Shobha Warrier has been associated with Rediff from its inception and currently works as Senior Editorial Director. She is also the author of five books in English, Battlefield India: 25 years of Politricks and Economix, Dreamchasers: Entrepreneurs from the South of the Vindhyas, Dreamchaers: Women Entrepreneurs from the South of the Vindhyas, His Days with Bapu, and The Little Flower girl and Others- A diary of a journalist. Her three Malayalam short story collections include Jalavidya, Meghana and Ramakundam. She won the Lalitambika Antharjanam special award in 1996 for her book, Jalavidya. She likes talking to people and listening to their stories! You can e-mail the author at shobhaw@rediff.co.in
'If you ask Prime Minister Modi prove you are Indian, as per the Election Commission's criteria, he may not be able to prove that he is an Indian.'
'In 2013-2014, Modi was asking for regime change. In fact, the words he used were, they should be pulled out and thrown away; ughadke phekna hai. That is part of democracy.'
'An individual who is protesting and expressing dissent is a walking Jantar Mantar.' 'Every mind which is expressing dissent and questioning is a Jantar Mantar.'
'The priority of the government should be to use agricultural production for human beings first, and only after that for biofuel and such things.'
'If the temperature remains very high, which is likely to be the case because of El Nino, it may lead to a shortfall in wheat production.' 'If that happens, we will be in a very, very difficult situation as far as food security is concerned.'
'There should have been more transparency in the process which even today we don't know.'
'What is the need for collecting so much data unless they are going to be used for some other purpose?'
'It is to observe the Sun continuously that you have the Aditya L1 mission.' 'It is in a position from where it can observe the Sun continuously.'
'Indian IT firms must hire and train more Americans while reducing dependence on sending employees from India to the US.'
'...but could demotivate employees seeking US residency.'
'When I heard loud claps from the audience, I had goosebumps. I was told it was a standing ovation.'
'Their functioning is flawed, they are not accountable, they are opaque, they are non-transparent, they have lost credibility.'
'93 lakhs deletions in Bengal, 96 lakhs in Tamil Nadu, 24 lakhs in Kerala, 77 lakhs in Gujarat, 45 lakhs in Madhya Pradesh, 44 lakhs in Rajasthan. 2.89 crores in Uttar Pradesh. Nearly 3 crores!'
'There is a long set of decisions that have to be made along the way for anything to actually get actuated in the real world.'
'My biggest fear about AI is that humans are going to rush to deploy it before AI is ready.'
'An instruction came from somebody in Delhi saying, "don't go with the launch".'
'I don't think the government will sacrifice such a fine institution for monetary gains.'
'If you listen to a rowdy in a class, he will keep on bullying you.' 'India can say do whatever you want. We will not compromise on anything.'
'These limits will change. Very soon restrictions, restrictions will come.'
