Jawaharlal Nehru - Fresh Lime Soda

Looking (only) for Nehru

Aug 26, 2023 2 min read

I have a habit of watching one old Tamil film a day. Yesterday evening, I was watching a film released in 1987, called Ivargal Indiyargal ('They Are Indians'). In a scene in the film, an offic…

The importance of sensible politics to good science

Aug 12, 2022 5 min read

Analysis Science Brahmins casteism gender-based discrimination history of science Jawaharlal Nehru politicisation of science reason of state

Stuart Ritchie writes a newsletter-blog that I quite like, called Science Fictions. On May 30, he published a post on this blog entitled 'Science is political - and that's a bad thing'. I…

A great discussion on the history of India's tech.

Mar 6, 2020 9 min read

Analysis Science appropriate technology Arun Mohan Sukumar brain drain CSIR Emergency Five Year Plan history of science history of technology Human Genome Project Indian Institutes of Technology ISRO Jahnavi Phalkey Jawaharlal Nehru Midnights Machines Mokshagundam Visvesvaraya Morarji Desai Nandan Nilekani Planning Commission solar cooker UIDAI Vikram Sarabhai

On February 27, the Bangalore International Centre and Carnegie India hosted a panel discussion around Midnight Machines, the new book by Arun Mohan Sukumar that traces the interplay of technology and…

Discovering Vikram Sarabhai

Aug 12, 2019 2 min read

Science birth centenary Homi Jehangir Bhabha IIT Madras Indian Space Research Organisation ISRO Jawaharlal Nehru Physical Research Laboratory Vikram Sarabhai

I just read through a collection of Vikram Sarabhai's important speeches and papers compiled by members of the Physical Research Laboratory (PRL), Ahmedabad, to pick a suitable portion to excerpt…