"China’s boom created 130 million net jobs in services and industry between 2002 and 2012. But India is no China. The most recent survey shows no net new jobs were created between 2004-05 and 2009-10, a dramatic slowdown on the previous years when 60 million jobs were created."
The Economist on India’s demographic challenge (May 11)
"He is the ruler condemned to defend the indefensible in the kingdom of thieves; and around him, looters and liars are still struggling for one last fig leaf to cover the shame. They are his ministers and the king has already become the patron saint of plunderers."
S. Prasannarajan, noted journalist, on prime minister Manmohan Singh (India Today, May 20)
"If IPL and cricket scandals boil your blood, you need some perspective. The first order perspective is that there is corruption in every alleyway in India, so wise up, why should cricket be an exception?"
Dipankar Gupta, well-known academic and social scientist in ‘Corruption of the American dream’ (Times of India, May 25)
"I made a strong choice that in no way diminishes my feminity."
Angelina Jolie, Hollywood actress, writing about her double masectomy which she says dramatically lowered her risk of breast cancer (Time, May 27)
"RTE Act is Kapil Sibal’s absolutely foolish policy. There are certain parameters in the policy which are wrong. The idea of no detention is good but there should be good parameters to implement it. After RTE, studying has become a farce."
Manohar Parrikar, chief minister of Goa on the Right to Education Act, 2009 (Deccan Chronicle, May 28)
"The killings of Mahendra Karma and his colleagues call not for retributive violence but for a deeper reflection on the discontent among, and dispossession of the advisas of central India, who are in all aspects the most desperately disadvantaged of the Republic’s citizens, far worse off than Dalits even."
Ramachandra Guha, well-known historian and author, on the recent Maoist attack on Congress leaders in Chhatisgarh (The Hindu, May 28)