Indian Economy

In 2014, the Modi government announced five new IITs. TI's 2014 debate: would new institutes expand opportunity — or dilute the quality the IIT brand rests on?

iGATE fired CEO Phaneesh Murthy in May 2013 after a board probe into an undisclosed relationship with a subordinate — eleven years after his Infosys

Uninor trained auto drivers, milkmen and newspaper vendors to sell SIM cards door-to-door in Maharashtra — an industry-first sales experiment.

In Jaipur, Kanhaiya Lal begged for help for 40 minutes after a truck rammed his motorcycle, killing his wife Guddi and their infant daughter.

IIM Lucknow cut PGP fees 10%, from Rs 12 lakh to Rs 10.80 lakh — a first among IIMs, under director Devi Singh and chairman JJ Irani.

Prema Jayakumar, 24, scored 607 out of 800 to top the all-India CA exam, studying in a 300 sq ft Malad chawl while her father drove an autorickshaw.

In 2013, with growth halved and scandals mounting, the dragon-versus-elephant debate looked settled. A decade later, the race had a different leader.

David Coleman Headley received 35 years in a U.S. federal prison for scouting the 2008 Mumbai targets, spared the death penalty by his cooperation.

In October 2012, Arvind Kejriwal alleged a quid pro quo between Robert Vadra and DLF. DLF and the Congress denied it. What was claimed — and denied.

As FDI in multi-brand retail opened up in September 2012, the fear was Walmart would change India. The counter-argument: India would change Walmart.

In September 2012, Mamata Banerjee withdrew TMC support over FDI in retail — and Manmohan Singh's UPA government held on anyway.

The Indian Staffing Federation projected FDI in retail would create 10 million jobs in a decade. The claim, the opposition's rebuttal, and why the number

In September 2012 the Manmohan Singh government allowed 51% FDI in multi-brand retail — the boldest reform of UPA-II, and the one that cost it an ally.

Suzuki's chairman donned a turban in New Delhi and talked history — Sanjay Gandhi, Maruti, and the Indian judge Japan still reveres.

The UK Border Agency revoked London Metropolitan University's visa licence in August 2012, leaving 2,600 international students 60 days to find a new sponsor.

After the July 18, 2012 Manesar violence that killed HR manager Awanish Kumar, Maruti Suzuki reportedly sought vaastu expert Daivajna K N Somayaji's advice.

The July 2012 India blackout was the largest in history — 600+ million people across 22 states, as the northern, eastern and northeastern grids collapsed.

A Mayawati statue near the Ambedkar Memorial in Lucknow was beheaded in July 2012, days after the UP Navnirman Sena threatened to tear down her statues.

Ethnic clashes between Bodos and Bengali Muslims erupted in Assam's Kokrajhar and Chirang in July 2012, killing dozens and displacing 400,000 people.

Pranab Mukherjee was sworn in as India's 13th President on July 25, 2012, in Parliament's Central Hall, succeeding Pratibha Patil.

Karnataka ended the IT industry's decade-long exemption from the 1946 Industrial Employment (Standing Orders) Act — and Bangalore's software companies saw

In 2011-12, guar gum prices exploded from Rs 30 to over Rs 500 a kilo as America's shale-fracking boom devoured the crop — turning Rajasthan's farmers into

A July 2012 controversy in Andhra Pradesh: reports that some candidates secured engineering seats via EAMCET counseling despite scoring near zero on the exam.

2G, coal, Commonwealth Games: India's corruption isn't a few bad apples — it's structural. How opacity got woven into how the country actually runs.

India's famously low-crime villages — like doorless Shani Shingnapur in Maharashtra — run on community trust and panchayat dispute resolution, not locks.

In June 2012 Sachin Tendulkar took oath as a Rajya Sabha member — the first active cricketer nominated to India's Upper House, and a political lightning rod.

After the Andhra Pradesh High Court struck down the 4.5% minority sub-quota within OBC reservation in May 2012, the IITs decided to ignore it for JEE

The 1,360-km India-Myanmar-Thailand Trilateral Highway — agreed in 2002, perpetually delayed and re-announced. India's road to Southeast Asia.

A Gujarat village school made national news in 2012 with air-conditioned classrooms — inspiring, startling, and a window into India's rural education gap.

After years of speculation, Nita Ambani gave Vanity Fair its first look inside Antilia in 2012 — and settled the rumors about whether the family had ever

The 2012 plan for free internet on Indian Railways was about more than passenger comfort: ambition, infrastructure reality, and the long road to railway Wi-Fi.

Sham marriages between siblings and paid foreign partners were a known immigration-fraud route. The mechanics, the detection — and the desperation behind them.

India was working toward the Washington Accord, which would give its engineering graduates international credential recognition. Two years later, it happened.

In March 2012 India granted its first compulsory drug license: Natco Pharma could make a generic version of Bayer's cancer drug Nexavar at a fraction of the

Plans for the world's largest Hindu temple in Bihar, modeled on Cambodia's Angkor Wat, drew devotion and doubt in equal measure. The story behind the plan.

Prem Ganapathy reached Mumbai in 1990 with Rs 200 and was robbed on arrival. By 1992 he was selling dosas from a handcart near Vashi station; that cart

Forbes called reclusive 5-Hour Energy founder Manoj Bhargava the wealthiest Indian in America in 2012 — worth $1.5 billion, though almost nobody knew his name.

From The India Way to Indra Nooyi: what the 2010 debate about Indian leadership got right — and how the decade that followed confirmed it.

On November 23, 2011, Tata Sons named 43-year-old Cyrus Mistry deputy chairman — heir to Ratan Tata and the $84 billion Tata group.

On November 24, 2011, the cabinet approved 51% FDI in multi-brand retail — then suspended the decision within days. The story of India's most politically

A reader meets Maneka Gandhi at a People for Animals launch and finds her hour-long talk impressive. A brief 2011 snapshot.

Mukesh Ambani's 27-storey Antilia was called the world's most expensive home — and sat empty amid reports its owners feared bad luck. Inside the 2011 story.

Manmohan Singh skips the 2011 Commonwealth summit in Perth — and the reason is Australia's refusal to sell uranium to non-NPT India.

A new generation of Mumbai's underworld families is walking away from the family business — training as pilots, doctors, engineers and bankers instead.

In September 2011, speculation swirled that Nandan Nilekani might quit UIDAI as Aadhaar faced opposition from within government — including the Home Ministry.

In 2011, World Bank economist Justin Lin forecast China would be twice the US economy by 2030. The forecast's hit-and-miss record is instructive.

From Indra Nooyi to Satya Nadella and Sundar Pichai — how Indian-origin executives came to lead the world's biggest corporations.

Rajya Sabha MP Amar Singh was arrested on September 6, 2011 in the 2008 cash-for-votes scam and sent to Tihar Jail after a dramatic courtroom appearance.

As CAG, Vinod Rai's 2G audit pegged the spectrum loss at Rs 1.76 lakh crore — and made a quiet auditor the most feared man in Indian public life.

A Bangalore call-center firm could hire only 3 of every 100 graduates in 2011, exposing India's employability gap and the failures of its education system.

April 4, 2011: Parliament’s PAC questioned Ratan Tata and Niira Radia on the 2G spectrum case — Joshi called Tata candid and Radia evasive.

Placements are back, and IIT students are refusing employer bonds — asking recruiters to earn their commitment with better incentives instead.

A story did the rounds in 2010: a Mumbai chemist shop paying Rs 42 lakh a month in rent. On why the anecdote's plausibility was the real story.

Ratan Tata moved the Supreme Court claiming the leaked Niira Radia tapes violated his right to privacy. On the collision of public interest and private

2G spectrum, the Commonwealth Games, Adarsh, the Radia tapes, Karnataka mining, UP foodgrain, the IPL franchise row — on the scandals defining India in late

With season two of Pune Fashion Week announced, Maharashtra's second city is staking a claim against Mumbai and Delhi as a fashion destination.

Nepal planned to import India's Haryana and Sahiwal cow breeds to lift dairy output — a deal as much about shared heritage as milk.

In 2011 Google acquired a face-recognition startup — and then refused to ship the technology. The story of the one product Google held back.