I met the son of Warren Buffet (yes…the very same guy who is the world’s second richest, after Bill Gates, and has just signed away his riches — $37 billion – to charity) one evening in Hyderabad about a year ago. He is on the board of a company that is headquartered in the city and we got talking about the holidays that are worth taking. He told me that he prefers to unwind at places which are far from the maddening crowd and where there is no sign of plastic (read civilization). I can’t think of a plastic-free place in the country – even the village belles have taken to carrying flamboyant plastic pitchers instead of the earthy breakable mud vessels. Now Buffet junior assured me that there are some places like that in the country. “Really?” That was really tough for me to digest.

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I am so curious to know what goes on in Sardaarji’s mind. Does an inflation rate of 5.24 per cent give him sleepless nights, or is WPI not his flavour of inflation indices? Does he think about the implications of the 10-year bond yield stomping away to 9 per cent? Is he concerned about what Ben Bernanke is saying or does he totally outsource those kind of worries to YV Reddy…or Chidambaram. Does he miss Greenspan? Read the rest of this entry »

A young university catering to the energy sector finds employers eager to take its graduates.

“Ninety per cent plus,” says a beaming Dr Parag Diwan, as he talks about the ongoing placements of the 165 students graduating from the University of Petroleum and Energy Studies (UPES) this year, the second batch to do so since its inception. Read the rest of this entry »