Joel P Joseph

Postdoc @InstitutPasteur. PhD @iiscbangalore. Tweets personal. RTs != endorsements.

[Believer @PredatorVolk]

Reports from Odisha allege a Christian pastor was assaulted and humiliated by a mob. The incident raises serious concerns about law, order, and religious freedom. A fair investigation is essential.

Beaten and smeared with sindoor,
made to wear a garland of slippers,
tied near a Hanuman temple,
reportedly forced to consume cow dung, and
reportedly compelled to chant “Jai Shri Ram.”

[Dr Aniruddha Malpani, MD @malpani]

How Zepto, Zomato and Swiggy use algorithms to squeeze and cheat customers and their gig-workers.
And their CEOs pretend they are creating jobs and supporting the economy!

[Joel P Joseph @joelpalpath]

Glorified middlemen will mask under the garb of tech and send you on a guilt trip.

The real divide is actually caused by such.

[Deepinder Goyal @deepigoyal]

Last one on this topic, and I have been holding this in myself for a while.

For centuries, class divides kept the labor of the poor invisible to the rich. Factory workers toiled behind walls, farmers in distant fields, domestic help in backrooms. The wealthy consumed the fruits of that labor without ever seeing the faces or the fatigue behind it. No direct encounter, no personal guilt.

The gig economy shattered that invisibility, at unprecedented scale.

Suddenly, the poor aren't hidden away. They're at your doorstep: the delivery partner handing over your ₹1000+ biryani, late-night groceries, or quick-commerce essentials. You see them in the rain, heat, traffic, often on borrowed bikes, working 8–10 hours for earnings that give them sustenance. You see their exhaustion, their polite smile masking frustration with life in general.

This is the first time in history at this scale that the working class and consuming class interact face-to-face, transaction after transaction. And that discomfort with our own selves is why we are uncomfortable about the gig economy. We want these people to look our part, so that the guilt we feel while taking orders from them feels less.

We aren't just debating economics. We are confronting guilt. That ₹800 order might equal their entire day's earnings after fuel, bike rent, and app cuts. We tip awkwardly, or avoid eye contact, because the inequality is no longer abstract. It's personal.

Pre-gig era, the rich could enjoy luxury without moral discomfort. Labor was out of sight. Now, every doorbell ring is a reminder of systemic inequality. That's why debates explode. It's not just policy. It's emotional reckoning. Some defend the system (“they choose it”), others demand change (“this isn't progress, its exploitation”).

And here’s the uncomfortable twist: the unsaid ask of clumsy ‘solutions’ isn’t dignity. It is about returning to invisibility.

Ban gig work and you don’t solve inequality. You remove livelihoods. These jobs don’t magically reappear as formal, protected employment the next day. They disappear, or they get pushed back into the informal economy where there are even fewer protections and even less accountability. Over-regulate it until the model breaks, and you achieve the same outcome through paperwork instead of slogans: the work evaporates, prices rise, demand collapses, and the people we claim to protect are the first to lose income.

And then what happens?

The rich get their old comfort back. Convenience returns without faces. Guilt dissolves. We go back to clean abstractions and moral posturing from a distance. The poor don’t become safer, they become invisible again: back in cash economies, back in backrooms, back in shadows where regulation rarely reaches and dignity isn’t even debated.

The gig economy just exposed the reality of inequality to the people who previously had the luxury of not seeing it. The doorbell is not the problem. The question is what we do after opening the door.

Visibility is the price of progress. We can either use this discomfort to build something better (which we keep doing continuously as delivery partners are our backbone), or we can ban and over-regulate our way back into ignorance. One of those choices improves lives. The other simply helps the consuming class feel virtuous in the dark.

[Joel P Joseph @joelpalpath]

@ish_aga The police station must be stinking of dead rats!

[Joel P Joseph @joelpalpath]

@_KarishmaK I've come to realize the hard way that this is possibly one of the ways academic/allied organizations select for privilege in India. Making it unsustainable for the rest. It may be unintentional (don't want to implicate anything), but the outcome is real.

[Joel P Joseph @joelpalpath]

@LifeAfterFI "Net worth" is an oxymoron.

[Nature India @NatureInd]

🌍 India sets an ambitious course against the global Antimicrobial Resistance crisis.

🌍The country’s updated National Action Plan prioritizes a One Health approach integrating human, animal and environmental surveillance.

Read more: https://t.co/6ZuJUscRtR

#NatureIndia

[Joel P Joseph @joelpalpath]

This is what voters get from successive governments that have tirelessly contributed to road #potholes in #NammaBengaluru through their fantastic #UrbanPlanning & #Governance. We were supposed to have pothole free roads by Oct end? From near Bagaluru @krishnabgowda @DKShivakumar

[Joel P Joseph @joelpalpath]

@SinharaySanhita @BE_IISc @iiscbangalore @JACSAu2 @arjun__sv @PoojaPatkulkar Many congratulations, Sanhita, Pooja and the whole team!👏👏

[Joel P Joseph @joelpalpath]

@pavivenkat Congratulations, Pavithra!🎉🎉

[Joel P Joseph @joelpalpath]

@AjayTijore @NanoLetters @S_ManasaVeena @nano_jenn @BE_IISc @iiscbangalore @MBIsg @CeNSEatIISc @VoicesofIndAcad Congratulations, Manasa, Ajay & team!🎉🎉

[Joel P Joseph @joelpalpath]

@benubrata Congratulations, Sir!! Richly deserved!

[Snehal Kadam, PhD @sne_kad]

This season of TTAS, we are exploring different science careers and hearing from scientists about the journeys they took! And what a fantastic way to start the new season! 🤩⬇️

[Talk To A Scientist @TTASIndia]

Talk To A Scientist about 'How I Became A Computational Biologist' with @StructBioinfo.

How do scientists use computers to find hidden patterns in nature? How can you use computers to better understand DNA? 💻🧬

👉18 Jan 2025, 5-6 pm IST
🙂For 6-16 year olds, everyone welcome!

[Sakya S. Sen @sakya_sen]

We have a couple of open positions for JRF with the possibility to convert to PhD program. Interested candidates are requested to reach out to me directly for more details..
For our research visit our lab webpage: https://t.co/rHsMi7J4w5
@csir_ncl

[Joel P Joseph @joelpalpath]

@_KarishmaK Yes! Looking forward :)

[Joel P Joseph @joelpalpath]

Excited to learn from the greats at #SJAIConference2024!

[SciJournIndia @SciJournIndia]

We're gearing up for the second edition of our conference, #SJAIConference2024 and we have only 5 days to go!

Are you coming? We're looking forward to seeing you there in #Pune!

@Subhrapr @sahanaghosh8 @Viratmarkandeya @DinsaSachan @kcmouli25 @IISERPune

[Joel P Joseph @joelpalpath]

@mkjolly15 @kishorehari139 @shubtri707 @BSabuwala @_gauravawasthi @Sonali_P_Nayak @yaassakka @satyajitdrao @joelmarkus29 @Jay_Ragh @VUllanat Lovely to see some BE alumni in one frame 😍

[Joel P Joseph @joelpalpath]

@Shashank_IISc @OyahidaK @evp_iisc @IISC Congratulations, Oyahida!🎉🥳

[Joel P Joseph @joelpalpath]

@sne_kad Congratulations, Snehal! 🥳🥳