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And overseas lol:

Yes, oversee is a good addition to the group, especially as a person might ask if you would like to see over their house!

The confusing one is 'oversight'.

An interesting one. It seems it can mean overseeing or overlooking!

Yes that is a wonderful word.
"This project needs more oversight"
"Not appointing Thad as the project manager was a serious oversight"

It's even better when used like this : "Government oversight committee has been formed. "

Well, it would have its work cut out for it,presuming it's used in the latter sense.

Government's job is overlooking things lol:

But... the oversight committe: is that specific to Indian government? I don't think I heard it before. Mind you, I'm no expert on government committees!

Speaking of governments, not that this has much to do with them, I've always wondered at the Indian use of Hon'ble. Drop two letters, add one character. Doesn't make for much of an abbreviation! Hon. would be rather more effective and ink saving.

But I have to admit that it is shorter than "His excellency."

Isn't it something like the first word of this sentence ? or like aren't and weren't ? Only stretching it a little bit (4 letters only) ?

Once you open the door, we like to run through it. :)

The government of India uses decadent English--something that dates back to the language used by clerks of East India Company a few centuries ago.

This apart, reservation has added fuel to the fire.

During my long stint of nearly 2 decades in public sector, I found it almost impossible to convince top management to start using simple, contemporary English.

By the way, don't people shorten 'His Excellency' to 'H.E.'?

No, because those are not abbreviations, they are written forms of common colloquialisms. Is the same true of Hon. or Hon'ble? I have no idea: I don't know any Hons or Honb'les and only ever see it in print. Doesn't one say "Honourable?"

(And my maths is worse than my spelling: it cuts a whole four letters. What was I thinking? :eek: )

Ha ha, exactly!
I avoid using this word because of this ambiguity.

Still trying to wrap my head around this statement for two reasons:
1) It is the caption on the cover of a high-profile biography and is quoting a former editor-in-chief of the Hindu
2) Shouldn't the statement read "His SINGLE, game-changing contribution was..." and NOT "His SIGNAL, game-changing contribution was..."




Am I missing something here?

Cheers,
Adi

Signal here is used as an adjective, which means notable or outstanding. "His signal, game..." is therefore correct in this context.

N. Ram, editor of the Hindu...

I think they are an English-speaking family, and, obviously, one steeped in language, writing and words. I often see N. Murali, who is president of The Music Acadaemy, speak. On one occasion, when he was speaking in Tamil, I asked my wife how his Tamil was. She said, "He is thinking in English, and then translating, and making a lot of mistakes." But I cannot find faults when he speaks in English.

This use of signal is relatively unusual, but as VeluM has already pointed out, perfectly correct.

Thanks guys! Learnt something new today. I was wondering about such a basic error (if it had been one) passing through so many checks to make it to the cover!

Cheers,
Adi

VeluM
Hi
After signal there is a comma whereas if the word single was used there wouldnt have been one.
Please correct me if I am wrong.
Regards