Mint and the Hindustan Times are starting a series on innovation in India, focusing on big as well as small companies, NGOs as well as individual entrepreneurs. In our inaugural package, published in both Mint and HT today, I have two stories. The first profiles Arun Mehta, a computer engineer who is devoted to making [...]
In Mint, I write about the National Balloon Facility in Hyderabad, now starting its 40th year of sending science experiments up in balloons. Demand among scientists for balloons is dipping, yet the NBF is now preparing a balloon that will shoot for the all-time altitude record of 53kms: To construct a scientific balloon, first build [...]
A few days late, but no matter. In Mint, an article on the Andhra Pradesh Farmer Managed Groundwater System, a successful little project that inverts the traditional logic of groundwater management: Around the centre of the village of Krishnapuram, in south-western Andhra Pradesh, the walls abutting the tapered streets are festooned with several unusual frescos—unusual [...]
In Mint today, a Raagtime column on the bewildering multiplicity of languages in Carnatic music — and how that impacts the way we listen to and appreciate the music: This assortment of tongues is daunting; it also leads to frequent friction. One of the eternal debates in Carnatic music runs roughly as follows: If a [...]
In Mint today, an article on how, increasingly, economists are turning to the statistics-ridden world of cricket to model their theories: But only a little while ago did Ramcharan and a colleague, Shekhar Aiyar, read into the whims of cricket selectors a metaphor for the working world at large. Like the average debutant, few of [...]
In Mint today, a Raagtime column on Bhairavi by Mike Bloomfield, The Doors’ The End, and the genre of “raga rock”: Without question, my favourite example of raga rock is The End, the final track on The Doors’ self-titled album. The End is an ode of psychedelia, winding its forlorn way over nearly 12 minutes [...]
In Mint today, an article on the Commission for Scientific & Technical Terminology, a government body that has, for 50 years, been converting technical terms from English to Hindi: Most poignantly, even other wings of the government now express impatience with the reams of words flooding out of CSTT. A standing joke within bureaucratic circles [...]
In Mint today, an extra-long Raagtime column on David Cope, inspired by a terrific article in Miller-McCune: Music, we like to believe, is a product of the human soul and, further, a channel between composer and audience, carrying a sentiment too frail to be communicated in words. Musical genius discovers not the most efficient or [...]
In Mint, an article on FINO, and the challenges of delivering banking services in rural India: Unaware of Lal’s approbation, Kumar continues his work. A small band of villagers have gathered at his house to collect pensions and NREGS wages. Kumar collects a smart card from each, swipes it into a reader, scans a fingerprint [...]
In Mint today, I write about Mundka, one of the largest plastic scrap markets in the world, and about Anant Vats, who had to wear shabbier clothes and stop shaving if he wanted to do business there. Vats, who has an MBA degree from the Indian Institute of Technology, Chennai, had been working for Infosys [...]