Shekhar Shah, Director General of the economic think tank, National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER), tells Vrishti Beniwal how he plans to strike a balance between market expectations and the research interests of its faculty.

Q&A: Shekhar Shah, Director General, NCAER

Business Standard

No matter which brand of medicine the doctor prescribes, low-cost alternatives may soon be just an SMS away for patients across India, Srikant Kumar Jena, Union minister of state for chemicals and fertilisers, tells Joe C Mathew. He talks of the ministry&rsquo;s efforts on availability of affordable drugs.

Q&A: Srikant Jena, Union Minister of State for Chemicals and Fertilisers

The Food Safety &amp; Standards Rules, 2011, replacing the 50-year-old Prevention of Food Adulteration Act, will come into effect in August. P I Suvrathan, chairperson, Food Safety and Standards Authority of India, spoke to Nivedita Mookerji on the objective of the new law, challenges in introducing it and more.

Q&A: P I Suvrathan, Chairperson, Food Safety and Standards Authority of India

Predecessor Kamal Nath&rsquo;s target of constructing 20 km a day of national highways did not work out, but road transport and highways minister C P Joshi thinks the target is achievable once project award is on track. In an interview with Mihir Mishra &amp; Jyoti Mukul, the mild-mannered Joshi admits to giving the Planning Commission a much greater say than earlier.

Q&A: C P Joshi, Union minister, Road transport & highways

Karnataka Congress President G Parameshwar tells Aditi Phadnis why his party wants the B S Yeddyurappa government to go.

Q&A: G Parameshwar, Karnataka Congress President

In an interview on CNN-IBN&rsquo;s Devil&rsquo;s Advocate programme, Home Minister P Chidambaram tells Karan Thapar the goof-up in the list of most wanted terrorists provided to Pakistan will be a wake-up call for investigative agencies.

Q&A: P Chidambaram, Home Minister

After almost 17 years, the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Ficci) has to do without its veteran secretary general, Amit Mitra, who has now become finance minister of West Bengal. In his place, Ficci has appointed its director general, Rajiv Kumar, 59, a reputed economist. He talks to Indivjal Dhasmana and Sanjeeb Mukherjee on the new charge.

Q&A: Rajiv Kumar, Secretary General, Ficci

The Maharashtra government&rsquo;s decision to grant a floor space index (FSI) of 3 for 16,302 old and dilapidated buildings in Mumbai and to redevelop sector five of the Dharavi slum is expected to give a much-needed boost to the realty sector. At the same time, the government has sent a clear signal that builders and developers cannot dictate policies.

Q&A: Sachin Ahir, Maharashtra Minister of State for Housing

BRICS, a five-nation economic bloc comprising Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, has issued a joint statement seeking a reversal of an unwritten convention that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) head has to be a European. However, ground reality suggests that someone from the developing world does not stand a chance to emerge victorious in case voting happens for the post of IMF MD.

Q&A: Arvind Virmani, Executive Director, IMF

A recent survey conducted by the Indo-German Chamber of Commerce (IGCC) has shown that the recent series of scandals and scams has made the German companies sit up and take a hard view of their operations here.

Q&A: Bernhard Steinruecke, Director-General, IGCC

Russia has been involved in the development of nuclear and thermal power projects in India. Russian company Atomenergomash, which manufactures machinery and equipment for nuclear power plants, is betting big on India. In an interview with Sanjay Jog, Vladimir Kashchenko, general director, Atomenergomash, reveals future plans for India.

Q&A: Vladimir Kashchenko, Atomenergomash

With three decades of war with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) behind it, Sri Lanka is now in a new phase and has joined the ranks of middle-income countries in the IMF list. Sri Lanka's minister for Industry and Commerce Rishad Bathiudeen spoke to T E Narasimhan in Chennai on the government's proposed measures to attract investments into the country.

Q&A: Rishad Bathiudeen, LTTE

You&rsquo;re coming to India at the intersection of two things: The India visit of US President Barack Obama and the expose of the worst-ever scam in the Indian Army.

Q&A: Stephen Cohen, US scholar

Workers in the taluk hospital in Cherthala in Kerala got an unexpected bonus this year. About Rs 25 lakh was divided among them as bonus for their service to patients who were treated under the centrally-sponsored Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana.

Sreelatha Menon: Being health smart

The introduction of a food security law is still far off, with the government yet to finalise a scheme. Speaking on the challenges to the idea, Kaushik Basu, chief economic advisor in the Union finance ministry, tells Jyoti Mukul a Ram Rajya in the current food distribution system is not possible. He also makes a case for a uniform global policy on currency, instead of targeting a single country.

Q&A: Kaushik Basu, Chief Economic Advisor

Timothy Geithner, the US government&rsquo;s treasury secretary, spoke on a host of issues from the global recovery to China, capital flows and the upcoming G-20 meeting at a conference organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry and the US-India Business Council.

Q&A: Timothy Geithner, US Treasury Secretary

Prithviraj Chavan, senior Congress leader and chief minister-elect of Maharashtra, speaks to Saubhadra Chatterjee about the challenges ahead.

Q&A: Prithviraj Chavan, Chief Minister-elect, Maharashtra

In the past the Left strongly criticised the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) for leaning towards the US, withdrew support to the first UPA government and precipitated a trust vote in 2008 after the Indo-US civil nuclear deal was signed.

Q&A: Sitaram Yechury, Politburo Member, CPI(M)

New Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan tells Aditi Phadnis and Saubhadra Chatterji he knows people want him to fail, but he&rsquo;s determined to prove them wrong...

Q&A: Prithviraj Chavan, New Maharashtra Chief Minister

Sitting in his castle perched on a hilltop above the Alpine city of Vaduz, His Serene Highness, Prince Alois, the hereditary prince of Liechtenstein spoke to Pallavi Aiyar about his upcoming six-day state visit to India, his first to the country. Flanked by Switzerland and Austria on either side, Liechtenstein has only 36,000 citizens making it one of the smallest countries in the world, but also one of the richest in per capita terms.

Q&A: Prince Alois, Liechtenstein

Gita Gopinath, Professor of Economics at Harvard University, says the monetary policy in India is not transparent and it would be nice to know very clearly from the central bank what steps it has to control inflation and what impact the rate hikes had on controlling inflation.

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