Opinions and Editorials

On Monday, Nokia, the world's largest mobile phone maker initiated a precautionary charger exchange programme in which consumers owning certain Nokia-branded chargers manufactured by China's BYD Co Ltd were recommended to exchange these chargers for free replacements.

The World Economic Forum's India meeting in New Delhi featured some thoughtful panels, speeches and ideas.

Of the 10 West Bengal assembly seats that were up for by-election, seven have returned the Trinamool Congress, underlining the swift diminishment of the Left's vote share even since the Lok Sabha elections this summer.

The editorial in the latest issue of the RSS journal Organiser titled "Maoists are Killers, Terrorists.

That the MNS goons who roughed up Samajwadi Party MLA Abu Azmi in the Maharashtra assembly need to be dealt with sternly is obvious.

The goods & services tax, due to be implemented by April 1, 2010, will not only be a major accomplishment in rationalising and reforming indirect tax structures, but will also promote the goal of creating a genuine single market in federal India.

Whichever way one looks at it, there is no escaping the fact that President Barack Obama's first Asian tour beginning this week is about coping with the rise of China and its irrevocable impact on the political and economic structures of Asia.

There is a touching innocence to the manner in which communications minister A Raja went about tweaking procedures to ensure that companies like Unitech and Swan Telecom got scarce 2G spectrum on a preferential basis, which later attracted foreign investors into these companies at huge valuations.

At TED India, sleep was a waste of time, and missing a day was criminal: I realised that within minutes of striking a conversation with marine biologist Charles Anderson and neurophysiologist Aditi Shankardass on the bus en-route to a TED party.

The first discussion paper on GST that was released on Tuesday is the first official communication on dual GST that is intended to be introduced in India in 2010. As its heading suggests, the paper is perhaps the first of such discussion documents.

Over the past few years, businesses have given more and more prominence to intellectual property. Today, valuing the IP of a business is relevant in almost every aspect of corporate activity, be it mergers & acquisitions, assignments and licensing, enforcement and even day-to-day activities of maintaining accounts.

The CAT is out of the bag and has stunned business schools. For the first time in 10 years, the number of applicants for the Common Admission Test (CAT) has taken a plunge. In spite of an extension of 10 days for online registration, a little over 2.41 lakh applicants registered for the exam this year, against 2.7 lakh last year.

Last month, the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena graduated from an angry mob to a sizeable elected force in the state's politics.

Even by the Samajwadi Party's recent standards of personalised politics, the campaign for the Firozabad bypoll was remarkable.

Writing a few words on a complex subject is a challenge. I prefer a common sense review of the issues as Bhola, a plain Joe, might see things—because climate change threatens communities everywhere and it requires Bholas to adjust and adapt.

"I can't believe you're talking about Europe!" My friend's exclamation followed descriptions of my experience this summer in Cubulcut, a small village in northwest Romania, where I had spent half of a six-week stint volunteering as an English teacher.

Warren Buffett's recent planned $27 billion acquisition of Burlington Northern Santa Fe has been described as an "all-in wager on the economic future of the US".

Maran's comeback When UPA-II's cabinet was formed, Dayanidhi Maran was thought to have made a weak comeback.

At the recently concluded TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) conference in Mysore, our junior foreign minister, Shashi Tharoor, spoke about how India would dominate through soft power.

Among the changes introduced by the Securities & Exchange Board of India on Monday night, the most significant is the plan to mandate half-yearly disclosure of balance sheets by the Indian corporate sector.