We tried to find out how much cancer treatment costs have gone up, and were surprised to find that the cost of a single cycle of basic chemotherapy for stage 1 cancer has actually gone down over the past 10 years. A decade ago, it would cost about Rs 10,000 at a government hospital and Rs 25,000 at a private one. This figure has come down to Rs 3,000 for...
11:28:37 AM Nov 24, 2011
Every year or so, a new version of an Apple product is announced, with claims that it is better than its predecessor. This year, the 4S version that Apple trotted out featured Siri, a voice-driven personal assistant that users could talk to as though they were talking to their personal assistants. Behind the scenes, Siri is the result of decades of research on artificial intelligence (AI) funded by the US...
11:24:31 AM Nov 24, 2011
Just inside the office of Pashmina Realty in Worli, there's an entire wall covered by a poster of LIFE, an NGO (non-governmental organisation) whose Mumbai chapter focusses mainly on health, education and low-cost housing under the Asit Kotecha Foundation. The poster is full of slogans written by Pashmina employees who participate actively in the NGO. Behind the poster wall is the office of Asit Kotecha, who owns Pashmina Realty and...
12:25:55 PM Nov 23, 2011
Ram Shriram Profile: Founding director and board member at Google Insights: - You have to accept the reality of where you came from. The moment you lose that, you stop listening, stop thinking and become arrogant. Usually, you see that in successful people. - People become self-destructive when they become arrogant " they over-reach, become over-ambitious and dominating. So you dont know who Ram Shriram is? That is because hed...
10:36:55 AM Nov 21, 2011
Chess is a brilliant game for one powerful reason- there are no outcomes that can be achieved through compromises. Instead, the endgames are overwhelmingly non-negotiable. Pause now for a moment and give the game a thought. There are 64 squares on a chess board and 32 pieces on it with 16 pieces for each player. There are 400 different positions possible after one moves apiece. This multiplies exponentially to 72,084...
09:04:12 AM Nov 19, 2011
Saroj Datta Age: 75 Career: He has been with the Jet Airways group since 1991. Prior to that was with Kuwait Airways and Air India Interests: Listening to Hindustani classical music, jazz, reading crime fiction and translations of Bengali classics Q You has spent two decades building India's largest airline. What were the turning points? Early in the life of the airline, the first call was about coming into the...
08:29:03 AM Nov 19, 2011
Auto Desi Fat Boy Harley-Davidson is adding to its 14-member line-up in India by launching the Fat Boy Special, a special version of the iconic original, remembered by many for its appearance in the Arnold Schwarzenegger-starrer Terminator 2. The changes in the special edition are only aesthetic, and the bike retains the regular Fat Boys 1584cc V-twin engine with a torque rating of 125Nm at 3,500rpm. Classic cars If you...
11:20:37 AM Nov 18, 2011
"There comes a tide in the affairs of men," Shakespeare cautioned. Tsunami warnings are now ringing about the global economy. The global financial system is under stress. Economic growth is stumbling. Confidence in governments is decreasing everywhere. Multilateral institutions like the WTO (World Trade Organization) and IMF (International Monetary Fund), created to promote global integration and stability, are ineffective. Communism was declared dead with the fall of the Berlin Wall....
11:14:23 AM Nov 18, 2011
History is replete with legends of lost treasure and those who went in search of it. This, of course, was before they headed to Wall Street. 1. In the 16th and 17th centuries, Europeans started believing in El Dorado, a place of untold wealth in the Americas. A South American tribe is believed to have had kings who would cover themselves in gold dust and jump into Lake Guatavita during...
11:04:59 AM Nov 15, 2011
Nearly nine million Afghans are living in extreme poverty because of a lack of investment in farming, Mohammad Asif Rahimi, Afghanistans minister for agriculture, livestock and irrigation, said on October 16, World Food Day. The World Bank estimates that about 36 per cent of Afghans live below the poverty line or survive on less than $ 25 a month and nearly half the population lives on less than $ 30...
10:47:46 AM Nov 14, 2011
Uday Kotak Age: 52 Profile: Founder of Kotak Mahindra Bank and Indias first billionaire banker. Rich List Rank: 15 Wealth: $ 3.6 billion His Strength: -Building a team that enjoys what it does. -During every crisis, the entire top team would huddle together like a cricket team To see how far Uday Kotak has come, you dont have to go to his office at Nariman Point, Mumbai. Go instead to...
10:25:48 AM Nov 11, 2011
Guillaume Marceau Age: 34 Designation: Member, New York City General Assembly, one of the organisers of Occupy Wall Street movement Career: Ph D student in Computer Science at WPI (Worcester Polytechnic Institute) University Education: 2002-2006 graduate student at Brown University Interests: Maths, arts and programming Q There has been disdain for capitalism as a whole... Guillaume Marceau: This is a movement against corruption, criminality, cronyism, and regulatory capture. Decisions are...
10:19:39 AM Nov 11, 2011
It isnt called a big fat Indian wedding for nothing. It is when families " regardless of their social or economic standing " apply the full force of their bank accounts and social networks. It is when even the most tight-fisted and austere loosen their purse-strings. It is often a show of pomp a family prepares for years to put up. But, among the wealthy, a wedding is all this,...
10:55:44 AM Nov 10, 2011
Name: Irfan Razack Age: 58 Profile: CEO of Bangalore-based Prestige Constructions, a company promoted by his family Rich List Rank: 87 Wealth: $ 550 million Did You Know? The Razack family got into the real estate business while looking to buy property to avoid being taxed after the sale of their family home in the 1980s. It was 4:20 pm on an October evening in 2008, in Bangalores Whitefield suburb,...
12:33:18 PM Nov 08, 2011
Ajay Kalsi Age: 49 Profile: Founder and chief executive of London-listed oil and gas outfit Indus Gas Rank: 38 Wealth: $ 1.39 billion Did you know? He is building a new wave pool for his daughter who is fond of swimming. The pool is about the size of four Olympic pools. Ajay Kalsi of Indus Gas is known in Indian oil and gas circles as a maverick with passion. The...
12:12:36 PM Nov 08, 2011