‘Autonomy of regulators must be taken seriously... nobody gives it to you, you learn to be autonomous’

Monday , 18 February '08

Outgoing SEBI chairman M Damodaran has seen the Sensex rise from 5,000 to past 20,000 in his three years in office. In an interview with The Indian Express Editor-in-Chief Shekhar Gupta on NDTV 24x7’s Walk the Talk, Damodaran talks about the challenges he faced and the question of investment experts in the media influencing stock movements

‘Developers are only interested in the luxury end. We’ve just forgotten affordable housing’

Monday , 11 February '08

Deepak Parekh is the chairman of HDFC, which has made it possible for a large section of the middle class to buy their own houses. He’s also a man the government hears out on matters of financing and land regulation.In an interview with The Indian Express Editor-in-Chief Shekhar Gupta on NDTV 24x7’s Walk the Talk, Parekh speaks about his belief that interest rates and commercial land prices will fall, his hope that government will quickly do what it knows it should be doing, his plan to hang up his boots soon.

‘GM food is a big opportunity...none of the questions raised about it are serious from a scientific point of view’

Monday , 4 February '08

David Baltimore won the 1975 Nobel prize for medicine with two others for studies of virus-induced changes that cause cancer. In an interview with The Indian Express Editor-in-Chief Shekhar Gupta on NDTV 24x7’s Walk the Talk, Baltimore spoke about the directions science is taking in curing diseases like cancer and AIDS, about research funding in the US, and about his bewilderment at the ideological opposition to genetically modified food

‘Within a year there’ll be peace in Sri Lanka... it may be with Prabhakaran or without him’

Monday , 21 January '08

In this second part of an interview with The Indian Express Editor-in-Chief Shekhar Gupta on NDTV 24x7’s Walk the Talk, Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa says he believes a political solution can soon be achieved in the country’s north — despite the fact that severe fighting has once again broken out with Tamil rebels

‘Why not India (to mediate with LTTE)? I trust neighbours, if they are ready. I think they know LTTE’s mentality’

Monday , 14 January '08

It’s 20 years since the Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) carried out its operation against the Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka. At a time of renewed fighting between the Sri Lankan army and the rebels, Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa spoke to The Indian Express Editor-in-Chief Shekhar Gupta on NDTV 24x7’s Walk the Talk. In the first part of the interview, he says sending back the IPKF was a wrong political decision taken by the then president, Premadasa. He also says that the then Indian prime minister, Rajiv Gandhi, had a clear vision of what was best for Sri Lanka in the long run.

‘The passion with which Dolly (in Omkara) loved, trusted, sacrificed everything . . . I think I’m like that’

Monday , 7 January '08

Actor Kareena Kapoor has had a good year in Bollywood, ending the year with the commercial success Jab We Met. In an interview with The Indian Express Editor-in-Chief Shekhar Gupta on NDTV 24x7’s Walk the Talk, Kareena Kapoor speaks about the challenges posed by her roles in Omkara and Chameli, being part of the Kapoor clan of Bollywood, and where she wants to be.

‘The Indo-US nuclear deal is good for the world and we’re working for a similar deal with India’

Monday , 24 December '07

A doctor by training, activist at heart, and co-founder of Medicins Sans Frontieres, Bernard Kouchner has worked in many of the conflict zones of the world, taking help to those worst-hit by crises. Despite his Leftist views and opposition to Nicolas Sarkozy, Kouchner was asked to take over as foreign minister when Sarkozy became president. In an interview with The Indian Express Editor-in-Chief Shekhar Gupta on NDTV 24x7’s Walk the Talk, Kouchner speaks about his change of role from activism to diplomacy, and on how France looks at India and the Indo-U.S. nuclear deal

'Those in school and college won't want to go back to farms. To give them jobs we need industry, investment'

Monday , 10 December '07

After Nandigram, the process of industrialisation and private investment in Left-ruled West Bengal is in the national eye. In an interview with The Indian Express Editor-in-Chief Shekhar Gupta on NDTV 24x7's Walk the Talk, West Bengal Minister of Commerce & Industry Nirupam Sen explains why he is determined to stick to the path of industrialisation. He also speaks of the lessons learnt from Nandigram

'Everyone in the world should have an equal carbon footprint. Pollution per person should be equalised'

Monday , 3 December '07

As Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission, Dr Montek Singh Ahluwalia has been a prime mover of economic policy. He was recently in the news for questioning the UNDP report on climate change. In an interview with The Indian Express Editor-in-Chief Shekhar Gupta on NDTV 24x7's Walk the Talk, Dr Ahluwalia explains why the world should rethink the principle behind how industrialised countries and developing countries could equitably share the burden of checking carbon emission. He also talks about how economic reforms have worked in India and the prospect of India's growth rate touching 10 per cent

'I think people remember Demi Moore for that Vanity Fair cover more than any movie she did. It was taken just for Demi. Now it's become iconic'

Monday , 26 November '07

As an editor, Tina Brown has covered a wide range-from Tatler to Vanity Fair to the New Yorker. When she was made the editor of Tatler at 25, she brought to the magazine the irreverence that saw her expelled from three boarding schools. Later, she became an equally successful agent of change heading Vanity Fair and the New Yorker. In an interview with The Indian Express Editor-in-Chief Shekhar Gupta on NDTV 24x7's Walk the Talk, Brown talks about the ideas that drove her work at those magazines, about Princess Diana, whose biography she has written, and her friend Salman Rushdie.

'I've learnt a lot from Tom & Jerry. It's surprising but a lot of my early stunts were copied from Tom & Jerry'

Monday , 19 November '07

Actor Akshay Kumar, who has trained in martial arts, started out as an action hero but found he was equally successful doing action, comedy, and even both together. In an interview with The Indian Express Editor-in-Chief Shekhar Gupta on NDTV 24x7's Walk the Talk, Akshay Kumar speaks about his early years in Chandni Chowk, learning martial arts in Thailand, the Khiladi mystique, and the tattoo on his back. Excerpts . . .

‘Of course there was something. I bore the brunt as a kid, I know the fact... Raj Kapoor didn’t need publicity then, now. Vyjayantimala needed it then, even now’

Monday , 12 November '07

With the release of Saawariya last week, another member of the fourth generation of Bollywood’s Kapoor family, Ranbir Kapoor, has made his screen debut. In an interview with The Indian Express Editor-in-Chief Shekhar Gupta on NDTV 24x7’s Walk the Talk, Ranbir’s father Rishi Kapoor, himself a star of the 1970s and 1980s, talks about his father Raj Kapoor’s famous R K Studio, which he now looks after, about being part of the Kapoor family, and about his own debut

‘UPA talked to me on n-deal but I said go to the politicians as talks between politicians are talks between equals’

Monday , 5 November '07

Brajesh Mishra, former National Security Advisor in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government, laid the framework of India’s strategy for the post-Cold War world, of which our present engagement with the U.S. and the Indo-U.S. nuclear deal are seen as logical next steps. In an interview with The Indian Express Editor-in-Chief Shekhar Gupta on NDTV 24x7’s Walk the Talk, Mishra explains why he is unhappy with the way the UPA government is handling negotiations on the deal and how he thinks it should handle the Opposition.

‘In the Tulsidas Ramayan, Sita is not Ram’s wife but his sister. Only in the Valmiki Ramayan is she his wife’

Monday , 29 October '07

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi’s recent statements on Lord Ram and the Sethusamudram project created a controversy. In this second part of an interview with The Indian Express Editor-in-Chief Shekhar Gupta on NDTV 24x7’s Walk the Talk, he says there is no scope left for political negotiation on a new alignment for the Sethusamudram project.

‘We should neither proceed with n-deal nor dump it altogether... to avoid immediate elections’

Monday , 22 October '07

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi’s Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) party is a key member of the ruling UPA Government at the Centre. In this first part of an interview with The Indian Express Editor-in-Chief Shekhar Gupta on NDTV 24x7’s Walk the Talk, Karunanidhi speaks about how the continuance of the government is more important than the deal.

'It's possible for us to have military history written without carrying sensitive material'

Monday , 15 October '07

Gen J.J. Singh, former chief of the Indian Army, comes from a family of soldiers: his grandfather fought in World War I, his father in World War II. Singh, who has been involved in operations in Nagaland and Kashmir, has advocated professionalism combined with a humane approach as the way to tackle insurgency. He has also pushed for modernisation of the forces. In an interview with The Indian Express Editor-in-Chief Shekhar Gupta on NDTV 24x7's Walk the Talk, he speaks about how he wants the modern Indian soldier to be equipped, securing the Kashmir valley, and the books he plans to write. Excerpts . . .

'Unfortunately it took the Columbia disaster to remind people of the thrill of space flight. Otherwise, it had become a bit too routine'

Monday , 8 October '07

Astronaut Sunita Williams, whose father is from Mehsana in Gujarat, was in India after her recent sojourn in space, where she set a women's record for space walks. In an interview with The Indian Express Editor-in-Chief Shekhar Gupta on NDTV 24x7's Walk the Talk, she speaks about how touched she is by the warmth Indians have shown her, about how she wants to eventually become a schoolteacher and get children interested in science and mathematics, and about how she has made a success of herself despite not always getting what she wanted

‘If the grandfather had 10 acres, the grandson gets half an acre.It’s hard to sustain a family on that. The alternative is industrialisation’

Monday , 1 October '07

Haryana, where agriculture has traditionally taken precedence over industry, is now slowly making the shift to industrialisation. In fact, even the little opposition that the Reliance SEZ project has attracted is being seen as politically-driven by one or two dissidents in the ruling Congress. In an interview to The Indian Express Editor-in-Chief Shekhar Gupta on NDTV 24x7’s Walk the Talk, Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, who comes from a family of farmers, talks about how creating jobs is more important than the farming vs industry debate.