why his current setback is also precipitous. Ahead of the cabinet meeting that took place after Sharma&rsquo;s project &mdash; to ensure the approval of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in retail &mdash; was given the thumbs down, his colleagues are asking some searching questions and seeking some hard answers.

Newsmaker: Anand Sharma

State-run public sector undertakings live in a mysterious world, without scrutiny from analysts or the public. Here&rsquo;s an overview of Maharashtra&rsquo;s PSUs.

Secret world of state PSUs

India has 115 century-old dams in various states of decay and poised to wreak havoc. What&rsquo;s more, no one seems to be either able or willing to fix the problem.

The real truth about our dam problem

An avalanche of delayed projects has meant huge cost overruns where the taxpayer is left to foot the bill.

A Rs 1,00,000-cr bill no one's talking about

Ajit Singh knows everyone in Indian politics and everyone knows him. The reason ? He&rsquo;s been in virtually all alliances &mdash; with the Congress, in the ill-fated National Front and later the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance.

Newsmaker: Ajit Singh

Telecom incumbents are using 3G roaming to offer services without having paid for spectrum&mdash;the legality of which is being scrutinised. Surajeet Das Gupta reveals why what happens here can shape rules for the next big battle in telecom.

Inside the high-stakes game for 3G roaming

Karnataska, a leader in innovations that make people&rsquo;s lives easier, is trying newer methods to support the growth of infrastructure, which is the foundation for overall economic growth. The state government is planning an agri-business policy that will facilitate agricultural growth and beef up infrastructure in the rural areas.

Karnataka woos private capital to promote agribusiness

A data battle is exciting news for us, almost like what breaking news is to many others. We&rsquo;ve been closely tracking the &lsquo;Curious Case Of West Bengal&rsquo;s Missing Numbers&rsquo; for a few months now. The case is getting more interesting, almost mysterious, as the results of a Right To Information (RTI) petition filed by ISPR Research Fellow Sourjya Bhowmick with the Ministry of Finance show.

West Bengal's missing data

Private-public partnership projects in India suffer from a number of weaknesses, but this model is nonetheless the best route for building infrastructure.

Kick-starting the core sector

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