Links read on 31st December 2013

Shashi Tharoor's 4.5 years report - One of the first MPs to do so. sonyvellayani.com/
Statistics on how China is doing on research front. There are more Chinese researchers than that in Europe. TheAge.com. No mention of India is somewhat depressing.
Story of India's Low Cost carriers and lessons learnt. BS
Statistics showing India missed the structural transformation on manufacturing sector despite being in a better position than China. Gulzar
Convincing article on why Narendra Modi should do something other than Congress bashing. HT
LiveMint on how absence of Gas is making matters worse for Dabhol - Ratnagiri project.
Rs. 5000+ crore is what is being asked by political parties as damage for Phalin cyclone. ET
2014 is going to be much like 2013: Blackrose. Business Insider

Wish you a happy new year 2014

Links read on 30th December 2013

Santosh Desai on how desire for change is changing India and democracy. TOI
Coffee doesn't stunt growth. Good news for coffee. smithsonianmag.com
Mihir Sharma comparing NaMO, Kejriwal and Rahul Gandhi's economic ways. BS
One more incident of Indian student assaulted in Australia. TOI
Look of returns on Investments in India in 2014 - Equity and Real Estate lead the way. WSJ
Humorous column on Dhoom 3 Stupidusmaximus
Brilliant pictures of the year by Aniruddha
M&As in 2014 Livemint.

Links read on 27th December 2013

Only one link should suffice for the day. This link 'The Best journalism of 2013' contains links to the longreads of 2013.

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/currency/2013/12/the-best-business-journalism-of-2013.html

Links read on 26th December 2013

Where are India's energy strategic planners? DeccanHerald
How 2013 has been loss of leadership for US and the UK BS
Online NaMo store TheHinduBusinessline
MNC's interested in setting up factories for defense goods manufacturing - Sharma.  Firstpost
Atal Bihari Vajpayee remembered as the most able PM after Shastri Campus
IIP database to be revamped. BS
Railway cops rescue 1650 children. DNA
Kerala worst off for safe drinking water TOI

Links read on 25th December 2013

Sanctuary for rare rhino to be built in Indonesia. DDNews
A glance of Delhi electricity cost figures shows why it is extremely difficult to reduce Delhi electricity bill by 50% as promised by AAP. BS
Sanand villagers get money for giving away their land. 400+ crorepatis overnight. TOI. But good to see money actually getting distributed
LNG Petronet's 20 year LNG import contract questioned by GAIL, one of its major stakeholders after 3+ years of signing. Interesting dynamics being played on the uncertain gas and oil prices.  Firstpost.
2013- A successful year for ISRO. ForbesIndia
Now BJP's turn to probe Vadra deals. ET
Has Obama concluded that India is dispensible? - MJAkbar in TOI. A very interesting article. TOI
French major Dassault carries out gap analysis within HAL. Indo-French avbiation deal worth Rs 60000 cr. firstPost

Links read on 24th December 2013

SMS to be considered as a proof of government documents ET
Uddhav Thakeray draws line on Maharashtra for NaMO. Interesting standpoint. NDTV
Japanese PM to be the chief guest at Republic Day celebrations Firstpost
Roti-making machine Zimplistic WSJ
The Twitter story in India - Leaving the Nest  Caravan
The inventor of A K 47 is no more. Kalashnikov. RT.com
Morgan Stanley MF in India to be sold to HDFC, Reuters. One of the many MFs that shall wind down on account of consolidation in this industry
India's 'LokPal' needs watching. Bloomberg
Mobile messaging leader Whatsapp lends the industry a proper metric to measure success - Number of active users and the number of messages shared per day. AllThingsd
K V Kamath on observations and ideas that helped him shape strategy at ICICI. ET

Links read on 23th December 2013

Accord sales drop to below 300. Honda to discontinue Accord in India ET
America does have an unwritten China Strategy TheDiplomat
Exodus at Infosys FE
Suggestions for improvement for the loss making BSNL to get profitable. TelecomTalk
Advanced Pricing Agreement v/s Safe Harbours FE
Light Combat Aircraft Tejas can be a game changer for Indian Air Force if all goes well. Firstpost
PET bottles for packaging of medicines may soon be banned. Bad news for petrochem and the pharma players. Business Standard
Things getting tough for the NSA. Contract of NSA with a computer security pioneer RSA worth $10 million out in open Reuters
One year for Cyrus Mistry at the helm of the Tata Group. FE
Deepak Shenoy on the Inflation Linked bond, CapitalMind

Links read on 21st December 2013

Gold heading for the biggest annual loss in 32 years. Livemint
Adarsh scam report = Outright dismissal by the Maharashtra cabinet. Livemint
Evidence of a surgery that is too complicated even now found to be done in Peru 1000+ years back. Proving yet again that science and medicine were very advanced 1000 years back.Noozhawk
Pollution returns to Shanghai. Grave situation there. Bloomberg
How there was a phenomenol pressre from govt for the Tesco- Trent deal. TOI
A hilarious year-end piece listing down major events in 2012 in an unreal manner from Jan to April. KBalaKumar
Kapil Sharma has finally arrived - India's prominent comedian. Forbes India
Virat Kohli - A gladiator. Forbes India
A rather angry Shekhar Gupta. on the Indo-US diplomatic row. Indian Express

Links read on 20th December 2013

Dynamic pricing for Indian railway experiment between Mumbai-Delhi. Firstpost
Breathtaking photographs of 2013 BusinessInsider
Storyful (A company I never previously heard of- Seems pretty interesting company)  acquired by News Corp. TechCrunch
While we in India revise the inflation numbers upwards, the US GDP figures have been revised upwards. US now growing at a 4+% BBC
How Ben Bernarke's ideas and plans worked despite the recession and the lawmakers. Washington Post
Statistical evidence that economy is playing an important role for Indian voters. Carnegieendowmwnt
An oped on how India needs a different foreign policy for each of its neighbour. the hindu
National Skills qualification framework approved by Cabinet. Northern Voices Online
Way to generate a list PhD Comic

Links read on 19th December

Excellent analysis of socio-economic trends in Mizarom and RBI's plan for the state RBI
Interesting new perspective on the diplomat - maid row in India; wherein Sandhya Jain throws up the possibility of the maid being a spy. Quite believable argument. NitiCentral
Flipkart records 5 times turnover but losses widen. Livemint
CPI linked savings certificate - Looks to be a good product for conservative investors.BusinessToday
Fed tapering can be beneficial to rein inflation TheHinduBusinessLine
Government minting money in nuclear project. Indiaspend
Chinese and US war-ships avoid near collision. BBC. Things getting real messy on account of the territorial issues.Indianexpress
Fogg takes top position in Indian deo market Marketing practice
Trans-Pacific trade pact delayed and an oped on how US is safegaurding itself and reducing the impact of WTO multilateral deals by entering into regional pacts. Business Standard

Links I read on 18th December 2013

5 innovation predictions by IBM for the next 5 years VentureBeat
The 5 eyes - Secret psionage Alliance of 5 nations led by USA. FT
Workoholic Mamta Banerjee holding record number of meetings at local level. Firstpost
Melting Arctic - Analysis and how new trade routes can open up in the future CFR.org
US Germany partnership seems to falter over issues of intelligence spying Deccan Herald
Salil Tripathi on how growing inequality and foreigners inflow in Singapore can pose to be a major problem in the future.Livemint
Asia's increasing chocolate demand - Its effect on cocoa supply, prices and margins of chocolate producers Livemint
Meeta Sengupta on domestic help and their necessity.
Brazil does tit for tat against the US Theage.com. Lesson for India.
Lessons on leadership- How to lead during sustained chaos.  DNA

Links read on 17th December

India imported around 6 million ton of crude oil from Iran this fiscal until now. FirstPost
Rs. 48000 crore fuel under recoveries burden await next government. DNA
Over Rs. 70000 crore railway projects yet to take off. Caught in red tape. ET
Has the son of India's richest person killed 2 persons Millennium Post
Power using coal is quite as much lethal as the nuclear power production. Guardian
Mahindra's plans in agriculture. Seem pretty big. HT
Courses on Metros - Indian Metro Rail Technology HT
Cracks in India's banking system begin to appear. Livemint
Abenomics - Work in Progress - A nice summary of things in the Japanese economy. Live Mint
Illa Patnaik on how India's prime reason for rising CPI is supply side constraints and the storage and logistics infrastructure. Indian Express
How the UK plans of shale gas are being threatened by the EU laws. France leads in opposition. Telegraph
Reactions to Dhoom 3 tickets being sold for Rs. 900. Some are seriously funny DNA

Links read on 16th December 2013

How schools are ignoring artists especially in cities Ecophilo
GOSF proved to be a huge hit Trak.in
61.5% of the web traffic is not human. The Atlantic on how online traffic is BOTS dominated
Alphabet of the obsolete. List of obsolete things. Bits and Pieces
China becomes the third nation to soft land a vehicle on the moon. CBC news
Universe on a verge of collapse. Firstpost
Opportunity to create 2 lakh R&D jobs by 2018 ET
Japan Myanmar sign Investment pact. ABC News
Al-Qaeda getting more dangerous and powerful NewsInfo
A rough analysis on how shareholding pattern over a period of time can provide a glimpse of how companies perform. Prash.wordpress

Links I read on 13th December 2013

India's Metro cheapest in the world. Business Today
India to help Afghanistan to buy weapons. DNA
Air India in talks to join Star Alliance. ET
500 companies to create 2 lakh jobs by 2018 Live Mint
Intel investors feels threatened on news of Google developing chip manufacturing base .Livemint
Telecom sector current situation. Seems positive. Livemint
Reliance all set to enter the generics pharma sector. Livemint
Long read on how Maruti has been closely working with its vendors to increase supply chain efficiency and delivery. Business Standard

Links for 12th December 2013

Vivek Kaul on Volcker's rule. Firstpost Link
Indian pharma to launch generics for anti-depressants Business Standard
Sandip Sabarwal on how gold and silver are technically poised for a big drop in prices
Indian government in trouble yet again on defense procurement Indian Express
Genetic modified food, Monsanto and publisher Elsevier - A perspective from Monsanto Makanaka
BJP looking to be all set for a massive Mumbai rally Firstpost
Predictions for 2014 with respect to economy - India and world in General. Business Standard
R-Jio, Bharti seem to be expediting things for 4G rool-out. Indian Express
Excellent link for knowing what chemicals and ingredients are present in different cosmetic products. Specialchem

Links I read on 11th December 2013

A humorous comic at Tumblr
MIT reinvented the wheel - Copenhagen Wheel Digg
Stricter insider norms by SEBI Business Today
How SEBI is maiing it tight for new funds to be launched Firstpost
An interview with an MP from PPP (Pakistan) Pragati
Bloomberg on how the Volcker rule is right mostly.
How estimating the box office collections is getting tougher amid jacked up numbers by filmmakers. Reuters
A rare pact between Jordan, Israel and Palestein on water. Deccan Herald
One hand shake can mean so many things for US's foreign policy. HT
BSE offer price between Rs. 400 to 1000 CrFinancial Express
The devil is in detail w.r.t agriculture. FE

Links I read on 10th December 2013

Bitcon and its advantages for financial innovation National View

Fiat now turns profitable ET

Young people in China moving away from cities to avoid pollution. China news

Technology firms unite to fight against government surveillance BBC

Professor Bibek Debroy on PM's public darshans

How things that hurt make us stronger alittledisorder.com

India prepared for taper  Financial Express

No equity investment allowed for PFs. Finanical Express

Bank defaulters and NPAs Outlook

A good read from Huffington Post on making others happy

Case for a reform in Libor or a new benchmark Voxeu

Reading Links for 9th December 2013

An opinion on how India cannot seem to decide for itself what it wants out of WTO. Business Standard Link
India and its self created cliff Business Standard
Christians are allowed to not work on Sunday Christian Today
The US-Iran deal fine print - Long read from Defense Analysis Link
What BJP can learn from AAP Ecophilo
India's Assembly Election Results analysis Tumblr
Shakti Shetty on Nelson Mandela
Meteor shower in USA. Northern News
PMs speech at Hindustan Times summit
The situation in Thailand Asia Times

Links for 7th December 2013

Violence in Central Africa kills hundreds Zee News
The crisis in manufacturing Live Mint
Japan reacts to Chinese aggression SCMP.com
Government provides subsidies to Sugar mill manufacturers - Making of a new scam Newslaundary
Need for a media plan for Armed Forces Business Standard
Vikram Sood Blog on why India has to be there for Sri Lanka
510 million Aadhar cards issued. - A feat in itself. Trak.in
Wockhardt looks to be in trouble yet again. Live Mint Link

The stuff I am reading today - 6th December 2013

India's election technology sought by other countries - DNA Link
29 years to the Bhopal Gas tragedy. Reuters Blog link
An eye opening post Macaulays Children on how Hindus are losing pride in traditions. Blogger link
Chinese Aggression and its impact Daily mail link
Nelson Mandela in India photographs. Firstpost
Johnson and Johnson in trouble again. First post link
German Manufacturing Lessons Gulzar (Urbanomics)
Niti Central on Article 370 NitiCentral