Category: Interviews
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Telecom pricing, ARPU have hit rock bottom, can only go up: Airtel’s Vittal
By Aparajita Gupta, Gurugram : With fierce ongoing battle in the telecom sector, which is making telecom companies’ balance sheet bleed, Gopal Vittal, MD and CEO (India and South Asia), Bharti Airtel feels that pricing level and ARPU have reached rock bottom and now can only move up. “I think we have hit the bottom…
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Women’s empowerment can deliver green outcomes: Marshall Islands President
By Vishal Gulati, Da Nang (Vietnam) : Women everywhere still face everyday disadvantages. Empowering them will unlock new potential to tackle environmental challenges, President of the Marshall Islands, Hilda C. Heine, has said. “The GEF (Global Environment Facility) has long emphasised on gender – still, every woman, especially in our Pacific nations, needs to walk…
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We didn’t expect major escalation after surgical strikes, as Pak capability is limited: Ex-GoC, Northern Command
By Mohd Asim Khan, New Delhi : The Indian side was prepared for escalation — in case Pakistan chose to do so — while conceiving and executing the 2016 surgical strikes by crossing the Line of Control (LoC) along the Jammu and Kashmir border, according to the army general who oversaw the strikes. “We had…
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‘Writings in Indian languages more authentic than in English’
By Vishnu Makhijani, New Delhi : Writings in Indian languages are more authentic than in English because they present a truer picture of Indian life, says multi-faceted Malayalam author Chandrika Balan, whose oeuvre includes 20 books in her mother tongue and four critical books and 36 research papers in English — and two of whose…
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We want to bring Artificial Intelligence to aam aadmi: Lenovo
By Gokul Bhagabati, New Delhi : With Artificial Intelligence (AI) catching the imagination of all and sundry but its implementation being largely restricted to a few global giants, Chinese technology major Lenovo says it has put in place a system that allows even organisations with limited means to leverage the power of AI. AI is…
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Plastic straws just one example of curse to nature: UN Environment chief Erik Solheim
By Vishal Gulati, Da Nang (Vietnam) : Plastic drinking straws are just one example of some of the pointless plastic products that have proved to be a curse for the environment, United Nations Environment head Erik Solheim has said. “We also have pointless packaging, pointless plastic bags and huge quantities of other products that are…
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Blockchain technology to transform financial services sector: NSE CTO
By Gokul Bhagabati, Panaji : With digitisation transforming the financial services sector in terms of speeding up transactions and fraud detection, the Blockchain technology holds enormous promise of further strengthening the sector, a top official with The National Stock Exchange of India Limited (NSE) has emphasised. “The NSE is experimenting with Blockchain technology, a NSE…
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Tea Board must become ‘facilitator’ instead of ‘regulator’: Chairman
By Bappaditya Chatterjee, Kolkata : Some “radical steps” envisaged by the central government for re-defining the role of the Tea Board have been put on the “back burner” though its performance is still “under the scanner”, its Chairman Prabhat K. Bezboruah has said. The Union Commerce Ministry has asked the Indian Institute of Foreign Trade…
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With 90% tax on petrol & diesel, bringing them under GST impractical: NITI Aayog Vice Chairman
By Vishav, New Delhi : Petroleum is the taxation milch cow for the central and the state governments and it is unlikely to be brought under the Goods and Services Tax (GST) any time soon. That’s also the view of the Vice Chairman of Niti Aayog, Rajiv Kumar. Several senior ministers have demanded that petroleum…
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Uttarakhand expects more tourism after Yoga Day: Trivendra Rawat
By Rajnish Singh, Dehradun : As Uttarakhand hosts the fourth International Yoga Day on Thursday, Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat feels that the event may help attract more tourists to the state, creating more job and business opportunities. The reason Rawat thinks the yoga day will boost tourism is because of the presence of Prime…