Vasundhara Raje Scindia
Senior BJP leader

I believe in the politics of caring. When I discovered that just one of the 500 targeted villages hadn’t received electricity, I made sure heads rolled. There has to be accountability, there has to be transparency for trust

Karisma Kapoor
Actor

We need to change the way we talk about female actors. When your secretary goes on maternity leave and returns to work, you don’t say — Oh my god she’s making a comeback! What is she going to do next?

Jonathan Fenby
China Expert

China will not collapse; it has too many strengths and too much unrealised potential. But it will not rule the world either. It has to find a sustainable path forward, but vested interests and the one-party system obstruct that

Zoya Akhtar
Filmmaker

I don’t look at myself as a female filmmaker. I am just a filmmaker. I think if we need to discuss gender in the realm of filmmaking, there are a lot many issues to discuss

Jason Burke
Journalist

Fifty years from now, when we will be discussing Afghanistan, like we have been discussing 1950s today, we will be shocked out of our wits at the kind of monumental blunder we have made in Afghanistan

Zhang Mei
Founder, WildChina

China needs a systematic model for tourism that can change perceptions. An engaged traveller doesn’t just boost the economy. The appreciation for a woven basket lying forgotten in a balcony can create pride.

Kanwal Sibal
Diplomat

By being aggressive with Israel, Iran is actually making a mistake. However, the Israeli government does not bring the right attitude to its negotiations with Iran

Ausama Monajed
Syrian Dissident

Syrians are now faced with two choices: becoming like Pakistan; intolerant, dictatorial, bellicose and unstable, or becoming like India; diverse, democratic, peaceful, stable and optimistic

KD Singh
TMC MP

Contrary to perception, we are not anti-reformists. We’re only against any measure, which, in the garb of reforms, is anti-poor. We’re opposed to FDI in retail because it is the small-time trader who will lose out

Ranbir Kapoor
Actor

Today, luckily we are living in times that allow not just for commercial mainstream cinema, but also what we want to say. If we have a voice, we can express things honestly

Adonis
Syrian Poet

Arab poetry today is the poets’ expression of the people’s pain and suffering. There is a direct connection of the masses with poetry. Turning the poetry into pain and the pain into poetry is an important transformation

Christopher Turner
Journalist and Author

Wilhelm Reich perhaps is a prophet, because now America has become one enormous Orgone Machine, where everything is over-sexualised. The sexual revolution got dramatically commodified

Ben Hammersley
Internet Technologist

We are living in a golden age of content. We are genuinely seeing the best TV content, best radio programming, etc. The reason is that technologies like podcasting enable people to hear the best stuff from around the world

Shashi Ruia
Chairman, Essar Group

Somebody has to create wealth before it can be distributed. Our turnover is about $30 billion, but our biggest contribution is that we ensure the quality of life of more than 75,000 people around the world

Praful Patel
Minister for Heavy Industries

Business and politics have to co-exist. Look at the elections in America. Who do you think funds these elections? The big business houses. But that does not mean the politics is compromised

VS Naipaul
Nobel Laureate

I do not know Arabic. What I do know is the intellectual gift and growth of the man. Adonis is a secular poet, a celebrator of the Mediterranean civilisation

Daniel Wolpert Neuroscientist

We all have brains, but we don’t know how they work. I think that’s amazing. Movement in terms of studying the brain has been a second-class citizen compared to perception and my job is to change that around

Rishi Kapoor
Actor

The sensibilities of multiplex audiences is different from that of auto-drivers and rickshaw wallahs. The latter can’t afford to see films for Rs 250. Those who can, don’t want to see rubbish cinema of the ’70s

Anusha Rizvi
Filmmaker

I want to break the stereotype of the (so-called) strong women in Indian cinema. The industry is healthy for women to work in — that’s why we’re here! What we do need to answer is, why do actresses have a shorter career?

Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev
Yogi and Mystic

Your body and mind are accumulations — what you accumulate is the only thing that you think is yours. Only when you are brave enough to say, ‘I do not know’, is when the possibility of knowing opens up to you

Ulka Mahajan
Land Rights Activist

The Land Acquisition Act looks at land only as a commodity. Money is just a piece of paper; land is life for our farmers. If we are not progressing as a human civilisation, we cannot call it development

Javed Akhtar
Poet and Lyricist

Faith is a blind power. It paralyses your mind and drives you to do either something very good or something very bad. Either way you have no control over your mind

David Gensler
Architect and Urban Planner

India has to support a dense urban population by building transit corridors, areas of densification and mixed-use development that would allow people to live and work in the same locale

Sajjan Jindal
Chairman & MD, JSW Steel

Profit is a misunderstood word. When entrepreneurs start businesses they create jobs and take risks. A profitable business is their reward. The attainment of profits is a sign of economic excellence, rather than greed

James Crabtree
Financial Journalist

Germany must pay for the debts of the other countries, but they need to work out the modalities. Europe is the symbol of the rise of a “post-modern” world order, neither pre-modern (Third World countries, failed states) nor modern (nation-states)

KT Ravindran
Head of Urban Design, School of Planning and Architecture, Delhi

Instead of socially unfeasible quick-fix solutions like high-rise housing for slum-dwellers, the residents should be included in the financial model

Shekar Dattatri
Wildlife and Conservation Filmmaker

You ask me how economic growth and the preservation of the Ganga can go hand-in-hand. There cannot be growth without water

Shubhranshu Choudhary
Founder, CGNet Swara

Mainstream media is aristocratic. There have been many benevolent kings and queens. And there are many good journalists who do wonderful stories. But they are exceptions, not the rule