Number of words – 793 You hit the fast food drive-through a couple times a week, and your grocery cart is regularly filled with cookies, packaged doughnuts, ice cream, chips (and dip). But you’re thin. You run—a lot—and you’re not gaining any weight, so all’s good, right? Well, not exactly. Put down the chocolate cupcake … Read more

Number of words – 819 In 2017 there were 946,060 births and 1,340,433 deaths in Japan, marking a seventh consecutive year of population decline. By some estimates, Japan’s population could shrink by a third over the next 50 years, and there’s little chance the trend will reverse. The roots of the problem reach back to … Read more

Number of words – 362 Costco was founded in 1983 by Jim Sinegal and Jeffrey Brotman. Sinegal learnt about discount retailing from Sol Price, the same person from whom Sam Walton had admitted to borrowing much of what Walmart knew about the business. And, like Walton, Sinegal believed in People First. “We’re going to be … Read more

Number of words – 360 If you look back at the history of Starbucks, it thrived not because of its coffee but because of the experience it offered to customers. It was Schultz who bought that why to the company when he arrived in 1982, 10 years after Gordon Walker, Jerry Baldwin and Zev Siegl … Read more

Number of words – 158 In the 1970s, Southwest Airlines decided to put their flight attendants in hot pants and Go Go boots as part of their uniforms. It wasn’t their idea. Pacific Southwest, the California based airline after which Southwest modelled itself, did it first. Southwest simply copied them. Unlike Pacific Southwest, however, Southwest … Read more

Number of words – 137 In the 1800s, the railroads were the biggest companies in the country. Having achieved such monumental success, even having changed the landscape of America, remembering why stopped being important to them. Instead they became obsessed with what they did – they were in the railroad business. This narrowing of perspective … Read more

Number of words – 455 Five miles to the south of Naṣik, on the Naṣik Mumbai Highway, lies the Triraṣmi mountain (Pali: Tiranhų; Sanskrit: Triraṣmi) in which 24 Buddhist caves were excavated between 150 BCE to 600 CE. These caves face northwards and thus enjoy sunlight throughout the day. The caves were not excavated in a numbered sequence … Read more

Number of words – 705 The caves in Barabar and Nagarjuni hills are the first known excavated caves. They were excavated by Ashoka the Great, for the Ajivika monks, a religious sect extant during the Buddhist and Jain period. The Buddhist took up this ‘creation in rock’ to newer heights and thus we see magnificent … Read more

Number of words – 943 Wednesday’s mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida seems bound to evoke some sort of national conversation about gun control. Which means there will likely be some sort of debate about whether it would even be possible for the US to limit its millions of privately held … Read more

Number of words – 2,505 As it is said in the Vedas: Man can live individually, but can survive only collectively. Hence, our challenge is to form a progressive community by balancing the interests of the individual and that of the society. To meet this we need to develop a value system where people accept … Read more