If you were an East German during the Cold War, the Stasi (East German Secret Police) scrutinized every aspect of your life. Letters would be read, houses and offices would be bugged, suspects could be trailed, and any suspicion of wrongdoing could lead you to the interrogation chambers. The Stasi even saved up scents of … Continue reading The World’s Largest Jigsaw Puzzle
The coastal districts of Odisha are often the Ground Zero of the ferocious cyclones that originate in the Bay of Bengal. But what was once a destructive phenomenon has now been tamed by the state thanks to a comprehensive, community-centric cyclone preparedness initiative that began twenty-five years ago. Last week, I spent a few days … Continue reading Balasore, Bhadrak Notes
So many of the gastronomical delights of our modern life would be impossible without modern refrigeration. Cheeseburgers, chilled beer, ice cream and of course all the imported exotic items like Norwegian salmon, Swiss cheese and Australian beef would have just remained local delicacies restricted to a few 100 kilometers from their point of origin had … Continue reading Our Refrigerated World
In ‘Free to Choose,’ Milton Friedman—the poster boy of free markets and the favourite punching back of the left—makes an interesting comparison between India’s 30 years after independence and Japan’s 30 years after the Meiji Revolution. At these respective moments in time, both countries were similar in terms of their rigid feudal/caste structures, limited natural … Continue reading An India-Japan comparison
The SDG Index of India was published last week. If you’re curious about India, the report provides a fascinating peek into the progress that India has made across each goal. The report has an exhaustive breakdown of the various indicators under each goal. Some of the indicators which I didn’t expect to see were: number … Continue reading The SDGs & Best Things First
While reading Brian Klaas’ Fluke, I came across the fascinating mental model of ‘Complex Adaptive Systems’. This post is going to be slightly jargon heavy. Please bear with me. A watch is a complicated system of engineering. However, if you remove one spring, the watch won't morph into an unpredictable entity. Its behavior can be … Continue reading Complex Adaptive Systems
When something sounds too good to be true, always be suspicious. The incoming revolution in the transport sector heralded by Musk revolutionizing EVs - by making them an object of desire – has been touted as the best thing to have happened to mankind. While the energy to power these vehicles will someday be ‘clean’, … Continue reading The Underbelly of the EV Revolution
With tech increasingly becoming ubiquitous and intrusive day by day, at what point do we cease becoming engaged citizens and transform into mere consumers of information? The rights, liberties, and privileges that we derive from citizenship are a fruit of centuries of engagement around the ideas of justice, ethics, freedom, equality etc. Today, when our … Continue reading Principles for a Digital Republic
