I write and edit. Buy your copy of BHARAT BLUFF by @RoliBooks now! https://xitter.cf/t.co/3j7KbUuH1y
Mumbai, India
Joined July 2013
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✨Some exciting news✨
For two years, I have been working on an exciting project -- chronicling online scams in India and trying to understand how exactly we developed a 'scam economy'.
It's all come together finally in my book!
Bharat Bluff, by @RoliBooks is OUT NOW
Soumya retweeted
EXCLUSIVE: India’s biggest news publishers including Ambani's Network18, Adani's NDTV, Indian Express, Times Internet & others mount the most high-profile challenge yet to Modi’s privacy law, warning it would “render investigative journalism a benign and neutered recorder of events.”
DNPA (@publishers_news) has taken the law to the Supreme Court. They argue it would trample investigative work and let New Delhi identify journalists’ sources.
The provisions “constitute pre-censorship which is anathema to any democracy worth its name,” the group’s 698-page filing says.
The key concerns:
🔹 Consent: requiring a journalist to notify the subject of an investigation and seek consent “would allow that subject to destroy evidence, intimidate witnesses”
🔹 Erasure: people can withdraw consent and demand their data be erased, which the group says could force publishers to unpublish or heavily redact news reports
🔹 Sources: a “nakedly unguided” power to demand information that “can extend to privileged communications in possession of a reporter or the informant”
In a letter to the government, the group said India “has chosen to grant broad exemptions to the state, while failing to extend any corresponding protection to the press.”
reuters.com/business/media-t…
Soumya retweeted
Celebrations have erupted in the streets of Serbia's capital Belgrade, after long-standing leader Aleksandar Vučić admitted defeat to a student-led protest movement in snap parliamentary elections. Read more: bbc.in/4BwV5ga
Soumya retweeted
In one of Delhi-NCR's top schools, parents are planning to pool-in funds to buy Dyson/Honeywell/Sharp Purifiers for their children's Nursery classrooms, for the upcoming bad-AQI season.
Some parents logically asked, "Why doesn't the school buy these air purifiers?" The school said that their AC systems have HEPA filters, to take care of dust to some extent. Unconvincing. Parents decided to go ahead with their own safety systems.
Next, they asked- "What happened to the Air Purifiers that the classroom had last year? The previous batch too had purifiers with AQI monitors."
School's response: "The air purifiers travel with the batch of children. As the students move up a year, the Air Purifiers do too. So the Purifiers that were in first grade last year, are in second grade now."
Welcome to the incredibly complex world of public-health moving into private hands.
Soumya retweeted
The comments on this tweet are so telling
Everyone now knows that a Fire in a Govt office means burning of sensitive files
Just like our Govt did
for the Aarey Forest files
Soumya retweeted
Mangroves capture and store vast amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, acting as a significant natural solution to climate change and all of it is released back into the atmosphere, primarily as carbon dioxide.
No wonder why Mumbai’s AQI is terrible, years of stored carbon dioxide is being released back into the atmosphere because of this destruction of our mangroves ecosystem.
If they don’t stop, everything including air we breathe is only gonna get worse.
#savemumbaimangroves
Soumya retweeted
At least 61,059 Form-7 applications seeking the deletion of names from Karnataka’s electoral rolls were filed by election officials themselves, with not a single application mentioning a reason for the deletion, a mandatory requirement under the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960.
✍️@pon_vasanth and @rishitaakhanna
thehindu.com/news/national/k…
Soumya retweeted
Citizens of Mumbai cannot ask for justice against institutional murder of Dalit students.
Students of JMI can't ask for their right to union.
Indians cannot ask for accountability against vote chori & SIR.
Maintain 'peace', sit at home!!
Soumya retweeted
India’s capital is New Delhi. There are five oceans in the world. The current president of South Africa is Cyril Ramaphosa, and there are eight planets in the solar system.
VIDEO | Delhi: Former CJI DY Chandrachud says, "In a democracy, institutions are essential. Whether they are government-run or private, such institutions are vital. If we wish to advance and develop our nation, we must sustain these institutions; furthermore, we need to strengthen and fortify the effective ones. In the field of medicine particularly regarding patient care and welfare, public hospitals serve those in genuine need, including many who travel from far and wide to seek help. Consequently, there is an urgent need to make our public hospitals and public health infrastructure more robust and resilient."
(Full video available on PTI Videos - ptivideos.com)
Soumya retweeted
News: Rest of World, the nonprofit newsroom focused on the impact of technology outside the West founded by Sophie Schmidt, tells donors in an email it will “cease publishing as a standalone entity” at the end of January.
ALT Hello donors, We wanted to reach out and share an update about Rest of World’s future. After more than six years of award-winning reporting, our leadership team has begun the search for a new institutional home for the Rest of World brand and catalogue: an organization that has the reach and scale required to continue to drive impact in 2027. Negotiations are ongoing, and we’ll have news to share with you soon. As a part of that transition, Rest of World will cease publishing as a standalone entity at the end of January. Many of you know our origin story: we set out to chronicle how tech innovation affects people and communities beyond the usual Silicon Valley lens. Our writers documented major shifts driven by artificial intelligence, electric vehicles, and gig work in places like Manila, New Delhi, and Lagos. In doing so, we have reported on more than 100 countries and proudly worked with over 400 in-region freelance writers, editors, and photographers.
ALT Despite our successes, the media landscape has experienced profound challenges in recent years ranging from significant shifts in how audiences engage with news to how journalism is funded. Rest of World experienced these headwinds, too. What does this mean for you? First and foremost, we want to thank you for reading and supporting our work along the way. Whether you gave once or made a monthly commitment to us because you valued our brand of journalism, we’re so grateful! For those of you who are recurring donors, we’ll continue publishing stories over the next three months. Your contributions are still welcome and will help support our writers, editors, and product team members through January. If you’d like to discontinue your donations, you can cancel them in our donation portal, or simply reply to this email and we’ll take care of it for you.
ALT After January, the site and all stories published on it will continue to be available. Your support makes it possible to preserve our work and keep it accessible. Thank you, thank you, thank you. The Rest of World team
Soumya retweeted
It opened in 1973 as the only bridge over the creek from Mumbai to the city that was to become Navi Mumbai
Two bigger bridges have been built on its sides. Now it rusts - as 3 govt agencies argue over whose responsibility it is
The Thane Creek Bridge 1:
indianexpress.com/article/ci…
Soumya retweeted
Rough seas 🌊 Tidal Cycles
Push
Versova Bandra Sea Link 🌉
Deadline to December 2028 🌁
📰 @sabahvir
35 % Civil work completion
Vs Target of 40 %
3000 piles required roughly
50 % done 12 barges piling in seabed
@MandarSawant184
@dhruvbhim
@ParthKul
@MukulAgarwal66
@RahulChels
@Kun_Srivastav
@Shaikh_Mohsin12
@TheVishalKay
@keshda
@IndusFederalist
@sarcaskar
@BHiren
@Maha7Arindam
@Ameykulkarni_21
@Sadist_2003
@ShivamVahia
@smitadeshmukh
@Cbdhage
@Sssaaagar
@Akshaywcam1
@Explorer_yash
@Gau_dab
@Saurabh5620
@Marinebharat
@Empakshaypatil
@seemaadhikari
@bytesofnews
@NikLim01
@Sahilinfra2
@TimminsPriyanka
@communitybandra
@activebandra
Soumya retweeted
I would like to draw the attention of journalists and @mybmcwardKW to this issue.
A construction site on Juhu Tara Road has been, for many days now, discharging sludge and water straight onto Juhu beach and into the sea.
High sediment loads in this discharge smothers benthic organisms and further increases siltation and turbidity.
This is troubling on its own, but it coincides with the season when cephalopods (squids, octopuses, and cuttlefish) use beaches in Mumbai as nursery grounds for their eggs. The continuous freshwater influx disrupts the salinity balance that intertidal species rely on to survive.
#marinelifeofmumbai #intertidalecology #oceanpollution
Soumya retweeted
Oh boy I'm really waiting for Bandra 2047 when every building is re-developed into a tower and every inch of road is occupied by parked cars and people won't need to walk because cars will fly and we will have Turner-Carter flyover and Hill Road - Band Stand tunnel to take care of the delivery riders and every corner of every building on every road will have a cafe and a benne dosa outlet because everyone will quit alcohol and bars will convert to artisanal coffee and Patwardhan Park will be called Lodha Central Park with waterfalls and vertical gardens and underground parking and Joggers Park will be called Rustomjee Amazon Rainforest will artificial rains and the Coastal Road will bring the villagers of South Mumbai to the glistening modern Bandra where one Sulabh Shauchalaya urinal area of space will cost Rs1cr/sqft and 1BHKs will cease to exist because minimum sized homes will begin at 500sqft because the poverty line itself will begin at Rs500cr.
Soumya retweeted
We are in a public health emergency. Our leaders are silent as usual. Huge population is suffering with symptoms like burning eyes, coughing, damaged lungs. Our leaders are silent because everyone of them got thousands of air purifiers in their offices, home and their cars.
Soumya retweeted
Maharashtra moves Bombay High Court against FSSAI; says it usurped State's powers
report by @Neha_Jozie
barandbench.com/news/maharas…
Soumya retweeted
We have done away with the legacy of 100–200 kings and maharajas, only to replace them with 5,000–10,000 VIPs whom we have placed over ourselves.
Soumya retweeted
A black band over the horizon today morning around 7 AM!
📍Yari Road, Versova.
🎥 @sub_speak
Soumya retweeted
YOU'RE BORN. YOU SEE PANTS STYLES GO FROM BAGGY TO SKINNY BACK TO BAGGY EVERY 10 YEARS FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE. YOU DIE. THE END
Soumya retweeted
SCOOP: The Censor Board has had a data breach exposing hundreds of documents from the e-Cinepramaan portal. Application dockets were uploaded in bulk on the Internet Archive by a user with a display ID that of Prasoon Joshi's name in Russian.thehindu.com/sci-tech/techno…
Soumya retweeted
🚨EC cites “trade secrets and commercial confidence” to deny info about software used for SIR. It also says divulging information on who reviews flagged anomalies might “endanger” their lives. Reiterates that EROs remain the statutory authority to prepare rolls. @htTweets
