Forbes India Fourth Anniversary Special Issue; JX Board Member David Nash

Senior oil executives like David Nash usually like to stay under the radar so I was really grateful to my friend for agreeing to be interviewed at short notice for this annual event issue. David is the only non-Japanese member of any Japanese Exploration and Production Board and has been in the industry for 40 years. His relationship with Japan stretches back nearly that far too. David worked for Shell and BP for 18 years before joining Mitsubishi Oil in 1993. His narrative is inspirational and he deserves the place among international thought leaders that Forbes India and I have given him. David's insights into the oil and gas industry are revealing as well as informative and he has many more interesting thoughts that I didn't have space for. I really appreciated David's work to perfect and hone the expression of his ideas. The editor supervising this special issue actually sent David's "as told to" round to the rest of the editorial team as an example for colleagues to emulate. Given that out of all my outlets, Forbes India has the maximum number of draft-writing stages, this was high praise. In our line of work praise is a rare phenomenon -we are constantly giving, writing, producing so feedback time scarcely exists. Any appreciation therefore means a helluva lot to a hack. UPDATE; Within a few days of going online, David Nash is climbing the list of most read Forbes India articles -up to number six so far. You go, David, and by the way, my AP colleague took a great portrait of you for Director of Photography Dinesh Krishnan!

"Sonia Gandhi" in the New Left Review

The New Left Review has just gotten round to reading my book, which the journal describes as "A primer on dynastic form." Ah well, since the Left and dynasties do not traditionally make the best bedfellows, no surprise there, then. But the journal has certainly devoted a lot of space to this review.

Inside Story Half Hour on Al Jazeera English; the Maoist insurgency

Al Jazeera English consistently examines in depth many of the big stories. It is the international television network that most nearly chimes with what concerns citizens round the world rather than just what matters to Europe and the USA. My colleagues in Doha, AJE headquarters, rarely give me a whole lot of notice, as is the case in the news world, but one hour to studio for this Inside Story half hour programme June 1st 2013 was a big ask from a standing start with me in my west London clothes and no make up when the car journey alone averages 45 mins. Still, Nick, my producer, we did it, didn't we; we linked up successfully with Delhi and we had a fairly civilized panel discussion on the Maoist situation in India.