The Dharma of a Technocrat
The advent and domination of modern technology today extends from our daily domestic use all the way to national defence and international communications.
MGNREGA - from flawed social security to controlled vision
The Government of India in a hurried manner pushed through radical changes in the MGNREGA scheme with a hastily put together debate going late into the night to pass the bill despite much opposition as though our national sovereignty depended on it. Such haste deserves closer scrutiny in a Democracy as much as lack of consultation. I had written a very critical note on the MGNREGA when it was scaled upto the entire nation way in 2007.
Provocation as Motivation
[I am experimenting with a new way of writing, using my own often criticized ‘stream of consciousness’ rambling style to my advantage. However, I am aware that such a style may be not everyone’s choice to read, so, giving a mapping link wherever the core stream meanders into another one. You can choose to either click wherever you see "[meander:]" and ramble on with me or stick to the core issue if you like.
Internship with Farmers
Sudarsha Chariar, is pursuing a under graduate course on Politics, Philosophy and Economics in the Ashoka University. He interned with Samanvaya in summer 2025 and was assigned two tasks - (a) be part of the farmer's awareness campaign and yatra of the organic farmer's collected in the village of Kalasapakkam in Thiruvannamalai district, and (b) read Hind Swaraj and share his views on it. The output of the internship was to write an article on these experiences.
Shopkeeper or Identity-keeper
Piyush Goyal, the Minister of Commerce & Industry, in the centralization oriented government, used an online social media content, in an event titled as Startup Mahakumbh, to provoke the Indian entrepreneurship startup stakeholders for not doing what the Chinese startups were doing with the words, “do you want to remain local shopkeepers (dukhandaar) or do you want to build international scale bharat ki pehchaan (make a name or identity keeper for bharat) startups choice before us!”.
Ethical Challenges of AgriTech Entrepreneurs
I spent a refreshing weekend (4-6 April 2025) with agritech millennial entrepreneurs near Chilka lake in Odisha. My friend Venky of Agri Business Matters facilitated this gathering and had invited me to engage with them on the topic of ethics.
