Top 92 Quotes & Sayings by Sucheta Dalal
Explore popular quotes and sayings by Sucheta Dalal.
Last updated on December 23, 2024.
If India is notorious for never punishing scamsters and letting politicians get away with loot, rape, murder and worse, it is because they are part of a cozy conspiracy of silence. There are innumerable instances of how politicians as a class let each other off the hook after kicking up some dust in parliament.
Look around you and you see plenty of prosperous businessmen splurging money like there was no tomorrow but paying no taxes.
The ambitious women usually work twice as hard to make up the handicap of being usually left out of the chummy male bonding that takes place over liquor.
I do know that lifting from the Net is rampant, journalists do it, students are bound to do it and obviously a lot of academics are also doing it.
India needs fresh thinking and quick decision-making to get out of the stifling bind of its galloping population and deadly poverty.
We like to joke that India has sick companies but rich promoters. Yet, even after the bad loans and non-payment of dues have turned at least three banks sick, there is no public demand for investigation, accountability and punishment.
Bloomberg does not cater to the Indian audience. It does display Indian stock indices, and during trading hours has a ticker tape of Indian stocks running across the bottom, but then so do most of the news channels.
The existence of glass ceilings in the corporate sector has been extensively researched and documented and there is no need to reiterate the fact. Women are also, usually paid less then men for the same jobs and are grossly under-represented at the top of the corporate pyramid.
Everybody loves to receive gifts and free goodies, and often parents are loath to look out for hidden strings attached to corporate freebies.
From toothpastes to crayons, instant noodles, chocolates and energy drinks, corporate India is now promoting these in schoolrooms.
Large and profitable newspapers have the ability to drop the cover price of their publications to increase circulation - this, in turn, attracts the advertising bucks and makes them more powerful.
Being an office bearer of a housing society is a thankless job that everyone wants to shirk.
Clearly, rules governing advertising aimed at children differ dramatically from one country to another. At the same time, multinational companies are selling their products across the globe. The need, therefore, is to evolve an international code on such advertisements.
Secured debentures of the non-convertible variety were the rage in the mid-1980s, but their glamour ended on their maturity when it became obvious that there was nothing secured about them.
India is no stranger to crises - wars, hijackings, plane crashes - we have seen them all.
At the end of the day, you have to admit that it's just not cricket anymore; it is a multi-billion-dollar entertainment industry, that has to be viewed in a correct and sober perspective.
The truth is that development of public transport facilities needs government funding or cheap loans.
As a parent, would you not endorse a decision by your child's school, which encourages her to read a newspaper everyday? In fact, you would be even more approving if the prescribed newspaper was a leading national daily.
Logically, it may be argued that banks could indeed lower interest rates and make up their profits through larger borrowing volumes. But banks, in turn, could justify exorbitant rates by arguing that they cater to a riskier segment.
Even in private e-mail groups, it is journalists who seem outraged, anguished and disheartened at what has been described as the 'prostitution' of news; the reader response is always lukewarm.
It is worth asking if advertisements are ever an effective counter against negative publicity. International experience shows that it depends on the issue.
An ordinary person who wants to invest in the stock market or a mutual fund, or simply open a saving bank account, is bombarded by ever increasing compliance regulations under the pretext of automation, efficiency, better governance or prevention of money laundering.
People have so little faith in their elected representatives that they expect the media to push government into action. Yet, for all the hysteria that we hacks may whip up, it has little long-term impact.
Sachin Tendulkar is undoubtedly India's biggest national icon. Being the object of a billion people's adoration is a tough job.
The good news is that the credibility of the Net is already a subject of much research and discussion and there is a serious effort to go beyond surfing tools and lists of 'best' and 'useful' sites.
The fact that technology makes it so easy to misuse personal information and encroach on a persons privacy has triggered a debate over whether Indias privacy laws are adequate to protect people.
Industrialists have begun to realise that they would probably be better at influencing policy themselves, rather than depend on some political stooge or corrupt bureaucrat.
Apart from World Cup merchandising, television companies and game-specific advertising, you see restaurants and bars working overtime to drag people into their eateries with the lure of large projection screens and special World Cup menus.
Although television and newspapers have played the biggest role in hyping up the World Cup, they are at the lowest end of the megabuck chain.
Putting an end to usurious rates is not going to be as simple as asking banks to lay down internal guidelines, policies and procedures.
We are living in a globalised world and most of us are worried stiff about powerful interest groups steadily pushing India towards obscurantist and fundamentalist beliefs and regressive economic policies.
While the middle class is bled dry to meet various the expenditure of a bloated government machinery, every revenue collection agency is busy extorting money instead of ensuring compliance.
Driving to work is a nightmare in most Indian cities; people do it because they have little choice.
Netizens and site operators must find ways to police themselves in order to keep government interference to a minimum.
The sales tax, excise and property registration departments are all more eager to collect cash in their drawers than to collect for the government's coffers.
Indias rapid economic growth has mainly been due to the dismantling of government controls. An attempt to reintroduce monopolistic pricing must be strongly opposed.
Mobile users happily suffer bad connections, dropped calls, inaccessible networks and pay higher charges for services that would have caused endless annoyance on a fixed line.
Motherhood, pester power and emotional blackmail - Indian marketers have cottoned on to the fact that these three themes can sell just about anything - from food and toys, to insurance products, tonics, televisions and air-conditioners.
India has no shortage of deserving causes or good leaders; there is only short supply of activists and people who are willing to support their causes.
Companies know that children have disproportionate influence over their parents' purse strings.
I have missed meetings because a Speed Post from a government office reached after the meeting. But these are rare blips in a large network.
By creating a minority quota in lending the government is clearly playing politics and wants to fatten its vote banks, whether or not it makes commercial sense.
The postal department does indeed undertake a lot of thankless work and is forced to provide services below cost for bookpost and the like. The answer may lie in some form of a universal service obligation fund, not price-fixing.
India has a high level of corruption, a lethargic bureaucracy and is low on accountability. Investigations are long drawn and often aimless; those in power are rarely sacked for incompetence unless the media sets up a serious clamour for justice.
It is true that Indian Airlines often behaves exactly like the government does. It is stingy with information, designates junior officials to deal with the serious task of communicating with the relatives and the people, and is often simply insensitive.
A broker who discovers an undervalued stock does not advertise it until he has bought a large enough quantity without letting the price go up. When the brokers' connection with a stock becomes public knowledge, it is usually a sure sign of manipulation and that the broker is seeking to drive up the price.
A variety of list builders, universities and non-governmental orgainsations are focussing attention on the accuracy and reliability of information on Web sites.
Even in downtown office areas, people would probably beg for a shuttle bus service to ferry them swiftly to the railway stations and bus stations, instead of forcing them to travel squashed up in shared-taxis.
The Bombay-Pune Expressway, a spanking, modern, six-lane highway will, when completed, be India's first truly international road constructed on the lines of the autobahn or the turnpike.
The paper's self-confessed love affair is with the advertiser and its flourishing bottomline gives it the power to desecrate editorial space and express the confident view that all other media houses will soon follow its example.
India is a little different from the developed world because discipline of any kind is alien to us. Along with the right to spit in public, we will resist all attempts to discipline our driving. As pedestrians, we will cross any road at will, and as cops, we will view traffic offences as business opportunities.
Advertisers with their bag of goodies and promotions have entered classrooms and begun to put up billboards and posters inside schools. They persuade cash-starved schools into opening their doors to them by paying for access to classrooms and space for their advertising material and promotions.
I am not knocking the Net as a research tool. It is the best, and obviously, life has never been better for students.
In the informal hierarchy of the information media, the printed word is still considered the most credible. I am not quite sure why this is so, because television allows you to witness the unfolding of events yourself.
The savvy investor is one who does not believe every rumor on the street and learns to read between the lines of newspaper reports.
Technology is changing so fast that investment in hardware is getting riskier everyday. On the other hand, whether it is traditional computers or smart gadgets which are part of the convergence technologies of the future, some planning of hardware needs is still important.
While readers know that advertisements keep the product cost low, they still buy a newspaper for its editorial content and not for its advertisements.
The message for the smart investor is to watch out. Do not get carried away with news reports and turn smart by pooling information with like-minded investors.
It is an open secret that customs officers pay millions in bribes to secure the lucrative posting in the airport, cargo terminals or ports.
A columnist is not a doctor, who diagnoses the disease and dispenses instant medicine. My job is to highlight problems, investigate issues, to provide factual information, and if necessary, goad the people into action - that too is not easy in the current political and business environment.
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