This Country

20/01/2024 This is a country which has turned to religious supremacy. This character will soon be consecrated and set for the near future. It has shed every pretense of secularism that its founders imagined as the soul of this union. This is a country which is smug. It does not know how to handle success …

Roundup 2023

Enroute Zanskar, Aug 2023 The year was about reconnecting with science and biotech. I began reading papers and books to get up to speed with the latest developments in cell biology, immunology, biotech and healthcare. Jennifer Doudna’s book A Crack in Creation, on developing CRISPR technology was a key influence in this journey back to …

India’s Construction Equipment Industry: Notes from EXCON 2023

EXCON 2023, Bengaluru Besides a fascination for super-sized construction equipment, my interest in this space is also due to its overlap with agricultural machinery. I spent a day exploring and learning a great deal about various types of construction equipment on display at EXCON 2023 in Bengaluru. Here are a few observations. Electric and hydrogen-fuel …

Malnad Ultra 2023: 100K

Malnad Ultra 2023, Chikmagalur, Karnataka 27 Nov 2023 It is harvest time in the coffee plantations of Chikmagalur. Red coloured cherries that will later be coffee beans are being picked by scores of workers. The workers are being transported to work as I start the run. There is gentle chatter on some of the slopes …

Summer 2023 Soybean Harvest & Numbers

Time at the farm has been irregular in these months. However, the family enterprise continues to progress through the growing season along with construction and local contracting. Soybean harvest was severely affected, as expected. The harvest from a ~ 4 acre plot was 17 quintals only. After a slog of four months we have 17 …

Crop Check – Summer 2023 Growing Season

26 September 2023 Learning from the previous season's prices summer 2023 growing season was hedged between cotton (~12 acres), pigeonpea (intercropped on 12 acres) and soybean (~4 acres). Planting was completed by July first week. In the following ten weeks until 26 September, the region's rainfall has been normal and well distributed. More number of …

Why does India export cotton?

How much cotton does India export and why? Why do farmers continue to grow this crop  season after season even when the prices are not stable and yield risks are high?   As a crop, cotton is not exactly an easy crop to grow. It needs expensive inputs, several  rounds of crop care with weeding, foliar …

Cotton Value Chain & Indian Textile Industry: 11th ATEXCON, Coimbatore

Coimbatore, India. September 2023 Moving our cotton farming trial further and find some answers, I attended the 11th Asian Textile Conference organized by Confederation of Indian Textile Industry (CITI) in Coimbatore last week. The Union minister responsible for textiles was at pains to give the city a moniker in his address - "I am happy …

India’s struggle with quality: ‘Kasturi Cotton India’

Cotton, August 2023 It might be tricky to write about quality considering that this week 'India is on the moon'. Indian agricultural excellence is a different world. In this summer growing season, we are obsessing about cotton. There is twelve acres of it planted. It is an intensive crop in terms of labour, inputs and …

Experiments in understanding the origin of life: Szostak’s work

Jack Szostak (Nobel Prize in Medicine, 2009) and his colleagues from University of Chicago are visiting NCBS, Bengaluru this week. The Centre organized a series of public talks for them to present their work. This is why I love this city! Szostak shared the Nobel Prize with Elizabeth Blackburn and Carol Greider for the discovery …