At a time of heightened India-Pakistan tension over Kashmir, the least that needs doing is avoiding obvious errors and strategies that blow up in your face

Subir Roy: Kashmir needs long-term action

Business Standard

The road to the poshest of posh developments on the outskirts of Kolkata is multi-lane, 21st century India, two-thirds of the way

Subir Roy: Posh retreats and peri-urban hell

Affidavits signed by them giving consent were forged; signatures were in English when they were mostly illiterate or did not know English

Subir Roy: Uproot children to educate them?

Bandhan Bank has grown its deposits phenomenally in the first year of its existence, thus continuing in the footsteps of Bandhan Financial Services, which, as a microfinance institution in 2009, took over all the loans on the books of the non-governmental organisation (NGO), Bandhan-Konnagar. If the bank can maintain this deposit growth it will be able to continue to both reduce its lending rate and also keep paying above the market to attract deposits. This will be a killer.The best answer to the question "how does Bandhan do it?" can be found in the history of Bandhan by Tamal Bandyopadhyay, author and leading financial commentator, produced at a pace that has become the hallmark of the organisation and anything it touches. The story of Bandhan Bank is very much the story of its Founder and Chief Executive Officer Chandra Shekhar Ghosh, who, from the humblest of personal beginnings, has created with his drive and vision a robust bank with around 700 branches and 20,000 employees.The

Bandhan's high-yielding bonds

Ostentatious Durga pujas became the autumnal hallmark of the city from late eighteenth century when the new rich among the natives such as munshis and banians sought to use the festival as an occasion to entertain the sahibs

Subir Roy: The changing unchanging pujas

The greatest plus of abolishing the railway Budget is to do away with the chance it gives the railway minister of the day to grandstand before the nation and Parliament for an hour or more, when he feels obliged to announce a few new passenger trains and avoid raising passenger fares

Subir Roy: A socio-historical perspective of Brexit

Dalit protests across the country against being hounded by Hindutva forces for playing their timeless role in the cow economy offer a powerful lesson on how the country runs

Subir Roy: How India is governed, or not

How could there be a revival of the entirely forgettable Hindi movie song of the mid-nineties, Ole Ole? What was the lifespan of these meaningless songs of the "beat and catchy tune" type that had replaced the ones with the unforgettable lyrics and melodies of the sixties and seventies? Why were people at the next table in the restaurant or the next cluster at the party going on and on about Ole?I was soon disabused. The latest argumentative rage and most dependable conversation starter was an animated exchange over which was the smarter of the two smartphone-driven taxi hire services, Ola or Uber? Their fans are not willing to come to blows as would those waving the flag for East Bengal or Mohun Bagan but passion is there alright and the debate is following in the footsteps of the one over Flipkart versus Amazon.The first to come has the first-mover advantage. And if this one is local, then it gets an additional leg-up from those who are fashionably patriotic in today's atmosphere. I

Subir Roy: Tighten kamarbandh for mahayudh

It is the rump, which has been left to call itself West Bengal or Paschim Bangla (in Bengali) and has been unhappy ever since

Subir Roy: Condemned to be a rump

If most are agreed that the reforms have saved the country, then it is important to get a measure of precisely how well they have done and devise a more immediate agenda

Subir Roy: Look back to look forward

Cities with the memory of a lived past take things that come their way in their own way

Subir Roy: Remembering a lived past

India's cities are bursting at the seams because poor people are migrating to them in search of work and finding a place to live only in slums, old and new

Subir Roy: Smart city or smart alec?

"It's pouring here in Bengaluru," our friend said on the phone, even as we sweltered in Kolkata's humid heat waiting for rains that just passed us by

Subir Roy: There is a Shangri-La

The ripples created by results of West Bengal Assembly polls, giving a second term to ruling Trinamool Congress with an unexpectedly large majority, refuse to die out

Subir Roy: Did media let the bhadralok down?

Jalori Pass and its environs offer a lesson on the current state of nature tourism in the hills

Subir Roy: The deodars point to the heavens

When my Himachal Roadways bus to Kaza in Spiti valley passed Tabo nearly a decade ago, I promised I would come back someday and stay there

Subir Roy: Small is large in Tabo

Railways must adopt a master plan to go digital, capture every bit of business relevant data digitally so that it becomes available instantly for decision making and analysis for management insights

Subir Roy: Railway revival running very late

Belonging to another era, the boards bearing that sign have got worn out and virtually disappeared

Subir Roy: The people's language has arrived

Subir Roy: Forget population, target quality of life

India's total fertility rate is rapidly declining, having gone down to 2.3 in 2013 (Sample Registration System) from 4.5 in 1985 (henceforth, all World Bank figures)

A draft development plan seeking to chalk out the trajectory that Mumbai will take over the next 20 years to 2034 had been published last year and immediately trashed

Subir Roy: Minimum sense on Maximum City

Linked to EPF is the issue of social security or pension for all. A new public pension system has been introduced which is as poorly sold as it is unattractive

Subir Roy