K Balakumar

Ramesh’s rise is kind of thing lot of people seem to love democrazy for. Politics remains one of the fastest vehicles for multigenerational upward mobility in India. Considering how politically smart he has been by signing paens to Ramasamy Naicker(who actually wanted his ilk to be eradicated), he will go a long way. But there’s a deeper irony here. One of the Periyar Dravidulu movement’s greatest strategic victories in TN has been poisoning the minds of vast sections of Tamil society that impoverished temple priests like Ramesh's father Srinivasan (earning ₹5,000 a month, living in temple quarters, with his wife travelling 90 km daily as a cook ) were the “oppressors” and "suppressors" holding society down. That is how the movement successfully redirected anger away from entrenched political and economic power structures toward some of the most economically fragile sections of Tamil society, while packaging it as social justice. newindianexpress.com/states/tamil-n…

There is one premium advanced fabric India quietly knew how to make at scale, and that the rest of the world is now coming to want. H&M, Zara, Decathlon and Marks & Spencer have all committed to it. So has the European Union, in its incoming sustainability rules. It is called lyocell, and chances are you have never heard of it. The fabrics in the clothes you wear come from three families. Cotton from a plant. Polyester from petroleum. And a third group called regenerated cellulosics, made from wood pulp, is what Europe is now restructuring its textile import market around. Among cellulosics, lyocell has the kind of chemistry older ones like viscose never had. Where viscose's toxic chemicals get dumped into rivers, lyocell's get recaptured and reused — 99% of them. The fabric is biodegradable, and the wood comes from sustainably grown trees. Plus it is stronger than cotton when wet, holds dye well, drapes like silk, and breathes like linen. So lyocell is premium and sustainable. Only about a dozen places in the world can make it at commercial scale, and Aditya Birla's plant at Kharach in Gujarat was one of them. For once, India was a producer of an advanced material that the world was coming to want. Then the Chinese came in. On the morning of 13 March 2026, a factory in Shandong, China, produced its first commercial bale of lyocell. The factory is owned by a company called Sateri. Six years ago, Sateri didn't make lyocell at all. Today, this one plant, on its own, will eventually outproduce what the entire world made in 2023. It already makes twelve times more of it than Birla does. The price too has collapsed in step. Lyocell, as premium fibre that was meant to sell above cotton and viscose, now sells in China below both. Lenzing, the Austrian company that invented lyocell and ran the global market for decades, has lost 80% of its stock value since 2021. It scrapped a big US expansion. It is quietly walking out of the commodity end of the business. Birla is doubling down. A new 55,000-tonne plant is coming up at Harihar in Karnataka, with a second phase planned. Even at full build-out, Birla will have about 110,000 tonnes. Sateri makes four times that today. Three months before Birla announced Harihar, Tamil Nadu signed an MoU with the same Sateri's parent company for a 150,000-tonne lyocell plant at Thoothukudi. One foreign-owned plant on Indian soil will produce more lyocell than the whole of Birla's Indian operation. In January 2026, India and the EU finally signed a Free Trade Agreement, after nineteen years of trying. The agreement removes the 8-12% European import duty on Indian textiles. China doesn't get this advantage. While this trade deal buys India the right to compete for Europe's fastest-growing fibre market, it won't provide the means or the factories to make the most of it. I write for @SwarajyaMag on the lyocell fibre, the price collapse, the Thoothukudi MoU, the Rules of Origin trap, and what Indian industrial policy is still missing. swarajyamag.com/business/how-i…

@sunda_m @sathya060377 Mahendra is lionised as an industry great. Shobha is reduced to an unlucky footnote. Sad! Btw, heard of the Malayalam movie Lekhayude Maranam Orru Flashback? It is a more direct takeoff on Shobha's life. And the character that Bharat Gopi played in it is loosely based on BM.

@sathya060377 @CranksCorner Just called the sibling asking about this .... The exact same thing has been repeated in this post. Wow. So everybody knew.

Saar @CranksCorner ... Idhu unmaiya?

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தேனினும் இனிய சைவத் திருமுறைப் பாடல்களை பண் மரபு மாறாமல் கோவில்களில் 55 ஆண்டுகளுக்கு மேலாக இசைத்து வரும் திரு. என். சுவாமிநாதன் அவர்களுக்கு ‘பத்மஶ்ரீ’ விருது வழங்கப்பட்ட பெருமைமிகு தருணம். தமிழகத்தில் ஆயிரக்கணக்கான ஆண்டுகளாகத் தொடர்ந்துவரும் “பதியம் பாடுவோர்” என்ற ஓதுவாமூர்த்திகளின் மரபுக்கு அளிக்கப்பட்ட இந்தக் கௌரவம், தமிழுக்கும் தமிழ்ப் பண்பாட்டிற்கும் பாரதப் பிரதமர் @narendramodi அவர்கள் தொடர்ந்து அளித்துவரும் முக்கியத்துவத்திற்கு இன்னுமொரு உதாரணமாகும். #PadmaShri #PeoplesPadma #PadmaAwards

On these types of arrests alone, there is uniformity across States and the Centre #OneNationOneWhatever

I dunno whether this stratagem is workable or not. But what I know is if I order anything worth Rs 40 on the food app, the eventual bill will be Rs 160 or some such. (In my experience, unless there is some offer, impossible to order below Rs 100).

@dagalti @avataram I didn't take up any job for 2 yrs after my engineering. Honestly, I was lazy, without any great ambition. Liked to read, and watch sports, made it to a profession which paid me for this. Lucky that my parents didnt push me when I was idle. Lucky that career somehow worked.

@avataram that you think most Indian people will be pleased about what they discover about themselves- even if they are able to - is an unseemly generous opinion.

@eshers @Love_Only90 This defeat, in particular, has shut them off.

@CranksCorner @Love_Only90 They have always been like that except for the brief Annamalai period

The silence of the BJP and its foot soldiers also speak volumes here.

If some shop becomes famous, the wannabes get interested. The names of two different shops in my neighbourhood are: Lensmart and Dmarket.

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The amount of fake references in the works of "eminent" historians is mind boggling. Whole chapters are based on claims with no primary evidence but circular referencing to each other's writings.

@devarajan_p True. Realised late.

@CranksCorner Just not worth it sir

மாண்புமிகு அறநிலைய துறை அமைச்சர் மீது பல விமர்சனங்கள் வந்தாலும் எனக்கு அதில் எல்லாம் உடன்பாடு இல்லை. ஒருவர் எந்த பிரிவை சேர்ந்தவர் என்பது முக்கியமே இல்லை. அவர் எப்படி செயல்படுகிறார் என்பது தான் முக்கியம் என நினைப்பவன் நான். ஆனால் இப்போது அரசு அதிகாரிகள் செய்ய வேண்டிய ஆய்வை எல்லாம் கட்சிக்காரர்கள் செய்யவேண்டும் என சொல்வது "அதிகார துஷ்பிரயோகம்" எனும் கேட்டகரியில் வரும். விஷயம் தெரியாமல் இப்படி சொன்னாரா அல்லது விஷயம் தெரிந்தே தான் இதை வலியுறுத்துகிறாரா என தெரியல என்னை கேட்டால் @TVKVijayHQ தங்கள் அமைச்சர் எல்லோருக்கும் அரசியலமைப்பு சட்டம், அடிப்படை பொறுப்புகள் பற்றி எல்லாம் வகுப்பு எடுப்பது நல்லது அதை விட முக்கியம் நிர்வாக விஷயங்களில் கட்சியினரை கட்டுப்படுத்தி வைப்பது.

@cyborgg42 Precisely!

@CranksCorner They are deeply hurt because vijay created a dent in their core vote bank. Thats why they are whining and pulambifying each day out of despair இப்படி அடிமடிலேயே கைய வெச்சுட்டானே..but vijay should remember that what comes easily can be lost just as quickly..

It is twenty days since the poll results were out for TN. The DMK leadership and its social media foot soldiers don't look to have come out of the shock of defeat. Their reasoning and coping ways look bizarre, not to speak of being funny.

@sunda_m It is the reality of our politics. All parties are guilty. I was only reacting to these D minions getting all het up over this, as if these TVK whippersnappers need lessons in governance and the Ds are past masters in this game.

@CranksCorner Seems like calling for reinforcements is a reflex reaction from the rookies. Some show of comman and control masking the fear of being alone.

@Srini_Sundhar I can understand their pain, as you say the loss being on multiple fronts. But their desperation and silliness are getting better of them. Pathetic & puerile.

@CranksCorner This loss is huge for them- Stalin's loss,loss in the Chennai area,loss of alliance partners, loss of minority vote base, and finally the loss of secular leadership. They still have their eco system in media and administration, but need to rethink positioning and differentiation.

@eshers They will do. World has seen no group more low than desperate Ds.

@CranksCorner Only way they can comeback is by temple hopping which I doubt they will do!