You have personally visited several disaster-affected areas.

Q&A: Ramesh Pokhriyal, Uttarakhand Chief Minister

Business Standard

The United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government has fulfilled its promise to introduce the unique identification (UID) scheme after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress President Sonia Gandhi distributed the first 10 UID numbers, or Aadhaar, in Tembhali village of Nandurbar district in Maharashtra last week. In an interview with Sanjay Jog, Unique Identification Authority of India Chairman Nandan Nilekani explains the objectives of the UID scheme and its challenges.

Q&A: Nandan Nilekani, Chairman, Unique Identification Authority of India

During the past few months, there has been a rise of extremist forces in Kerala. The Popular Front of India, a radical Muslim outfit, is propagating &ldquo;love for jihads&rdquo; and taking other aggressive steps.

Q&A: Ramesh Chennithala

Viraf Sarkari, one of the directors at Wizcraft, who helped organise the CWG&rsquo;s opening and closing ceremonies, lived to tell the tale to Aditi Phadnis...

Q&A: Viraf Sarkari

Union Power Minister Sushilkumar Shinde, speaks on the import of Chinese power equipment and other current issues, in an interview with Sanjay Jog.

Q&A: Sushilkumar Shinde, Power Minister

The industrial output growth rate fell to a 15-month low in August, but for C Rangarajan, chairman of the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister, the main concern of the central bank should be inflation, which is still very high. In an interaction with Vrishti Beniwal, the former RBI governor says GDP growth and industrial output will pick up in the coming months.

Q&A: C Rangarajan, Chairman, Economic Advisory Council

After a lifetime as a professional bureaucrat, Chief Information Commissioner (CIC) Anugraha Narayan Tiwari spent five years trying to make the Right to Information (RTI) Act effective. In an interview with Akshat Kaushal, he describes the struggle to make RTI acceptable, its liberating effects and the dangers in its working.

Q&A: Anugraha Narayan Tiwari, CIC

Westinghouse Electric Company is currently in talks with Nuclear Power Corporation for the supply of reactors. In an interview to Sanjay Jog, their director for India business development, Balendra Sutharshan, talks of company strategy.

Q&A: Balendra Sutharshan, Westinghouse Electric Company

US-India Business Council (USIBC) is busy organising a business summit with the Indian chambers of commerce in Mumbai and Delhi during the coming visit of US President Barack Obama. In an interview with Sanjay Jog, USIBC President Ron Somers explains the significance of the the US-India partnership.

Q&A: Ron Somers, President, US-India Business Council

As the global debate on climate change heats up, scholars around the world argue in favour of defining the entitlement of &ldquo;carbon space&rdquo; separately for developed and developing nations in per capita terms. Kandeh K Yumkella, director general of the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO), however, believes that the entire concept of allocating carbon space is flawed.

Q&A: Kandeh K Yumkella, Director General, UNIDO

V K Shunglu, the former comptroller and auditor general appointed by the Prime Minister&rsquo;s Office to head a high-level committee to probe the alleged scam in the Commonwealth Games, tells Akshat Kaushal that the committee is coordinating with all agencies concerned.

Q&A: V K Shunglu, Head of a high-level panel to probe alleged scam in CWG

You have a lot of firsts in your life. You were the first woman to be given the status of senior advocate by the Bombay High Court. You were the first Indian woman to be elected to the UN Committee on Elimination of Discrimination Against Women and then the first woman to become additional solicitor general.

Q&A: Indira Jaising, Additional Solicitor General

Despite a rise in tax collections, the Maharashtra government is striving to curb revenue and fiscal deficits. In an interview with Sanjay Jog, Finance Minister Sunil Tatkare explains the government&rsquo;s strategy.

Q&A: Sunil Tatkare, Minister of Finance

BJP President Nitin Gadkari tells Gyan Varma that there is no disagreement within the party over the issue of JPC.

Q&A: Nitin Gadkari, BJP President

The Budget mood has not yet gripped North Block, headquarters of the finance ministry. There are no special security guards stationed outside the rooms of key secretaries, though preparatory work for Budget 2011 has already begun.

Q&A: Ashok Chawla, Finance Secretary

Minister of State for Defence M M Pallam Raju talks to Ajai Shukla about the Ministry of Defence&rsquo;s (MoD&rsquo;s) new Defence Procurement Procedure of 2011 (DPP-2011), released on Thursday, which now permits arms vendors to discharge defence offset liabilities through investment in civil aviation and internal security.

Q&A: M M Pallam Raju, Minister of State for Defence

Taiwan, for long, has been engaging with the world in what many in their government term &lsquo;chequebook diplomacy&rsquo;. In the recent past, however, the country which has remained in the showdows of China, has been trying to come on a level playing field that includes bringing in a game-changing agreement &mdash; Economic Co-operation Framework Agreement (ECFA) with China &mdash; which will take trade relations between the two to the next level. Taiwan is looking to use this agreement to expand its relations with other countries and provide a springboard for emerging economies like India to access the Chinese market.

Q&A: Wenchyi Ong, Representative, Taipei Economic and Cultural Center

The civil aviation ministry recently held a series of meetings to review the restructuring exercise of Air India, besides related issues. In an interview with Sanjay Jog, minister Praful Patel explains his stand.

Q&A: Praful Patel, Civil Aviation Minister

In an interview with Karan Thapar on the CNN-IBN channel&rsquo;s &lsquo;Devil&rsquo;s Advocate&rsquo; programme, Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia explains why he faults the controversial report of the Comptroller and Auditor General on 2G telecom spectrum allocation.

Q&A: Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Deputy Chairman, Planning Commission

Persistent food inflation and the structure of the food security legislation are exercising the government and policy wonks like never before. Ashok Gulati, Director in Asia of the International Food Policy Research Institute and a reputed agricultural economist, suggests, among other things, that this is a good time to turn the crisis into an opportunity to reform the structure of the agricultural marketing system and allow the benefits of an open market and technology to flow to the farmer.

Q&A: Ashok Gulati, International Food Policy Research Institute

Newly-appointed Minister of State for Power K C Venugopal is beginning a new innings in his political career at a time when the power ministry is being criticised for missing targets in generation and setting up of dedicated transmission and distribution backbone across the country.

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