Insecurity - The Core of Consumerism

Fascinating article on psychology & marketing http://markmanson.net/insecurity

Pharma - A Paradigm shift that can affect millions ?

http://scroll.in/article/745344/why-south-africas-health-minister-is-so-worried-about-india-caving-in-to-big-pharma

While it is impossible to ignore the merits of an incentive driven system, certain things like this should be controlled for the common good.. Quoting Yusuf Hameid , "“All governments should ensure that there is no monopoly in essential drugs required for the healthcare needs of their country,”

Indian businesses undermining capitalism ?

"Indian capital, rather than collectively fighting for rational regulation, spends its energies extracting its own form of rent from this misregulation. Industry uses inordinate resources in keeping its exemptions intact or manipulating rules to its advantage."

Read more:

 http://forbesindia.com/article/independence-special-2013/pratap-bhanu-mehta-when-business-bats-against-itself/35875/1

The Kerala Model Development

Something that should be read  http://telegraphindia.com/1110504/jsp/opinion/story_13928101.jsp
Harps on the idea that a plain GDP rate / big ticket investments are not the only option for growth

War Crimes & WikiLeaks

An article that reminds me of a lot of Hollywood movies ..
http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/opinion/2011/03/201139154141620744.html

Management Consulting & Ethics

Felix Salmon's article on recent insider trading controversies with McKinsey http://blogs.reuters.com/felix-salmon/2011/03/09/mckinseys-corrupted-culture/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+felix-all+(Felix+Salmon+-+All+(Reuters+%2B+FS.com))

Trading of Toppers :)

Never thought JEE coaching industry has reached to this level :) http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2011-02-20/news/28615129_1_coaching-classes-iit-coaching-iitians-pace

Market forces .. Sigh !!

Machines Controlling WallStreet

Fascinating article on how modern day trading works .. The big unpredictable world of algorithmic trading - http://www.wired.com/magazine/2010/12/ff_ai_flashtrading/all/1

Piracy Games

Intriguing article - http://www.thestreet.com/story/10707445/1/the-pirates-toll-high-stakes-on-the-high-seas.html

Lots of intriguing & ironical sentences "An intrepid Reuters' stringer goes into a pirate stronghold -- "stronghold," with its whiff of the medieval, being a favorite word to describe the places where Somali pirates live -- and comes out with the news that there exists a kind of bandit stock exchange; it's possible -- so the story goes -- to buy shares in a gang of pirates. If your company of corsairs returns to shore with a ransom: dividend yield."


"Before the tube of cash parachuted into the water, ISEC's lawyers drafted an actual contract, signed by both parties, ship-owner and pirate gang. The irony was not lost on anyone: drafting a contract for the release of a thing from the very party that stole it from you."

Criss-Crossing India

An amazing travelogue on India's longest duration train - Himasagar express http://www.livemint.com/2011/01/28185447/En-route-to-elsewhere.html

Has Athletics Performance Peaked ?

Fascinating article speculating about whether we have reached a plateau with respect to individual sports world records http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2011/01/23/peaked_performance/?page=full

The Social Bubble - II

Call it a cynical view, but I echo these perspectives.. http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2010/12/03/a-silicon-bubble-shows-signs-of-reinflating/

" For example, enthusiasm for closely held Facebook shares has run so high that private investors are trading derivatives of it."


We live in interesting times :)

The Social Bubble

A must read article for the facebook generation :)

http://blogs.hbr.org/haque/2010/03/the_social_media_bubble.html

Kerala - A truly unique state

http://www.globalexchange.org/countries/asia/india/6197.html

Not because I'm a Keralite or communist.. But, this article gives a nice picture of why Kerala is unique.. Prompting me to write something similar, yet deeper

The Mouse Trap

http://thenextweb.com/entrepreneur/2010/10/14/forget-the-ceo-the-entrepreneur-the-lawyer-and-everyone-else-ask-the-mice/

Nice, funny & intuitive :)

Cultural Differences & Management

Its a management article.. Gives a good picture of why different cultures need to be managed differently..

http://www.cimaglobal.com/Documents/Student%20docs/E1june07fmarticle.pdf

Twittter vs Facebook

One of the most brilliant technology articles that I've read in recent times on business model of twitter vis-a-vis facebook..  http://techcrunch.com/2010/10/16/why-twitter-is-massively-undervalued-compared-to-facebook/

Some great discussion in comments section as well

Why Terrorists Blow Up Themselves

I don't know if the book mentioned in this article is good...However, this article gives an interesting perspective over the motives of terrorists..
http://yaleglobal.yale.edu/content/terrorists-blow-themselves-up

YaleGlobal never ceases to surprise me with such good quality articles !

Ayodhya & Rule of Law

There are countless articles by now over the judgment of Allahabad high court.. This short one captures the essence of that with interesting perspectives on the concept of Republic & Secularism

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/oct/12/india-hindus-mosque-beliefs-dispute

Leadership Types

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/03/business/03corner.html?src=me&ref=business

An insightful interview of Paul Maritz, president & CEO of VMWare.. About leadership, the different types ..
Short, but excellent