Journalism in crisis: Why India’s young professionals are turning away from the field

The journalism profession has long held the attention and admiration of youngsters in India. Popular media’s depiction of journalists as slick, suave, and brave reporters, as evidenced in books like The Adventures of Tintin and Nancy Drew had caught the fancy of different generations, including the Baby Boomers, Gen X and Millennials. The ‘90s boom … Read more

Denied by bureaucracy: How India’s scholarship system fails marginalised students

Three and a half years ago, while standing in a visa application queue, I found myself observing a very elite international school nearby. The stark contrast between the children attending this prestigious institution and those in tribal hamlets attending school for midday meals struck me deeply. It was a visual metaphor of the vast divide … Read more

At Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital, new web portal gives doctors quick access to lab reports

Doctors view the working of the bar code system for testing samples at Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital in Chennai | Photo Credit: Akhila Easwaran The long queues of patient relatives waiting to hand over blood samples of their hospitalised family members and to collect the test results outside the biochemistry laboratory at Rajiv Gandhi … Read more

Persons with disabilities demand more amenities at railway stations

Blatant violation: At Chennai Central, other commuters park their vehicles in the space provided free for persons with disabilities to park their vehicles. | Photo Credit: R. RAGU The Chennai Division of Southern Railway convened a meeting of the Divisional Railway Users Consultative Committee (DRUCC) recently. Commuters spotlighted several issues they face daily. The meeting … Read more

The banality of evil: learning about Gaza from Nazi history

‘Neither perverted nor sadistic’, but ‘terrifyingly normal’ is how historian and philosopher Hannah Arendt had described Adolf Eichmann, the Nazi officer in charge of the mass deportation of millions of Jews to the extermination camps across Nazi-occupied Europe. Arendt had reported on the trial of Eichmann, and described it in her seminal work Eichmannin Jerusalem: … Read more

Bengaluru’s parking woes: How encroachments and violations are choking the city

For 28-year-old Shwetha Pillai, a resident of Indiranagar, parking her car in front of her independent house has been a challenging experience with many cars and bikes taking up space. “There is often bumper-to-bumper parking or double parking which is mostly done by valet parkers from pubs and restaurants from around the area, which makes … Read more

Should mpox be labelled a sexually transmitted disease?

Even as the threat of mpox continues unabated globally, with an increasing number of countries outside the Africa region detecting cases, the scientific community seems divided on whether mpox should be given the label of a sexually transmitted disease (STD), with targeted public health interventions to contain it. Mpox was first declared a global health … Read more