Subhayan Chakraborty শুভায়ন চক্রবর্তী

250 year old trees that gave shade & comfort to pilgrims in Nashik during 20 previous Kumbh Mela's. These trees are actually part of the history of the Kumbh and Hinduism. They weren't prepared for Hindutva tho.

Semicon Mission 2.0 set to prioritise memory chips By @Subhayan_ET Read more at: economictimes.indiatimes.com/tech/technolog…

His name was Satyendra Dubey. He topped Bihar in Class 10 and Class 12 board exams. He cleared JEE and went to IIT Kanpur. He joined the Indian Engineering Service. In 2002 he was posted as Project Director at the National Highways Authority of India in Jharkhand. His job was to oversee the Golden Quadrilateral highway project. India’s biggest infrastructure project at the time. What he found was shocking. Substandard materials. Inflated bills. Contractors looting public money. He wrote a letter to the Prime Minister’s Office exposing everything. He asked for one thing. That his identity be kept secret. The PMO leaked his name. On November 27 2003 he was shot dead in Gaya Bihar. He was 27 years old. Two years later India passed the Right to Information Act. Ten years later India passed the Whistleblowers Protection Act. Both laws exist because of Satyendra Dubey. He never got to see either of them.

His name was Manjunath Shanmugam. He was an IIM Lucknow graduate. He got a job with Indian Oil Corporation as a sales officer. His territory was Uttar Pradesh. He found that petrol pump dealers were adulterating fuel and cheating customers. He reported it. He sealed the pumps. On November 19 2005 a petrol pump owner shot him dead outside his office. He was 27 years old. The killers were convicted. Sentenced to life imprisonment. His parents did not get compensation for 15 years. His college created the Manjunath Shanmugam Trust in his name to fight corruption. Some men die because they refused to look the other way. India forgets them too quickly.

Infant surgeries were routinely performed with minimal or no anesthesia because anesthetists wrongly believed infants felt no pain due to their immature nervous systems, dismissing their responses as mere reflexes. This barbaric practice persisted until 1987, when Dr. Kanwaljeet J.S. Anand and Dr. P.R. Hickey published their groundbreaking research in the NEJM, demolishing those outdated myths. In 1985, Dr. K.J.S. Anand had reviewed preterm neonatal surgeries and the results were shocking. He found that 76% used only muscle relaxants. This left infants awake, aware, and paralyzed during painful procedures. In 1987, the article “Pain and Its Effects in the Human Neonate and Fetus” appeared in the New England Journal of Medicine. It combined clear evidence on pain perception in fetuses and newborns. This work changed medical practice. It led to global reforms in pediatric anesthesia that required proper pain relief for infant surgeries. The paper has been cited more than 2,700 times.

ThePrint #50WordEdit: India’s proposed IT Rules amendments will have a chilling effect on free speech. The government now wants every X, YouTube user held to the same code as registered publishers, giving it unchecked powers to take down unpalatable content and build a singular narrative. This is being done without parliamentary scrutiny. tinyurl.com/5xvjprn5

🚨🚨 MeitY clears 29 ECMS proposals worth Rs 7,104 crore The latest group of 29 applicants are projected to churn out production worth Rs 84,515 crore from facilities spread across eight states, employing 14,246 people. Read more at: economictimes.indiatimes.com/tech/technolog…

Coolest story I heard in Mexico from a cabbie-guide who heard me mention Nagpur. Diego Rivera (husband of Frida for a bit) made this mural in the Education Secretariat. It shows Dr. Pandurang Sadashiv Khankhoje! Who is a bit like the Norman Borlaug of Mexico & corn! 🧵

Surreal scene - A child plays on a swing on the beach on the coast of Bandar Abbas, Hormozgan Province, while the city burns in the background as a result of American strikes

New Delhi has seriously started discussing its stand wrt banning/restricting social media for kids. Several meetings have happened with platforms & orgs like NHRC.. Pressure is mounting with states coming up with own laws.. I report with @Subhayan_ET! economictimes.indiatimes.com/tech/technolog…

Government revisits rules on children’s social media access By @SurabhiA_ET & @Subhayan_ET Read more at: economictimes.indiatimes.com/tech/technolog…

MeitY setting up AI curation units across 50 key ministries 📌 The final 20 AI curation units will be established over the next few months, officials told ET. By @Subhayan_ET Read more at: economictimes.indiatimes.com/tech/technolog…

Gazette notification may allow more ministries to block content By @Subhayan_ET & @SurabhiA_ET Read more at: economictimes.indiatimes.com/tech/technolog…

@WhatsApp is gearing up for its biggest platform overhaul and preparing to transition from phone numbers to usernames and unique IDs. 👉 The platform is expected to roll out usernames by June 2026 globally, users will be able to reserve their handles. 👉 The change will enhance user privacy, strengthen spam control, and improve discoverability of brands. But, the feature is optional and phone numbers will continue to be an identifier. 👉 WhatsApp will also introduce ‘dynamic pricing’ for businesses who will need to bid maximum price in real-time to send marketing messages. 👉 This @facebook ad model marks one of the biggest shifts in WhatsApp’s business model since it began monetising enterprise messaging nearly a decade ago. Read details in the @EconomicTimes

‘Can’t afford to refill LPG cylinder’: Workers’ exodus sets alarm bells ringing in Surat’s textile industry #Echobox=1773933493" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">indianexpress.com/article/cities…

Centre for blanket content licensing for AI training By @Subhayan_ET Read more at: economictimes.indiatimes.com/tech/artificia…

Social media companies to get time to build audit-ready AI labelling By @Subhayan_ET Read more at: economictimes.indiatimes.com/tech/artificia…

From amicably securing 2/3 Iranian ships after one was sunk by the US  to playing the consumer's game amid soaring oil prices, why the war in West Asia is a diplomatic trapeze act for India, not a moral or ideological test. My column #StateofPlay m.economictimes.com/opinion/et-com…

Govt tracking chip supply snags as units come alive By @Subhayan_ET Read more at: economictimes.indiatimes.com/tech/technolog…

A couple of days back at a cake shop in Calcutta, I had stepped in for a quick snack. The man in front of me had the look of someone who had been very careful, for a very long time, not to inconvenience anyone. White shirt, collar gone a bit yellow. He was buying a pineapple cake. The kind with the aggressively yellow icing. The girl at the counter asked whether any name needed to be written on the cake. The man shook his head. But she wasn’t done. “Kaar jonmodin (Whose birthday), Jethu?” she prodded. He pushed his glasses up. “Aamar (Mine),” he said. Quietly, trying to make it sound very matter-of-factly. She went still for a second. Exchanged glances with me and another customer. Then she turned toward the back where two boys were loading something in the fridge. “Shibu! Mondal!” What followed was not polished but more touching than any great musical performance. They all sang Happy Birthday to this man, and meant it, the way you can only mean something that wasn’t planned. The man turned red. He looked at his shoes. He looked at the cake. He looked at the girl. And I thought I saw a tiny smile. He didn’t say anything. Took his change, took the box. His shoulders sat differently as he stepped out onto the pavement and got swallowed up in the street crowd. I kept thinking about him for the rest of the day — this man who had turned up alone to buy himself a cake, and left a little less alone.