"I wish one day I could play in Kashmir. I will cancel every appointment to come and do that.”
Zubin Mehta, music maestro,
The Free Press Journal, July 24, 2012
"I often say fear is good;
nothing wrong with a bit of fear.
It keeps you from misbehaving
too much... people are thinking twice about what they are
doing and are asked to sign.”
Zia Mody, managing partner, AZB and Partners, Mint, July 23, 2012
"Early on in life, one tends to be driven by ‘B (Business)-school thinking.’ But over time, you learn that your intuition matters. If it doesn’t feel right, don’t do it, no matter how good the numbers.”
Farhad Forbes, director, Forbes Marshall, The Economic Times, August 3, 2012
"The solution to bad governance
is not more government, but
more transparency and less government. Case-by-case clearances by the government leads to corruption and should be minimized.
All government deals should be transparent, preferably by auctions. If you move in that direction,
corruption will come down.”
Adi Godrej, president, Confederation
of Indian Industry (CII), The
Economic Times, April 23, 2012
"You will hear several times a day on radio and TV: ‘It’s disgraceful that (insert some atrocity) is happening in the 21st century’ — as if our present times were guaranteed automatic moral superiority
over all previous ages.”
The Salisbury Review, Spring 2012,
reprinted in Freedom First, May 2012
"As a student I was a conservative... But when I joined the House of Lords, I gave up my party membership and became an independent. This gives me absolute freedom to voice my opinions without any influence.”
Karan Bilimoria, founder of Cobra beer, The Financial Express, March 23, 2012
"The problem with political
jokes is they get elected.”
Henry Cate VII, quoted by Karan Thapar, Hindustan Times, September 16, 2012
"I can tell the Parsis are declining because every year the number
of those in the audience whose phones go off has risen. My idea is to ban non-Parsis from the SOI (Symphony Orchestra of India).”
Aakar Patel, writer and columnist,
Mint, September 8, 2012
"Dr (Subramanian) Swamy
ended on friendly terms with
Ms Indira Gandhi. I did not. Ms Gandhi did make some friendly overtures, I never responded. I disapproved entirely of how she turned the whole country upside down to hold power... She was tyrannical, dictatorial and corrupt.”
Roxna Swamy, Supreme Court advocate, Mint, February 9, 2013
"If you have a desk bound
job where you hardly leave
your desk all day, you burn
about 300 calories a day. A
farmer, on the other hand,
burns 2,300 calories per day.”
Dr Sujata Kelkar Shetty, writer
and research scientist, Mint,
January 15, 2013
"We are not a samosa company trying to sell salad. We are a
biscuit company trying to sell healthier biscuits; a bread company trying to sell healthier bread.”
Vinita Bali, managing director and chief executive officer, Britannia Industries,
part of the Wadia group of companies
Mint, December 19, 2012
"It is a travesty that despite an
adequate quantity of food
produced in the country, the
standard of living of over 400
million Indians is one of the worst in the world. Our statistics on
nutrition are so sad that we
should hang our head in shame.”
Nusli Wadia, chairman, Wadia Group,
Business Standard, November 5, 2012
"My love for dogs as pets is
ever strong and will continue for
as long as I live. There is an indescribable sadness every time a pet passes away and I resolve I cannot go through another parting of that nature. And yet, two-three years down the road, my home becomes too empty and too quiet for me
to live without them.”
Ratan Tata, chairman emeritus,
Tata Group, Tata Sons’ website reprinted
in DNA, December 7, 2012
"We aim to spend Rs 350 crore over around seven years. We will empower communities and then exit — that is the strategy.”
Zarina Mehta, founder, Swades Foundation,
Mint, August 18, 2012
"The moment somebody opens a shop, that guy becomes easy prey. If you are opening a restaurant, the food inspector will come, (a) cop will come and the first thing he will do is put up a ‘no parking’ sign in front of your shop. There is a quid pro quo there to remove that sign.”
Subroto Bagchi, executive chairman
and co-founder, Mindtree, Mint,
September 29, 2012
"Loss is a matter of fact and
profit and gain is a matter of opinion. So if you understand these principles we will be able
to judge. Our perception will become more sound, and we
know where the shoe pinches.”
Sarosh H. Kapadia, former Chief
Justice of India, Hindustan Times,
September 23, 2012
"The US Congress is now less
popular than root canals, National Football League (NFL) replacement referees, head lice, the
rock band Nickelback, colonoscopies, carnies, traffic jams, cockroaches, Donald Trump, France, Genghis Khan, used car salesmen and Brussel sprouts.”
Results of a survey conducted by The
Public Policy Polling in the USA, DNA, January 10, 2013