Best Reads On The Web This Week
Couldn’t keep pace with the news of the week? No need to worry. Here are Dr V. Anantha Nageswaran’s picks from the stories of the week:
Europe
Germany planning a modest boost to the size of its armed forces (from May 10) – missed this one.
In a display of impeccable timing, Turkish massacre of ethnic Armenians now termed genocide by German Parliament.
Did Germany ‘bless’ Erdogan’s amassing of power?
Missed this one too: a Slovak customs officer shoots and injures a migrant Syrian woman
Being trolled for exposing trolling – the story of a Finnish journalist. It is all grey out there.
India
Pratap Bhanu Mehta on why Raghuram Rajan matters
Debashis Basu on the payment banks licensing fiasco; blames it on luddites in RBI
Aberdeen Asset Management is not too concerned about a potential change at the top in RBI
Ajit Ranade and Praveen Chakravarty on the significance of India amending the double-taxation treaty with Mauritius
India must be worried as question turns to oil shortages in the future
A good slideshow on how Railways is making your travel hassle-free in India
Tata Steel might not sell Port Talbot Steel plant after all
Gary Shilling says India has plenty over China. Article mean for Bloomberg reading audience in the US.
Priya Ramani in MINT pays a moving tribute to Havildar Hangpan Dada
A must-read article by Indira Rajaraman in MINT on expenditure switching in States and traditional water management in India
Devdutt Pattanaik on the California textbook controversy on Hinduism
China
Michael Schuman writes that Xi Jinping has misplaced the keys to success in
A Chinese detergent advt. sparks outrage and it is time for introspection on racist attitudes in India too.
Bloomberg notes that Taiwan’s new President is pushing away from China. Will India respond?
America
If nothing else, this story should convince us of the naiveté of believing all that governments say.
An interesting story on Saudi SWF investment in Uber of around USD3.5bn. Uber is valued at USD62.5bn!
Negative yielding government debt now totals USD10.0trn
A good tribute to Mohammed Ali
Book Reviews
Dean of Harvard Business School is not impressed by Rana Foroohar’s new book on Finance.
A review of ‘China’s future’ – a book by David Shambaugh
General
OPEC fails to agree on oil production quota. But, it does not mean that the crude oil price falls.
The oddest moments of the opening ceremony of the Gotthard tunnel in Switzerland. As a one-time (admiring and in love, overall) resident of that country, I am not surprised, however.
You may be (deemed) stupid if you smile too often
Are you good enough to be a tennis line judge? Check out for yourself.
This article was first published here.