Mala Kumar

Mala Kumar joins the Children’s Fest at Bengaluru Poetry Festival – 9th Edition with stories full of curiosity, travel, and treasures tucked between the pages. 📅 2 & 3 August 2025 📍 Indiranagar Sangeetha Sabha 🔗 bengalurupoetryfestival.org/index @maynah

📚 Books That Build Bharat — The YUVA Series Is Here! The YUVA Book Series was launched in Bengaluru in the presence of Smt. Sudha Murty, Shri Yaduveer Krishnadatta Chamaraja Wadiyar, and Sadhguru Sri Madhusudan Sai — a celebration of stories rooted in India’s civilisational spirit. Featuring titles by Mala Kumar, Vijender Sharma, Pradeep Chakravarthy, and Harini Srinivasan, the series takes young readers through forgotten temple towns, ancient education systems, lost civilisations, and the rich cultural fabric of Bharat. Now available in 6 Indian languages, powered by NAAV AI. 📖 Order now: 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘙𝘪𝘴𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘈𝘯𝘤𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘐𝘯𝘥𝘪𝘢𝘯𝘴 by Vijender Sharma 👉 amzn.in/d/aoxvfJX 𝘔𝘦𝘨𝘢-𝘊𝘰𝘰𝘭 𝘓𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘴: 𝘍𝘪𝘷𝘦 𝘙𝘶𝘭𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘞𝘩𝘰 𝘙𝘰𝘤𝘬𝘦𝘥 𝘐𝘯𝘥𝘪𝘢 by Dr. Pradeep Chakravarthy 👉 amzn.in/d/eyZXJ7x 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘔𝘪𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘙𝘰𝘤𝘬𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘏𝘢𝘮𝘱𝘪 by Mala Kumar 👉 amzn.in/d/focwNd3 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘔𝘦𝘳𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘕𝘢𝘨𝘢𝘱𝘢𝘵𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘢𝘮: 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘖𝘳𝘪𝘨𝘪𝘯 𝘚𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘺 by Harini Srinivasan 👉 amzn.in/d/gHK29Go @maynah @IndicHistory @HSriniv12 @fihcr_info @vikramsampath @SmtSudhaMurty @yaduveerwadiyar @sri_madhu_sai

We launched the FIHCR YUVA Books Series today in Bengaluru with eminent guests @SmtSudhaMurty @yaduveerwadiyar, and @sri_madhu_sai. Stories got their spotlight. History got its moment. And curiosity found its crowd!⭐️📚 @vikramsampath @maynah @IndicHistory @HSriniv12

For the first time, a children's history book series is being launched in seven languages, together.📚 If you're in Bengaluru, come and witness this as it happens!⭐️ 🔗 Sign up here: forms.gle/hyPcP3GGBdmfhr… @vikramsampath @naav_ai

@buitengebieden he's flying!

The 4th dog is not running.. 🤯

@sshivu Our gen needs to graciously back off and encourage our wards to find their own mates. And the conditions are both ways, y'know! :)

Spent an entertaining afternoon with a cousin scouring for a daughter in law. Do you know the expansion for NC and NK? No cooking. No kids One girl rejected his son because he didn't ask her out to dinner after a movie. Another because he didn't drink. The conditions are endless!

@vikramsampath @fihcr_info @BluOneInk @IndicHistory @HSriniv12 @naav_ai Looking forward to being part of this event! Thank you, @fihcr_info , @BluOneInk and @naav_ai !

@fihcr_info is delighted to partner with @BluOneInk to bring out our 1st set of "Yuva Books," children's books on Indian history by eminent authors Dr Pradeep Chakravarthy, @maynah , @IndicHistory & @HSriniv12. @naav_ai will be bringing out these in 6 Indian languages: Hindi, Marathi, Kannada, Telugu, Tamil & Malayalam as our first offering. We are extremely honoured to have @SmtSudhaMurty ji, @yaduveerwadiyar ji & @sri_madhu_sai ji launch these books in Bangalore on 12 July 2025, 4.30 pm, Courtyard Marriott. Entry free, pls RSVP & register your attendance. @praveenBlu @AnuradhaSr14209 @heysandeeep @bhash @foundation_ola @ashajadeja

@OwenGregorian That's the reason we brought out books on financial literacy for children. Here's the first in the series of 4. CC BY . storyweaver.org.in/en/stories/916…

Simple two-minute storytelling boosts financial literacy, study finds | Stanford University A program that taught basic financial concepts through two-minute stories improved adults' financial knowledge, showing promise as an easy-to-implement real-world tool. To thrive in today's economy, people need financial knowledge. Yet as financial products have grown increasingly complex, consumers' understanding of personal finance has failed to keep pace. According to the Personal Finance Index, a long-running survey of financial literacy, American adults can correctly answer about half of a set of questions that measure knowledge of personal finance concepts. They especially struggle with questions about managing financial risk. Poor financial literacy is a significant problem since it generally translates into lower financial well-being, explains Annamaria Lusardi, a professor of finance (by courtesy) at Stanford Graduate School of Business and one of the creators of the P-Fin Index. People with low financial literacy are more likely to have trouble making ends meet and less likely to have emergency savings. Financial literacy tends to be lower among women, members of Gen Z, and Black and Hispanic Americans. "Financial literacy is very low—not just in the U.S., but around the world," Lusardi says. "People just do not have those basics, even though they've made a lot of financial decisions. We can and we should find ways to improve it. The world is too complex to rely on only the knowledge people currently have." Lusardi, who directs the Initiative for Financial Decision-Making (IFDM) at Stanford GSB, has dedicated her career to exploring interventions that can reverse financial illiteracy. Part of her work has been advocating for schools at all levels to teach financial literacy. "It's very dangerous to have a population of young people with student loans who don't know what an interest rate is or how interest compounds." At Stanford, she teaches the popular Introduction to Financial Decision-Making course. (The class has been a particular hit with student-athletes. "They realize they can make quite a bit of money right away and are becoming more and more aware of how important it is to manage their finances well," she says.) However, as more schools add financial literacy courses, older Americans and young people who don't finish high school or attend college can miss out on these lessons. The good news is that it is not impossible to pick up new financial knowledge later in life. In a new paper published in the Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Lusardi teamed up with Robert Clark of North Carolina State University, Chuanhao Lin of George Washington University, Olivia Mitchell of the University of Pennsylvania, and IFDM research director Andrea Sticha to test a simple program that teaches adults basic financial concepts through stories. They found that this inexpensive, easily scalable initiative boosted participants' financial knowledge. Learning the basics in two minutes Lusardi, Sticha, and their colleagues focused on consumers who had made significant financial decisions in their lives, but likely had little or no formal education in financial literacy. Their sample included more than 2,200 American adults ages 45 and older. The researchers crafted simple narratives about three financial fundamentals: compound interest, inflation, and risk diversification. The compound interest story tells the tale of 25-year-old newlyweds who received $5,000 in cash as wedding presents and needed to decide what to do with the money. After discussing the Rule of 72—a way to calculate how long an investment will double at a fixed annual rate of return—the couple chose to invest the gift right away. The inflation story features Lisa, who learns to save more for the future by seeing how the price of a cute plaid shirt had changed over time. In the risk diversification story, Kate and her husband Sam must decide what to do with the money from selling their car. They discuss a long-term investment in the stock market and diversifying their portfolio to minimize the risk of losses. Each story took two minutes to read. The researchers divided participants into four groups, one for each story and a control group that didn't read a story. After reading the story, each participant answered questions to test their knowledge of the assigned topic. All three stories boosted participants' financial knowledge, particularly the one about risk diversification. Participants who read that story were 17 to 18 percentage points more likely to answer the related questions correctly than the control group, and the story resonated most with people with lower education and income levels. People who read the inflation story were 6 to 8 percentage points more likely to get the questions correct, and those who read the compound interest story were 17 percentage points more likely to correctly answer one of the questions. "Even a simple story can improve knowledge, and in fact it does so quite a bit," Lusardi says. "Finance is considered complex, and a story might take away that complexity. Stories are often how people understand concepts; they're very memorable." In a follow-up survey eight months later, the researchers tested the participants' knowledge again. Those who had read the risk diversification story retained nearly half of their short-term knowledge of the topic. The effect was not so robust for inflation and compound interest, trickier topics that involve more mental math. Still, people who read the inflation story spent more time answering questions on the effect of inflation on real income, suggesting that exposure to the story had boosted their interest in the topic. A long-term investment in financial literacy Finally, the researchers measured the stories' impact on four indicators of financial distress (financial fragility, over-indebtedness, financial dissatisfaction, and difficulty making ends meet) and a financial resilience index. Eight months after the initial study, they found no difference in how participants responded to these indicators. One explanation could be that not enough time had passed. "Some of this behavior takes time to change, and eight months may not be enough," Lusardi says. Subsequent research will look at whether reminders can help people retain key financial concepts and shape their behavior. Still, the intervention shows promise as a real-world tool that can be easily implemented, Sticha says. For example, banks could use similar stories to inform their customers, and companies could use this approach as part of a workplace financial wellness program. Lusardi hopes the work will help change the conversation about money in society, making it less taboo. "We don't talk enough about it," she says. "Finance should be woven into the fabric of society and be a part of our daily life." She's heartened by the successes she's had in Italy. From 2017 to 2023, the Italian-born Lusardi directed the country's Financial Education Committee, which designed a national financial literacy strategy. The committee launched a dedicated financial education website, established October as Financial Literacy Month, and played a key role in passing legislation that made financial education mandatory from elementary school onward. And she even brought financial lessons to a broader audience by integrating them into a popular Italian soap opera. Lusardi has already seen successes at Stanford. Students in her course frequently share lessons with their parents and siblings or write to her with updates on their own financial decisions. A rigorous course like Stanford's is the gold standard for financial literacy, Sticha notes. But, in the absence of that, a simple, low-cost, story-based financial intervention program can still be effective in increasing access to financial education. Read more: phys.org/news/2025-05-s…

“Mala Kumar’s 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘔𝘪𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘙𝘰𝘤𝘬𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘏𝘢𝘮𝘱𝘪 weaves together mystery and history.” Read The Hindu's review of Mala Kumar's latest children's book: 🔗 thehindu.com/news/cities/ba… In this gripping tale, young Seekers uncover secrets buried in the ruins of Hampi—while a girl from the Vijayanagara empire must protect its lifeblood. A riveting adventure where the past holds clues to the present. 📘 Order your copy of 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘔𝘪𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘙𝘰𝘤𝘬𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘏𝘢𝘮𝘱𝘪 now: amzn.in/d/16sBo1o @maynah @fihcr_info @vikramsampath @the_hindu

Heart-felt congratulations to author Banu Mushtaq and translator Deepa Bhasthi for winning the Booker!

Bengaluru-based Mala Kumar’s new book traces the origins of a hundred everyday objects. @PreetiZach ✍️ thehindu.com/news/cities/ba…

@AloPal @fihcr_info @vikramsampath Thank you for recommending our books, @AloPal ! Writing 'The Missing Rocks of Hampi' was so enriching!

Want to change Narratives stop cribbing. Stop blaming the Govt/ schools, yes they've failed us. Grab what @fihcr_info has published within a year of its foundation. Get your children to read. Well done #FIHCR. Félicitations @vikramsampath, YUVA, Anuradha Srinivasan 1/4

@bhash @vikramsampath Thank you for your support, @bhash! Was a learning experience to write one of the YUVA books :)

Congrats and great to see the history books for kids @vikramsampath! The younger generation can learn the correct history, unlike us who had to unlearn and relearn!

@vikramsampath @fihcr_info @BluOneInk @IndicHistory @bhash Thank you, @vikramsampath , and @BluOneInk ! Thoroughly enjoyed writing this!

We at @fihcr_info are so delighted to announce the 1st set of books for children under our YUVA category published by our partner @BluOneInk & featuring authors like Dr Pradeep Chakravarthy, @IndicHistory & Mala Kumar. Preorders are out; pls do support our initiative 🙏 @bhash

@rajbhagatt Thank you for sharing these wonderful discoveries !

If we zoom in, Kallanai dam can be seen very clearly. The structure and history of Kallanai can be found in another thread of mine (posted at the end of this thread)

#Thread What geographical features can we observe from the sky while on a flight from Thiruvananthapuram to Chennai? (approx path in map)

Curious about the history of more everyday objects you use everyday? Get your copy of Travelling Treasures by @maynah today! #BookRecommendations #EverydayObjects #HistoryLovers

Are you ready to embark on an adventure like no other? 'Travelling Treasures' Coming soon! @maynah

Today is the first International Day of Play. Let's celebrate by providing a safe place and time for our kids to play on their own. Here's my article about IDOP for @livemint .

Engineering is a mindset, not just a degree. Join @AiyyoShraddha, @maynah & @sudheeshvenkat on #RadioAzimPremjiUniversity as they discuss the legacy of Sir Mokshagundam Visvesvaraya, who exemplified how engineers build a better, inclusive society. open.spotify.com/episode/6EC7Ep…

33,000 trees identified to be cut for construction of Bengaluru Suburban Rail Project. Trees cannot be the price we pay for development. We must take action to save Bengaluru's green cover if we want a sustainable future. bit.ly/3yiDAnD