The DMK ecosystem is attacking me that the school issue I reported was a lie I concocted to help the TVK government. Let me state the facts.
We run two rural schools, both free NIOS schools under the Kalaivani Kalvi Maiyam umbrella, one in rural Tenkasi and the other in rural Theni.
The Theni school was originally started and run by a retired IPS officer, a honest and upright man. He built very nice facilities but had to shut down his CBSE school because the state government demanded too much money to issue the NOC. He told me that as a honest retired officer he did not have the money to pay and they would not issue the NOC otherwise.
He urged us to take over his trust so we could run our free NIOS school in the premises. That is how we started our NIOS school in Theni.
Unlike in Tenkasi, where I live, the Theni school faced occasional harassment from the DMK government because we did not have a state government registration, so we tried getting state government approval again (this time for the state board) and that of course would also cost money. So it was in a limbo.
Meanwhile in Tenkasi we wanted to build new school facilities (we were operating in make-shift facilities, the ones that came in frequent photos) and we applied for DTCP approval to construct the new buildings. Everyone who knows DTCP in our state knows what kind of corruption happened there under the DMK.
We waited patiently for DTCP approval for the new school buildings but the approval never came as long as the DMK was in power. The approval came automatically once the government changed.
It is this DTCP approval that I posted about in X. I want to once again appreciate the refreshing change.
Not only did the approvals come, government people told us not to pay money to anyone for any approvals. I have to appreciate this in public, having endured what we had endured before.
This is the "lie" that DMK wants to attack me on.
I do not need their certificate on my character.
They can examine their conscience and ask why a technology nerd like me who is mostly immersed in code would post these.
If they think I would back down by their vile personal attacks because I am a Brahmin or TVK Stooge or Sanghi or whatever, I will tell them this: unlike you dynasts I grew up with nothing. I studied in Tamil medium schools. I know how to live on nothing. I have dedicated the remainder of my life to make Bharat self reliant in technology while reviving our rural areas, the soul of our eternal sanatana civilization.
I will not be intimidated by their attacks. I am unafraid of death, why would I be afraid of the mere DMK?
And if they had any conscience they can return the money they looted (they know there they keep it) and then they can attack my character.
I will now go back to optimizing the code of our compiler!
Emma Navarro after beating Iga Swiatek
โIs there any special spot you like to go in Bad Homburg every year when you come?โ
Emma: โYes. We always go to Singhโs Indian Restaurant. Itโs right down the street. Singh, if you can hear us, shout out. Your food is great. Thanks for hooking us upโ ๐
Winning against the Chinese. In China.
At the Asian Relay Championships.
Srabani, Sudeshna, Sneha & Tamanna in the 4x100 relay.
Power. Speed. Grace. Commitment.
But above all, teamwork.
This clip has it all.
Iโm watching it on loop.
More of this please. ๐ฎ๐ณ
India is about to face a MAJOR semiconductor bottleneck.
The Government of India has approved ~13 semiconductor projects under the India Semiconductor Mission, across 7 states. Three of these are full/compound fabs. Things are ramping up FAST, with ISM supported by an incentive framework ofย โน76,000 crore.
But one massive question mark remains: where is the talent going to come from? The money is there. The fabs are going to be there soon. But what about the many thousands of skilled technicians required to run these semiconductor fabrication plants? Much of the knowledge in this industry is tightly-guarded trade secrets kept under lock and key by the nations that lead global semiconductor production.
One way India can quickly close this knowledge gap is by ensuring that young people across the country are learning how to fabricate semiconductors from first principles. Ideally at the university level if not earlier. But because this is an entirely new industry segment in India, most of the countryโs top colleges haven't caught up. Semiconductor fabrication is not accessible to Indian students. Until the Graduate or PhD level, most students never even get to touch a silicon wafer.
A group of 15 students at IIT Bombay wants to change this. 10 months ago they launched the HackerFab at IIT Bombay. So far, theyโve raised โน30 lakh to built DIY machines like a DLP-based lithography machine, a tube furnace to oxidise silicon, and a DC plasma sputter.
They realised that existing institutions werenโt going to give them the early education they needed to develop REAL chip fabrication experience, so they took up the challenge themselves and created everything from scratch.
HackerFab IITB is one of the most important developments in Indiaโs semiconductor story, not just because the students passing through this programme will become leaders in Indiaโs future semiconductor industry, but because theyโre open-sourcing the India-specific recipes theyโve developed to build their machines and processes. Theyโre doing this so that other Indian colleges can replicate their work. No more gatekeeping.
This movement started at IIT Bombay, but it will spread to other Indian colleges soon. As a result, India will see young people graduating from college with practical semiconductor fabrication experience first the very first time.
Some products last 50 years. Most fail in 5.
The difference is rarely quality of materials.
It's these 5 design principles:
1. REPAIRABILITY
Products designed to be repaired last longer than those designed to be replaced.
The original Land Rover Defender, 1948 design, still in production variants today.
Every component was accessible with standard tools.
Compare to modern vehicles where the battery replacement requires dealer equipment.
2. OVER-SPEC AT THE START
Design to a higher standard than your worst expected case.
The AK-47 was designed to function at ยฑ60ยฐC, covered in sand, submerged in water.
It has a reported MTBF (mean time between failures) of 15,000 rounds.
Over-engineering for the extreme case creates reliability in the normal case.
3. STANDARD FASTENERS
Products that use proprietary screws become unrepairable when the company stops making them.
Products that use M4 bolts are repairable forever.
4. CLEAR FAILURE HIERARCHY
Design so the cheap part fails first.
A fuse blows. A shear pin breaks. A gasket leaks.
These are intentional weak points, engineered to sacrifice themselves before the expensive components fail.
5. THERMAL MANAGEMENT
More products fail from heat than from any other cause.
Electronics, motors, engines, batteries, all degrade faster when hot.
The products that last build heat dissipation in from the start, not as an afterthought.
Design for longevity at the start.
Retrofitting it later always costs more.
This is Anagha Rajesh.
And she is crazy.
She wants to store data in bacterial DNA.
Her startup is called BioCompute.
And last year, they actually did it.
They stored data in DNA and retrieved it in their tiny lab in Bengaluru.
This is a huge moment.
But why is she even doing it?
Because DNA is the ultimate storage tool available to us.
Just 1 gm of DNA can store about 215 petabytes of data - that's like storing over 2 million movies in 4K.
On top of that - this data can last for literally 1000s of years.
Right now, they still need to figure out a way to make the reading and writing process faster and cheaper.
But if BioCompute solves this problem - we could theoretically store all the data created in the world every year in the palm of our hands.
And that would be insane.
P.S. Check out this video from @vy0mbhatia going to Anagha's lab and actually doing it.
India has inducted its first locally built Air Cushion Vehicle. ๐ฎ๐ณ
It may not attract the same attention as a warship or a missile.
But it closes a capability gap that India has depended on foreign suppliers for.
The H-561 Air Cushion Vehicle officially entered service on June 18 and will operate with the Indian Coast Guard.
๐ Key details:
โข First indigenous Air Cushion Vehicle built in India
โข Constructed by Chowgule & Company in Goa
โข Can operate over water, mudflats, marshes and shallow coastal areas
โข Useful for coastal surveillance, search and rescue, disaster response and interdiction missions
โข Built for environments where conventional boats struggle to operate
Hovercraft are niche platforms.
But India's coastline stretches over 7,500 km and includes creeks, estuaries, marshlands and shallow coastal zones.
Those are exactly the areas where this type of platform becomes valuable.
The significance here is not the hovercraft itself.
It is that another maritime capability that once required imports is now being built in India. ๐ฎ๐ณ
Mangoes are childhood of 90s packed inside a fruit. And, the Dussehri carries the fragrance summer.
My great-great-grandfather had planted a mango orchard and it was centre of our childhood village experience. But most people of his generation planted trees for punya. They planted them, not for themselves, but for those who would come after them.
Summer vacations meant going to my grandparents' village. The afternoons spent in anticipation rain. It was a time when the heat could not defeat. We waited eagerly for those rare summer storms. The wind would begin to rise after dusk, shaking the mango trees. Then would come the rain, carrying with it the scent of earth.
The next morning was a ritual. Before sunrise, half-asleep and armed with torches and half-asleep, we would walk into the orchard. Beneath the trees lay the reward of the night's storm. The ripe mangoes scattered among fallen leaves, or hidden in pools of rainwater; others perched atop the haystack. There was a special joy in finding them before anyone else did and the morning felt like a treasure hunt.
Few trees remain now. Much like my own life, the village has changed too. Memory is a strange thing. Sometimes an entire experience survives inside a moment that will never return.
#Bharat_insight
๐ INDIA'S DEFENCE REVOLUTION๐
Defence budget (2013-14) = โน2.53 lakh crore
Defence budget (2026-26) = โน7.85 lakh crore ๐ฎ๐ณ
___________________________________
Indigenous Defence production (2014-15) = โน46,429 crore
Indigenous Defence production (2025-26) = โน1.78 lakh crore ๐ฎ๐ณ
____________________________________
Defence exports (2013-14) = โน686 crore
Defence exports (2025-26) = โน38,424 crore ๐ฎ๐ณ
____________________________________
The progress made over the past decade has positioned India to shape the evolving global security order rather than merely react to it.
India is beautiful and India is growing, but Elon's algorithm keeps pushing the Old anti-India poverty and slum content.
Social media trends have turned the worldโs most beautiful places into endless bathroom lines at a concert, where everyone waits for hours just to take the same photo to show to people who couldnโt care less ๐๐ธ
Nothing captures the shallow decay of our time better than this
If forests could speak, Anamalai Tiger Reserve in Tamil Nadu would tell one of Indiaโs greatest conservation stories. Most people do not fully appreciate the true value of protected areas. We must know the value of sheer abundance of life they sustain. Anamalai Tiger Reserve is India's 28th Tiger Reserve spread in nearly 1,480 sq. km. It shelters an extraordinary diversity of wildlife, including 88 species of mammals, 320 species of birds, 157 species of reptiles, 112 species of amphibians and 146 species of orchids. It is also home to some of the Western Ghatsโ most iconic endemic species, including the Nilgiri Tahr, Nilgiri Marten, Nilgiri Langur and Malabar Giant Squirrel, as well as stunning birds such as the Sri Lanka Frogmouth, Palani Laughing Thrush, Malabar Starling, Legge's Hawk Eagle & Great Hornbills. This shows what long-term protection can achieve and why expanding and strengthening our network of protected areas should be the most important priority for sustaining all life. See the Photos by our FRO Thiru Venkatesh. Video @supriyasahuias
Watch what happens when a bullet train rolls into Tokyo Station.
The whole turnaround? Just 12 minutes.
Passengers off: 2 minutes.
Passengers on: 3 minutes.
That leaves only 7.
In those 7 minutes, a cheerful crew of 22 brings about 1,000 seats back to life.
Every tray wiped shiny.
Every seat spun to face forward.
Floors swept, bathrooms reset, headrest covers swapped fresh.
They move like a happy dance โ quick, smiling, completely in sync.
And when they finish, they line up on the platform and bow to the departing train together.
Travelers stop to watch. Phones come down. People grin without meaning to.
Not because anyone told them to perform.
Because they take real pride in making the next person's ride feel fresh and welcoming.
Seven minutes.
Twenty-two people.
One gleaming train rolling out exactly on time.
You feel that care the second you sit down โ and your whole trip starts a little warmer.
40 years in shipping gave me one unusual qualification as a historian: I had no academic orthodoxies to protect.
When I began researching the history of maritime trade, I followed the sea lanes backwards into deep antiquity. Without exception, they converged on the Indian subcontinent. This was not the book I had intended to write.
I must give credit to my editor, who gave an unknown author with a controversial approach, an opportunity. His first attempts to find peer reviewers encountered significant resistance. The argument that India sat at the centre of ancient world trade, not its periphery, was considered, to put it gently, inconvenient.
What I found, and what I could not stop finding, is that placing India at the centre of world history does not simply revise one chapter. It cascades. Correct the starting assumption and you are forced to reconsider the origins of mathematics, medicine, philosophy, linguistics, religion. Each conclusion leads to another. I came to call these the collateral heresies.
My three books explain the architecture of how they connect.
If you work in a field where received wisdom is protected by institutional interest rather than evidence, you will recognise the pattern. The question is whether the evidence eventually wins.