Independent journalist / writer/ researcher
The Krishna-Godavari gas basin controversy now has some numbers to go by - the Comptroller and Auditor-General of India has pegged "excess cost recovery" from the KG-D6 gas block operated by Reliance Industries Limited at $1,547.85 million or Rs 9307.22 c
Scroll / August 2016
The TenderSURE project of the Karnataka government has always remained in the news-for right reason or wrong, more so from the time that work on the project got under way. Almost all of those were either claims or allegations. But none of those come acros
Bangalore Mirror / August 2016
When Swati Ramanathan, chairperson of the Jana Urban Space Foundation (Jana USP), complained of not being treated properly by the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) and that she/Jana USP had "volunteered" to do all the construction drawings in the
Bangalore Mirror / August 2016
Documents accessed under RTI by Mirror show how the BBMP chief engineer's suggestions on water drainage were trashed; the results are there for all to see One of the reasons why allegations against the TenderSURE initiative of the Karnataka government has
Bangalore Mirror / August 2016
When controversies erupted over the TenderSURE project of the Karnataka government that sought to re-engineer major roads of Bengaluru, most of those were dismissed as conspiracy theories of activists or simply as fertile imagination of habitual detractor
Bangalore Mirror / August 2016
Making post-result analyses of elections can be great fun. With the advantage of hindsight, all you need to do is Google up a bit, and speak to ten people. And, you can easily land up with vacuous, click-bait lists such as: Ten reasons why Mamata made a c
The News Minute / May 2016
DOWN MEMORY LANE | In 1995 security forces carried out Operation Golden Bird along the Mizoram-Myanmar border. It was claimed to be the biggest counter-insurgency operation ever. But there were too many holes in the claims that were made. This Op-Ed was i
The Telegraph / June 1995
The Intelligence Bureau report on NGOs last year had made clear the stand that the Narendra Modi government would take on many issues – that anything or anyone even remotely perceived to be an obstacle in the path of the "development" that the new regime
Opinion Junction / June 2015
The fact that the lottery business had thrived in the state under the very nose of the law and that this happened with the senior police officers being in the know of things reflects badly on the government.
Our Bangalore / May 2015
There is something surreal about the way people – from politicians to citizens – have been reacting to two incidents: the order of the National Green Tribunal penalising two real estate developers for unauthorised constructions in the city's lakes, and th
Our Bangalore / May 2015
Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, who completed two years in office on Wednesday, will find the going get tougher by the day. Two elections are looming large on the horizon, and neither augurs well.
Our Bangalore / May 2015
In early April came the slightly disconcerting news that the Union government was planning to dilute the Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Amendment Bill, 2012. It may soon be illegal to employ children below 14 years of age in any type of commerc
Opinion Junction / May 2015
It was “scavenger journalism” at its sickening worst, a necrophilia that was revolting at best.
write2kill.in / May 2015
The talk about sustainability has been on for a while. And the responsibility, to a considerable extent, of moving towards a sustainable world lies with businesses. But are corporations ready for the cleansing act? Are they willing to change themselves so
Your Story / April 2015
India's latest mega-monstrous fad is that of building 100 smart cities. Building cities is not a sinister idea in itself, given the country's rate of urbanisation. The Indian urban population in 1901 was merely 11.4 per cent. This increased to 28.53 per c
Your Story / April 2015
The very nature of power is such that more it devours you, the more you need it to survive. You can never have enough. Power is about control, and absolute power is about being in control of things without being answerable. As power keeps consuming you, t
Opinion Junction / April 2015
Few would dispute the argument that the Internet has empowered us considerably, especially in the last decade or so. But that freedom, call it digital empowerment if you may, will soon be snatched away by a cartel that masquerades as a trade body. This bl
Your Story / April 2015
Some two weeks back, Costa Rica created a flutter in environmental and energy circles. The country was reported to have been running completely on renewable energy for 75 days, and had created some sort of a record. Relying mainly on hydropower, Costa Ric
Your Story / April 2015
We live in times when paying lip-service is a preferred pastime and indulging in gimmickry is a manic obsession. It's little wonder, then, that Earth Hour was celebrated with much fanfare and uproar across the world on Saturday last. The event has become
Your Story / March 2015
The word "sustainability" sounds unnecessarily big, so much so that it comes across as a strategic initiative that needs to be incorporated into the scheme of things for a big company. Nothing could be further from the truth. One does not need to adopt a
Your Story / March 2015
It is a normal human tendency to circumvent rules – especially if the prescribed process is tedious, or if one is needed to perform it perforce (by compulsively following laws and regulations). And when you can do this circumventing, and appear fashionabl
Your Story / March 2015
When Hurricane Sandy lashed the east coast of the United States in October-November 2012, innumerable small businesses had to close shop. Some 20,000-30,000 of such establishments went out of business practically in the blink of an eye. Disasters, especia
Your Story / March 2015
If a Union Budget is supposed to be not just a document of numbers, but a precursor to the shape of policy initiatives to come, then the 2015-16 Budget presented by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley needs to be seen as a recipe for unmitigated disaster.
Opinion Junction / March 2015
For almost two decades since the landmark Rio Summit of 1992, businesses saw red whenever ‘environment’ and ‘sustainable development’ were mentioned to them. And the catchphrase ‘it isn’t development unless it is sustainable’ was perceived to be a shibbol
Your Story / March 2015
The Bharatiya Janata Party's notable performance in the elections to Assam's urban local bodies (ULBs) held in February has been described as a "sweep" by some, as a "surge" by certain others. The truth, as is often the case when hyperbole is used to desc
The News Minute / February 2015
Earlier this month, the world's largest PR firm Edelman ended its decade-long relationship with the world's largest oil lobby, the American Petroleum Institute (API). A welcome step, and high time too, as climate change activists would likely assert.
write2kill.in / February 2015
The media has gone to town with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) governor, Raghuram Rajan's mention of Adolf Hitler and "strong" governments in his speech on 'Democracy, Inclusion, and Prosperity' at the DD Kosambi Ideas Festival held on February 20 in Goa
The News Minute / February 2015
Prey by the Ganges is vivid in imagery, graphic in detail, spellbinding in narrative. It is a gritty, visceral, and taut account of intrigue, gore and determination. And like the enthralling soirée by the ghat that the author brilliantly describes early o
write2kill.in / July 2014
Too much hot air is being blown into Monday’s Supreme Court judgment clarifying that fatwas are not binding on Muslims. That’s possibly because there’s a new government in New Delhi that is led by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), and some people have a m
Asian Correspondent / July 2014
There are many reasons why journalists are such a scantly-respected lot today, compared to even what we were when I joined the profession 23 winters back. One being that journalism, increasingly so, has ceased to be about people. The decline, steeply – if
The News Minute / July 2014
In a milieu where bedlam and mutual suspicion hold discourse to ransom, it is difficult not only to find voices of sanity, it is as challenging to remain circumspect oneself. One invariably ends up believing not the truth, but what suits one’s own predile
DNA / June 2014
It’s almost always a given that when development for the greater good of the greater number is unleashed on a nation, the first casualty is environment. Against the backdrop of this inconvenient truth, when a political party storms to power having canvass
DNA / June 2014
If there’s one hurdle that the proposed Ganga project will not run into, it will be water supply. Not till 2050, at least. And there’s going to be an abundance of it. The reasons, however, should be disconcerting — this will be on account of climate chang
DNA / June 2014
Tuesday last brought this rather alarming and disconcerting bit of news that global warming is threatening more deadly Everest-kind of avalanches. The scare was attributed to the Kathmandu-based International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (IC
write2kill.in / May 2014
The anti-corruption protests of 2011, if not anything, were an outpouring of anger that people harbour against politicians. Probably, more against the regime that ruled India at the time. The agitation, that spawned the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), was simplist
DNA / May 2014
BJP leader Narendra Modi had been pulling out many cards from up his sleeve in the frenetic run for the prime minister’s post. The last of the aces were pulled up in the holy city of Varanasi, where he played the Ganga card. The rhetoric was construed as
DNA / May 2014
An official study that was meant to look at the way environmental clearances in Karnataka were given out in the last 10 years has turned out to be a virtual indictment of the entire process itself. There is not a single project which has got the top two g
DNA / May 2014
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