Sukumar Ranganathan is the Editor-in-Chief of Hindustan Times. He is also a comic-book freak and an amateur birder.
Articles by R Sukumar
Lessons India needs to learn from Covid-19
On the medical oxygen front, the nation is unlikely to witness shortage; on the district hospital front, there is a long way to go; and in terms of science- and evidence-based decision making, some progress has been made
Updated on Mar 23, 2022 06:36 PM IST
Pulp-it | How do you rate a cricket team’s captain?
Sure, culture is important, as is strategy, but because sustained performance is not possible without either, the simplest way to rate a leader is outcomes.
Updated on Dec 17, 2021 11:31 AM IST
R Sukumar
Pulp-It | In 2022, what India must do to learn to live with Covid
Covid-19 will become endemic in India. It’s important to tailor our response to this phase around four interventions.
Updated on Dec 11, 2021 05:57 PM IST
Pulp-It | After WFH, it is time for a BTW strategy
Apart from detailing the logistics of WFO, the Back To Work strategy should include reorientation sessions, communicating an updated employee health policy, and activities (Covid-safe ones, of course) that emphasise team work and fun
Updated on Dec 03, 2021 06:31 PM IST
Pulp-it | Should you lose sleep over Omicron?
Is the new variant more transmissible or infective? Does it cause more severe disease? Is it resistant to existing Covid-19 vaccines?
Updated on Nov 27, 2021 10:09 AM IST
How to solve the crypto conundrum?
The exact contours of the cryptocurrency law that India will introduce isn’t clear. It could completely ban private cryptocurrencies and trading in them; or it could just ban their use as a currency and allow their trade as an asset class .
Updated on Nov 25, 2021 05:31 AM IST
Pulp-it | Delhi’s air is always bad. Stubble burning makes it worse
Stubble burning is singularly responsible for pushing AQI into the severe category on most of the few days in which the air is really bad
Updated on Nov 19, 2021 01:51 PM IST
Pulp-it | Why Delhi is choking
For eight days till Thursday, the Central Pollution Control Board’s daily bulletin reported an AQI level that is either severe or at the high end of the very poor category. Friday’s reading, too, was in the severe category
Updated on Nov 12, 2021 08:53 PM IST
The prickly problem of greater-good debates
Forcing people to change their personal choices in the interests of a greater good could have far-reaching implications. But at some point of time, each of us will have to consciously make choices based on what’s good for the environment
Updated on Nov 05, 2021 06:22 PM IST
Pulp-it | No one has figured out how to win T20s yet
The T20 format is yet to see a team with the right mix of skills, strategy, and captaincy. When one emerges (and it will take some doing), the form book will start to matter again in the format
Updated on Oct 29, 2021 02:24 PM IST
A tale of IIT admissions, coaching institutes, and students as brand ambassadors
How many coaching classes does an IIT-JEE topper need?
42
Updated on Oct 22, 2021 03:56 PM IST
Happy to see economic recovery: Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman
The Finance minister said, “I’m happy to see recovery; at this stage we want to have very positive signs from all segments so that mutually they create this thing called sentiment. If sentiment becomes positive, it creates a multiplier effect.”
Updated on Sep 21, 2021 12:52 AM IST
Banks themselves will drive bad bank, says Nirmala Sitharaman
Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday said that she was confident the National Asset Reconstruction Company Ltd (NARCL), effectively a bad bank, will work because “this entire mechanism is driven by the banks”
Published on Sep 20, 2021 11:52 PM IST
R Sukumar, New Delhi
‘Happy to see economic recovery’: FM Nirmala Sitharaman
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said the resolution formula is the one that will be given priority. Not liquidation. When you look at resolution – there is an implicit message being given that these are workable assets, and that with some doing they will be valuable.
Updated on Sep 21, 2021 06:10 AM IST
R Sukumar, Hindustan Times, New Delhi
Vaccination: Focus on hesitancy, the 12-18 age group, and booster shots
The experience of the United States, where many infections, most hospitalisations, and almost all deaths currently being seen, are among the unvaccinated is a cautionary tale
Updated on Sep 01, 2021 06:53 PM IST
From a pandemic to an endemic, India’s vaccine drive enables a way out
Those managing India’s vaccine drive have always been a step or two behind the curve. But a reading of the infection and vaccination trajectories indicates that they need to start planning now for a future of endemic Covid-19.
Updated on Aug 18, 2021 08:16 PM IST
R Sukumar
To a Republic of reason: R Sukumar on India’s 75th Independence Day
Amid challenges that range from a pandemic to rising school dropout rates, the climate crisis and an economy that has suffered body blows, there are answers, but they won’t be the easy ones. May we return to first principles, and may the science be with us.
Updated on Aug 13, 2021 04:49 PM IST
The twists and turns in India’s telecom policy
The Vodafone crisis is a reflection of the arbitrariness in policymaking. Its collapse will lead to a duopoly, an undesirable outcome
Updated on Aug 04, 2021 07:07 PM IST
R Sukumar
How to get the next set of reforms right
Second-generation reforms require careful deliberation, effective implementation, and accommodative politics
Updated on Aug 02, 2021 12:00 PM IST
R Sukumar
Covid-19: What you need to know today
- Some experts are also of the opinion that it could become the dominant strain in most parts of the world, replacing Alpha, which was first sequenced in the UK.
Updated on Jun 16, 2021 05:22 AM IST
R Sukumar, Hindustan Times, New Delhi
Covid-19: What you need to know today
Anecdotal evidence suggests that some states keen to show their ability in managing the pandemic have under-reported deaths by simply ascribing them to other causes
Updated on Jun 15, 2021 05:43 AM IST
R Sukumar, Hindustan Times, New Delhi
Covid-19: What you need to know today
- It is also believed that Covaxin, the other vaccine that is currently part of India’s vaccination programme, is also very effective against the variant, but data on this isn’t available.
Updated on Jun 11, 2021 05:16 AM IST
R Sukumar, Hindustan Times, New Delhi
Covid-19: What you need to know today
- The chaos and confusion over India’s vaccine drive, and recent scientific revelations point to the need for some changes in how India procures vaccines, and how and when it administers them.
Updated on Jun 08, 2021 05:19 AM IST
R Sukumar, Hindustan Times, New Delhi
Covid-19: Four steps that can help India avoid a third wave
Decisions on where to ease lockdowns and restrictions on the basis of vaccination, ramping up the vaccination programme, linking the stringency of non-pharmaceutical interventions in place in a district to the proportion of vaccinated population and enhancing surveillance to identify potential threats from new variants of concern are among the steps that can prevent another wave of the pandemic.
Updated on Jun 03, 2021 07:16 AM IST
R Sukumar, Hindustan Times, New Delhi
Covid-19: What you need to know today
- Even after May 31, restrictions on movement and activities were eased in phases, and returned to pre-pandemic levels only in the last quarter of the financial year (January-March).
Updated on Jun 01, 2021 06:13 AM IST
R Sukumar, Hindustan Times, New Delhi
Covid-19: What you need to know today
- India reported 81,413 cases of Covid-19 on April 1. By April 11, this climbed to 170,100; by April 15, 216,913. On May 5, the country reported 412,783 cases.
Updated on May 31, 2021 06:02 AM IST
R Sukumar, Hindustan Times, New Delhi
Covid-19: What you need to know today
- By the end of June, Covax will be around 190 million doses short of its target, according to Covax chief Seth Berkley (as cited in an article in Science).
Updated on May 28, 2021 06:35 AM IST
R Sukumar, Hindustan Times, New Delhi
Covid-19: What you need to know today
As India considers opening up as the second wave abates (Delhi, for instance, has seen a sharp fall in positivity rates to the low single digits, and could start opening up as early as next week), it would do well to focus on what may well have been a silent contributor to the surge in cases – ventilation.
Updated on May 26, 2021 07:38 AM IST
Covid-19: What you need to know today
The wise men in charge of the country’s Covid-19 response likely know all this already, but here’s a quick reminder of five things that will help stave off the third wave (or, at the least, lessen its intensity).
Updated on May 25, 2021 06:15 AM IST
R Sukumar, New Delhi
Covid-19: What you need to know today
How do you under-report deaths from Covid-19? Technically, this is possible in two ways, one generic and the other, specific.
Updated on May 24, 2021 06:13 AM IST
