As most of India was celebrating the festive season last year, Cyclone Michaung hit South India and wreaked havoc in parts of Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh inundating the city of Chennai once again. TV news reports were full of the levels of flooding in the city, where streets had turned into rivers and the… Continue reading How Livable Are Our Cities in India?
Protected: Turning the Page for The New Year
When Fashion Goes Retail and Retail Goes Fashion
In India, organized retail is a fairly new phenomenon and it coexists with the traditional corner-shop or kirana store as it’s called here. Despite fears of the former destroying small mom and pop shops, the two have happily coexisted for a couple of decades now. That’s also because the Indian government didn’t allow large foreign… Continue reading When Fashion Goes Retail and Retail Goes Fashion
What Cultural Hibernation Can Feel Like
Years ago, I had written a blog post on how being out of work for so many years in the advertising industry in India felt like being in exile. In exile with my own thoughts and ideas on brands, besides all the other subjects I write about on my blog. From the Indian and global… Continue reading What Cultural Hibernation Can Feel Like
COP28 Ending on a Timid Note
In my last few blog posts on climate change and how it affects the poor, I had wondered how a COP summit being held in hydrocarbon heartland would go. On the one hand, it could be stymied by all the powerful interests in fossil fuels present in the region as many of their economies are… Continue reading COP28 Ending on a Timid Note
What To Expect from the Global Economy in 2024
We’re nearing the end of 2023, and it appears that most economies have managed to stave off a recession, except Germany, Austria, Poland and Sweden among advanced economies that might still close the year a little in the cold. Ireland too looks surprisingly weak in 2023, but not if you consider the previous two years… Continue reading What To Expect from the Global Economy in 2024
Advertising and Media in The New World
Recently, I wrote a piece here on my blog examining how much had really changed in the way consumers make their brand purchase decisions in today’s world. And I concluded that while plenty had changed in the technology dimension of advertising and marketing, consumers still make their brand choice decisions the way they always have.… Continue reading Advertising and Media in The New World
India State Elections 2023: It’s Raining Revdis!
It’s the old familiar theme when elections come around. And they have arrived at five states in India to elect new state assemblies. It’s a good time as any to review Prime Minister Modi’s phrase of revdi culture (culture of freebies) first used against the Aam Aadmi Party of Arvind Kejriwal to criticize his promise… Continue reading India State Elections 2023: It’s Raining Revdis!
Protected: Winding-Down-2023 Reading
The Dangers of Supplanting Caste for Race
Finished reading the second book that my aged father gifted me in Goa for my birthday this year. I hadn’t heard of the author or any of her books, even though she is supposed to be a Pulitzer Prize winner. Right from the start, Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson struck me… Continue reading The Dangers of Supplanting Caste for Race










