There are many ways of changing the world. Revolution is one. War is another. Elections occasionally manage it. The United Nations has now discovered a considerably less dangerous method: change the map. On September 4, the UN General Assembly voted 164 to 1 to encourage the world to move away from the familiar Mercator projection towardsContinue reading “What’s in a Map?”
Tag Archives: india
The Actor I Never Met
Some actors enter our lives through films. A few somehow enter our memories and stay there, long after the film itself has faded. Anant Nag has been one of those actors for me. I have never met him. Yet the news that he is to receive the Dadasaheb Phalke Award for 2024 made me feelContinue reading “The Actor I Never Met”
The QR Code That Changed India -I
Part I: How India Learnt to Pay Differently There are technological revolutions that announce themselves with great fanfare, and there are those that quietly become part of everyday life. UPI belongs to the second category. Its most visible symbol is a little black-and-white square that now appears almost everywhere—in the neighbourhood grocery shop, beside aContinue reading “The QR Code That Changed India -I”
The QR Code That Changed India-III
Part III: From the Tea Stall to the World The story of UPI would be incomplete if it ended with the QR code at the neighbourhood shop. What began as an attempt to make domestic payments simpler has now acquired a larger significance. India is increasingly exploring whether the architecture that transformed payments at homeContinue reading “The QR Code That Changed India-III”
The QR Code That Changed India-II
Part II: The Price of Free There is a curious paradox about UPI. The more successful it has become, the easier it is to forget that it costs money to run. For the user, a UPI payment is almost completely frictionless. We scan a QR code, enter an amount, authenticate the transaction and the moneyContinue reading “The QR Code That Changed India-II”
BRICS: The Delhi Moment
The New Delhi BRICS Summit could hardly have come at a more difficult moment. The world is fractured by wars, trade tensions, sanctions and strategic rivalries. Even multilateral forums that were once accustomed to producing carefully negotiated statements are increasingly finding consensus difficult. Against this backdrop, the adoption of the New Delhi Declaration by allContinue reading “BRICS: The Delhi Moment”
Can India Give BRICS a New Purpose?-II
Part II: What Can Bring Them Together If geopolitics is the fault line running through BRICS, what can hold it together? The answer may lie not in trying to resolve the world’s political differences, but in finding areas where countries with very different interests can still work together. This is where India’s opportunity begins. WhatContinue reading “Can India Give BRICS a New Purpose?-II”
Can India Give BRICS a New Purpose?-I
Part I: The Geopolitical Trap BRICS returns to Delhi at a moment when the world seems unusually divided. But before asking what India can do with the grouping, it is worth asking what BRICS has achieved so far—and whether its original economic promise has been overtaken by geopolitics. A Summit at a Difficult Moment NewContinue reading “Can India Give BRICS a New Purpose?-I”
From Press Release to Public Conversation -II
Part II — From Information to Influence If the architecture of communication has changed, the role of the government communicator must change with it. The challenge is no longer simply to disseminate information but to create understanding, build credibility and, where necessary, persuade citizens and stakeholders that a particular course of action is both necessaryContinue reading “From Press Release to Public Conversation -II”
Two Pavilions, Two Ways of Showing India
A recent article in The Economist drew attention to a striking contrast between India’s pavilion at the Osaka World Expo and its pavilion at this year’s Venice Biennale. Both were official representations of India, both came under the Ministry of Culture, and yet the magazine’s assessment of the two could hardly have been more different. Two WaysContinue reading “Two Pavilions, Two Ways of Showing India”
