Tag: needs

Ronnie Screwvala on why India needs non-linear thinking

Loknath Das

Ronnie Screwvala, 64, serial entrepreneur, philanthropist, and author, has commissioned a telling new report titled ‘Non-linear Thinking’, which he puts forward as an alternative line of thought to propel India to its true potential. Non-linear thinking assumes a higher level of risk than normal, where past experiences do not define future ones. In an exclusive conversation with Fortune India, Screwvala, who co-founded upGrad, South Asia’s largest higher edtech company, explains the report’s thesis in detail. Edited excerpts. A CHANGE IN MINDSET Q. First things first, Ronnie. What prompted you to commission…

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Family finance: Salaried Krishna needs to align investments with goals

Loknath Das

P. Vamsee Krishna, 37 years, stays with his homemaker wife and two children, aged 10 and eight, in his own house, in Hyderabad. He is a software engineer, who brings in a salary of Rs 1.05 lakh a month. Besides his own house, for which he has taken a home loan and a top-up loan, he also has a plot of land. He is servicing the home loan and a gold loan with EMIs of Rs 19,200. His goalsinclude building an emergency corpus, saving for kids’ education and weddings, retirement, and…

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Why India needs a new higher education regulator

Loknath Das

The Union ministry of human resource development (MHRD) on Wednesday released a draft Act to replace the University Grants Commission (UGC) with a new regulator for the critical higher education sector. The regulator — Higher Education Commission of India — will focus on the quality of institutions. The the job of financial grant distribution, earlier with the commission, will now come under the ministry’s purview. This decision of transferring financial powers to the MHRD has upset some. On Thursday, the Delhi University Teachers’ Association said it will result in an…

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Travel Tricks Every Entrepreneur Needs To Know

Loknath Das

Passengers stand in line to go through a TSA security checkpoint I have always spent extensive time traveling for business over the past 15 years.  Even prior to starting PK4 Media, I ran national sales teams with five U.S. offices and our parent company was based in the United Kingdom. Since launching PK4 Media in 2009, I have spent at least one week per month on the road.  In the process, I have lear ned every travel trick in the book to help make the trip comfortable and successful. For many…

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Opinion: Amazing gene-editing technology needs a pass on patent minefields

Loknath Das

A breakthrough gene editing technology known as CRISPR is poised to deliver new medical therapies and agricultural and industrial advancements. Although recent reports of its success in the laboratory are promising, the larger challenge confronting CRISPR may be access to the underlying patent rights. To develop CRISPR technologies, commercial developers must fight or license their way through an intellectual property labyrinth that is the definition of inefficiency. The situation looks like an invitation to litigation or government intervention, either of which would put the technology’s vast potential at risk. There…

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