Charanjit Singh was India’s captain. And Harbinder Singh scored that brilliantly conceived field goal. Or was it the other way round? Doesn’t really matter.  The more important point: It was India’s moment of glory.

The year was 1964.  And you guessed it right. I am talking about the hockey final India played against Pakistan at the Tokyo Olympics. That solitary goal won the country its only gold medal in the 1964 Olympics.  The victory also reclaimed for the country the hockey gold that it lost to Pakistan at the previous Olympics in Rome. Schools in Delhi declared a holiday the following day in celebration of the India victory. Read the rest of this entry »

Economic reforms will certainly rank as among the most widely used—often misused and abused—expression in India today. Ever since Manmohan Singh ushered in his new economic policy in 1991 as finance minister in the Narasimha Rao government, most substantive economic debates in this country have centred round this expression. And yet, reforms continue to mean different things to different people in different times. Politicians have freely used this word to suit their requirements, depending on the circumstances they have faced from time to time.

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