Energise

We need to explore the scope for acquiring energy assets abroad.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, September 20

I am delighted to formally announce the first flow of crude oil from the Krishna-Godavari basin.
Mukesh Ambani, Chairman and Managing Director, Reliance Industries, September 21

For those who think these two statements made in the past two days are intellectually slippery, here’s the bottom line. More than anything else, it is energy security that will drive India’s economic growth and help drill prosperity into the country. It affects the fortunes of countries and companies, investors and consumers and most important, it brings political stability.

Opinion in Hindustan Times, September 23, 2008

Land ahoy!

Between Tata Motors’ Singur face-off and your 250 sq m plot in Delhi that’s been under siege from builders for the past three years, there’s a single binding force: transfer of property. It is the process of transfer that differentiates the first from the last — you have a choice.
In the case of mega-projects dotting the country, owners of land don’t have that choice. Here, too, if the land is acquired by a private company — a DLF acquiring 2,500 acres in Gurgaon to develop a township, for instance — and landowners get what they feel is a market rate (or higher), the transfer is smooth. Sweetening such deals is also the promise of jobs, an equity stake in the project, equivalent land elsewhere and so on.

Opinion in Hindustan Times, September 09, 2008