All stories by AAKAR PATEL
Why Modi continues to enjoy wide popular support
Rediff.com28 Nov 2016'I have no doubt that the government means well.' 'I am merely curious to know whether my suspicions of it being enthusiastic about shooting first and aiming later are unfounded,' says Aakar Patel.
Having shown decisiveness, Modi needs to show governance
Rediff.com22 Nov 2016'With the country is a crisis that directly affects hundreds of millions, we will know if Modi has grip,' says Aakar Patel.
Welcome To A Terrifying World
Rediff.com9 Nov 2016'In a future where newspapers are gone, the public will have a severe lack of material to be properly informed.' 'We will be left in a world of journalism that is entirely populated by Arnab and anchors like him, competing on the basis of passion and anger, and by people who pull out their phone and tweet a comment without first hand information,' says Aakar Patel.
Why young techies must be very worried
Rediff.com26 Oct 2016'Middle-level managers account for 10 per cent -- or 450,000 people -- in the IT industry in India.' 'And of these 225,000 would lose jobs over the next one decade as their work would get automated.' 'This is grim news for many reasons,' says Aakar Patel.
Uniform Civil Code: The need to proceed with caution
Rediff.com17 Oct 2016'Triple talaq and polygamy are likely to be the next ground on which Hindutva will assert itself.' 'And, as with other issues where this has happened, we must anticipate trouble.'
The problem with war
Rediff.com4 Oct 2016'Will this surgical strike of ours put an end to Pakistani terror?' 'And if not, what will we do when the next terror strike happens?' 'Will there be another surgical strike or will we have to do something bigger?' 'How big does it have to be to get Pakistan to totally stop?'
The social media nationalists
Rediff.com27 Sep 2016Very few people have access to the granular detail of what options are available to India and what their costs, consequences and benefits are. While Modi considers all of this, he would do well to do one thing. And that is to ignore the media.
Why Bollywood is not growing
Rediff.com20 Sep 2016'Aamir Khan, Shah Rukh Khan and Salman Khan now act in only about one film each year, and made money through advertisements and television.' 'This meant that many people, even if they had the money to spend on a movie and wanted to go, often had nothing available for them to watch.'
Why we don't read about dowry deaths any more
Rediff.com12 Sep 2016'The media, particularly the national media and especially the English media, do not report these stories any longer.' 'They have no interest in crime or human interest stories that do not concern the wealthy,' says Aakar Patel.
Should mother tongue replace English in our schools?
Rediff.com6 Sep 2016It is a difficult question to answer. This problem will remain with us for a very long time because we are the only major nation whose elite speaks a language that is a foreign tongue, says Aakar Patel.
Mass unemployment and social unrest are looming ahead
Rediff.com29 Aug 2016The more one thinks about it, the more difficult it is to see how India will be able to reap the benefits of a demographic dividend, says Aakar Patel.
10 ways of loving India
Rediff.com22 Aug 2016'To love all Indians is to love India in reality.' 'To love the lines on a map is to love a symbol,' says Aakar Patel.
Why India is doing badly at the Olympics
Rediff.com17 Aug 2016'It is not the external world that is stopping Indians from winning medals. It is our culture.'
Be warned! Bad times ahead for the Indian economy
Rediff.com8 Aug 2016''We have a very difficult period ahead of us.' 'Fortunately we have a popular government and a popular leader who is ideally placed to take us into confidence,' says Aakar Patel.
The English news anchor has become overly powerful
Rediff.com1 Aug 2016'This influence of anchors like Arnab Goswami is mostly negative because their focus is on issues that concern upper class anxieties.' 'Those that affect the majority of people, hundreds of millions of Indians, like health, primary education and nutrition, are not discussed,' says Aakar Patel.
Lata and Sachin didn't deserve the Bharat Ratna
Rediff.com30 Jul 2016'They have earned their money and their fame. They could have earned our respect by behaving in more public spirited fashion, but they have chosen instead to be unconcerned on that count,' says Aakar Patel.
We seem to be unable to treat Kashmiris as Indians
Rediff.com19 Jul 2016'The Indian middle class ignores the conflicts areas in Jammu and Kashmir, in Central India and in the North East.' 'The violence does not touch us at all and so we are able to easily look away from the underlying reasons and grievances.'
Modi is following the Gujarat model of governance
Rediff.com11 Jul 2016'He selects certain portfolios that he has personal interest in, and he does not give them to a senior leader. The responsibility is given to a junior minister who then directly reports to Modi or to the small team of bureaucrats working with Modi.' 'I noticed this first in Gujarat where Modi worked mainly with two ministers, Saurabh Patel and Amit Shah,' says Aakar Patel.
Why buying a house is outrageously expensive
Rediff.com7 Jul 2016'For such prices you could get a place inside New York City and inside London.' 'Rs 7 crore is a million dollars and will bring you a handsome place in any city in the world.' 'The truly strange thing is that the conversion of the rupee's actual value makes India's real estate even more expensive,' says Aakar Patel.
A united Europe is the world's oldest project
Rediff.com30 Jun 2016'The project of a united Europe has constantly been made and remade.' 'The national borders have changed many, many times and so have the languages.' 'Britain's exit is only the latest episode in this long history,' says Aakar Patel.