When Desis bring home the Dollars

What do passports, billions of dollars and an Indian cowboy have in common? They all feature in this week’s TOI Bharat Abroad. From a fresh US immigration headache and a record NRI money rush to an Indian-origin executive taking over Adobe, the diaspora has had quite the week. And yes, there’s also a seven-year-old taking…

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The Weekly Vine, Edition 105: The Apologetic Indian

Hello and welcome to another edition of The Weekly Vine. If you asked my mother to write the Vine, she could write every edition about my departures from normative behaviour during my childhood and adolescence. From my follicular adventures — which included a mohawk and the Salman Khan Tere Naam haircut — to not taking exams seriously,…

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The dog was Dharma. The gods were not sure

There is a particular sound a brand makes when it folds. It is not a scream. It is the soft, laminated hum of a legal-and-comms note being read aloud by someone who has never in their life used the word “sentiments” in a sentence they meant. GIVA made that sound earlier this month. Its thirty-five-second…

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Building a resilient and timeless Delhi

Great cities are defined not only by the infrastructure they build, but by what they preserve, restore, and pass on to future generations. Delhi is uniquely endowed in both respects. The Yamuna and its floodplains, the Ridge, urban forests, biodiversity parks, and neighbourhood greens form the city’s ecological foundation. Simultaneously, its monuments, historic precincts, archaeological…

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Application Error

Private universities are filing weak patent applications to improve their rankings. The government should change the rules. The S&P 500 is one of the world’s best-known stock market indexes. The companies in it are worth about $70 trillion altogether. But here is something interesting: about 92% of their value now comes not from things such…

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Nepal’s disaster could be a preview of what lies ahead 

Namaste Langtang Lirung. Namaste Bhote Koshi and Trishuli. Namaste Chorabari and Kedarnath. Namaste Gangotri, South Lhonak, Sikkim, Himachal, Ladakh and the glaciers of the great Himalayan arc.  These are not merely words of reverence for the mountains. They are a reminder that the Himalaya is no longer a distant, silent landscape. It is changing rapidly,…

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