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Gail Simmons on Learning to Say No

Gail Simmons, food expert and Top Chef judge, tells WSJ's Veronica Dagher how she learned to say no to some opportunities, value her time and follow her passions.





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Runway Recap: Spike Jonze’s Opening Ceremony Play, Naomi Campbell, David Beckham and more from Day 4 of NYFW

Spike Jonze's one-act play for Opening Ceremony, Naomi Campbell outshines Kendall Jenner, David Beckham supports his wife and more from Day 4 of New York Fashion Week.




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Runway Recap: Carolina Herrera, Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen, Polo in the Park and more from Day 5 of NYFW

GoPros on the runway at Rag & Bone, a 4-D fashion show at Ralph Lauren and more from the tech-heavy fifth day of New York Fashion Week.






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Ayesha Curry Refuses to Have Entitled Children

Ayesha Curry, home and hospitality entrepreneur, tells WSJ's Veronica Dagher what she's teaching her children about money, how she approaches spending and the importance of setting goals.




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Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi Merger an Option, Carlos Ghosn Says

Speaking at The Wall Street Journal's D.Live conference in Hong Kong, Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi Chairman and CEO Carlos Ghosn said a merger within the group is one option to prepare the company for future challenges.




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How to Spot a Great Tech Investment? SoftBank’s Masayoshi Son Has the Answer

Masayoshi Son, CEO of SoftBank, shared his insights and quoted Yoda, the Star Wars Jedi master, during a conversation with WSJ Editor in Chief Gerard Baker at the CEO Council meeting in Tokyo.




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The Simplest Way to Save for Retirement

Buy a target-date fund and take the guesswork out of investing.




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'Muslim factor' in Bengal may surprise complacent CPI-M

There's more to being elected from Calcutta North than the ability to turn a phrase around different consonants at the same time, and Mohammed Salim is keenly aware of this fact.




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Will 'winds of change' blow away CPI-M in rural Bengal?

Bengal's picture-perfect villages have been home to the hammer-and-sickle for an astounding three decades, but now that the rural idyll is cracking, the Left Front is being forced to confront the sight of the three-petalled symbol of the Trinamool Congress and the sounds of rebel voices rising against its perceptible clout.




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UP's stunning win: Congress will keep both BSP and SP at bay

With a stunning tally of 21 Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh, the Congress has stumped each of its political rivals in the country's most important political state -- the Bahujan Samaj Party, the Samajwadi Party and Bharatiya Janata Party. It will given the Congress leadership the strength to keep both the BSP and SP away from the United Progressive Alliance.




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Dr Singh knows how to get his way

'Dr Manmohan Singh's contribution is to end the strategic isolationism of India.' K Subrahmanyam, the doyen of India's national security experts, on the prime minister.




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Not miffed with Dr Singh, says Farooq Abdullah

National Conference leader Dr Farooq Abdullah was not upset about being given the charge of the relatively unknown Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, according to his son, Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah.Dr Abdullah too denied reports about him being miffed with the low-profile portfolio. "I will make the ministry high-profile with my work and dedication. I am not angry. But my officers may get angry with me as I make them work," Dr Abdullah said.




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UPA moots 50 pc quota for women in Panchayats

Sources state that the proposal, which is likely to be voiced by President Pratibha Patil in her address to the joint Houses of Parliament on June 4 as one of the priorities of the government, is said to be the brainchild of Rahul Gandhi.




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'If Mayawati wins 40 seats, the politics of the country will turn turtle'

'Today's national picture, where the power rests with the states and not with the Centre, is like the picture of India before the British took power in India,' says thinker Dr Ashok Mitra.




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Class of 2020 Job Seekers May Be ‘Walking Into a Hurricane’

At the beginning of the year, college seniors were preparing to enter the strongest job market in decades. Now, as more than 25 million people have filed for unemployment, they face a newly competitive search. Photo: Spencer Platt/Getty Images




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More reforms, says Election Commission


In July the Chief of the Central Election Commission wrote to the Prime Minister outlining several proposals for further reforms in the electoral arena. Rasika Dhavse reports.




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What sways the urban voter?


Gujarat bucks the urban trend when it comes to identity voting, while cities in the prosperous northern states place high emphasis on choice of MP candidates. Srinivasan Ramani discovers several interesting facts on urban choice, through GIS mapping of data obtained from a voter perception survey.




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India’s “third gender” enters poll fray with new hope


In a first, the Lok Sabha Election this year has at least four candidates from the traditionally under-represented transgender community. Prabhu Mallikarjunan looks at their participation, as well as the challenges that lie ahead.




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Telecast news just twice a day

'Perhaps it is too much to expect the channels which run on celebrity content and arrogance to say that they had to eat crow. But because television news networks are arbiters of the moral and the political right and who dare ask them questions?'




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The DMK overplayed its hand

It was clear that with its preponderant numbers, the Congress, is not going to be the same old diffident, submissive push-over that it was in the lean days of the first term of the United Progressive Alliance. The DMK, in particular, needed to be circumspect in making its demands, not only to avoid giving the impression of having its eye only on 'juicy' ministries, but also because it had a weak suit.




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Does this look like a government with a 100-day deadline?

This does not sound like a ministry that is all set to revive the ailing Indian economy in a hundred days flat, as Dr Manmohan Singh vowed, does it?




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Why Modi was not so triumphant at his Vijay Sabha

Instead of a steamrolling 150 seats tally, terrifying the Bharatiya Janata Party high command into an abject surrender and hailing him as a prime minister-in-waiting, Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra got 115 seats, 2 short of his 2007 score(117), enabling his party rivals to deny him what he covets the most, says Arvind J Bosmia




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Today's Apps: Joke Or Real Deal?

Its getting tougher to tell the difference between a joke and a real app in Silicon Valley. Some apps which begin as spoofs, like "Jotly", are getting serious attention, as WSJ's Andy Jordan finds out.




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Casual Fridays Go Formal

To be hip at Silicon Valley startups these days, one must leave the flip flops and hoodies at home and dress up on Fridays. WSJ's Andy Jordan reports from San Francisco on the "anti-Casual Friday" that's come to be known as "Formal Friday."




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"The Bay Lights" Transforms San Francisco Skyline

"The Bay Lights" light installation, inspired by the 75th anniversary of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, is officially unveiled March 5. Here's a preview of what it will look like, and a conversation the artist, Leo Villareal.




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The way we measure hate crimes is simply bogus


Safety and criminality in society must be assessed directly from the people themselves. The government is deluding itself and citizens by conflating law enforcement statistics with crime data, writes Tara Krishnaswamy.




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Regulations delayed are regulations denied


Efforts to rein in massive emissions of pollutants, and to reduce volumes of water consumed by coal-based thermal power plants have been thwarted by endless delays in implementing the regulations that were to take effect last year. Shripad Dharmadhikary reports.




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The bills we pay, and the ones we don't


Our personal choices directly impact the pressure on managing infrastructure support that we all need for energy, water, and waste management, writes Chandrashekar Hariharan.




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Many more Mayawatis


They cannot compete with Mayawati, or Jayalalitha or Sonia Gandhi. But the new breed of women politicians springing up in India's small towns will become a political force to reckon with in the years to come, writes Kalpana Sharma.




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Bureaucracy stands in the way of benefits


Most villagers in U.P.'s Hardoi district, except for a miniscule few associated with social or political organizations, were not aware of the passage of the new Employment Guarantee Law last year. Since then, its coming into force in 22 districts of U.P. has not impressed them either. Sandeep Pandey notes why.




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Irula panchayat heads push for upliftment


35 Irula (ST) candidates had contested in the recent local body elections in Tamilnadu and 15 won panchayat presidentships. And this, Irulas hope, will translate into creation of a vocal pressure group of leaders that will ensure development for them. Krithika Ramalingam has more.




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Empowering communities the right way


Community engagement should be born out of respect for the participating community members and their capacities rather than as tokenism needed to fulfill a program requirement, writes R Balasubramaniam.




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Why good governance may need more than adoption of villages


A new scheme launched by PM Narendra Modi envisages development through a model in which every MP chooses a village to develop, with people’s participation. Vikas Jha looks at the numbers and realities to explore the real needs of rural development at the panchayat level.




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Sunburn warning for India’s day in the sun


India’s foreign policy moves under Narendra Modi have so far been aggressive, but sustaining the heat on the external front, sans resolution of critical internal and regional positions, comes with its own risks, writes  Firdaus Ahmed.




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Malnutrition rampant, may trigger crisis


"India should be worried." Experts reiterate that child malnutrition is not only responsible for 22 per cent of India's disease burden - and for 50 per cent of the 2.3 million child deaths in India -- but is also a serious economic hazard. Neeta Lal reports.




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Jumping into the fray themselves


Disillusioned by the total lack of responsiveness from mainstream parties to their plight, displaced tribals from Polavaram decide to contents the assembly elections themselves. R Uma Maheshwari reports.




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Whittling away at NPV costs


What is the right compensation for forest lands that are converted to non-forest use? How can this be calculated? Increasingly, one finds that project proponents are mounting a range of arguments to plead for the reduction of, or outright exemption from bearing such costs. Kanchi Kohli reports.




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Is the Hubli-Ankola Railway line approved?


Media reports that the National Green Tribunal (NGT) has given clearance to Railways to approach the state government regarding the Hubli-Ankola rail link, which will pass through the dense Western Ghats in Karnataka. Kanchi Kohli writes on how the orders of NGT do not necessarily imply a complete go ahead for the railway line as the seems to suggest.




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Whose budget is it anyway?


Newspapers' coverage of the Union budget left little doubt where their class interests lie. The majority of those covering the budget had no clue what it all means for the aam aadmi, or even who this mythical creature might be. Naturally, their hapless readers too were left similarly wondering, writes Ammu Joseph.




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Whose media are they anyway?


The draft Broadcast Bill does not reflect a nuanced understanding of the complex and contentious issues relating to media ownership. At the same time the objections raised by India's media industry do not acknowledge the fact that media regulation in most 'mature democracies' includes restrictions on media ownership, writes Ammu Joseph.




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Who pays the price for paid news?


In mid-June, the Election Commmission of India directed Chief Electoral Officers of all states and Union Territories to enforce the law against "paid news" during elections. The institutionalised racket has been running into hundreds of crores of rupees. Ammu Joseph brings you up to speed.




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Whose dynasty is it anyway?


If 34 per cent of current parliamentarians have family ties and all those under 30 years are hereditary MPs, the concern over women alone leveraging family connections in politics seems misplaced. As the Women's Reservation Bill awaits yet another round of consideration, Ammu Joseph wonders if women politicians can and do make a difference.




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Playing the victim


A land in which every kind of oppression has a long history is a country in which wounds are deep and forgiveness difficult. Moral indignation comes too easily to us, writes Rajesh Kasturirangan.




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CAG audits of PSUs must stay


By framing the debate as one of protecting the 'autonomy' of PSUs from 'microcontrol by government', some pink papers are trying to confuse readers into thinking that CAG audit is a governmental intervention, which it is not. The CAG's role is constitutionally enshrined for ensuring accountability of PSUs, writes Himanshu Upadhyaya.




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Those brooms may not be enough to clean our waste!


The success of ‘spot fixes’ and other initiatives by independent resident-collectives or organisations in cleaning up urban spaces and dumping spots has been noteworthy, but a long-term plan for solving waste issues in Indian cities needs more. Pooja Ramamurthi explains.




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Whose films are these, anyway?


West Bengal officials recently called off screenings of various films scheduled to be shown at Kolkata's premiere culture centre, apparently displeased over one of the entries at the film festival. Shoma Chatterji reports on the government's censorship, and the outcry following it.




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Katta panchayats denying relief to women


The aftermath of the December 2004 tsunami saw an unprecedented outpouring of goodwill. But with the traditional panchayats in Nagapattinam's fishing hamlets controlling relief, single women and dalits were systematically exlcuded. Two and half years later, nothing has changed, reports S Gautham.