Snigdha Poonam

Training for the dream job in the pandemic

How HUL worked to ensure that their hallowed corporate induction and training programme wasn’t disrupted by Covid-19.

Left in lurch with ban, TikTok stars stare at a grim future

The jokes contained not only funny lines but also music, dance, acting, emojis and a whole lot of wackiness. Thousands of those went viral in the 12-odd hours that the app was functional on Indian smartphones after the government banned it, citing cybersecurity worries.

100 days of Covid-19: Forced to travel in the middle of a pandemic

How, and why, does one travel between states and countries during a lockdown? A migrant worker, a university professor, a techie, and a radio station executive share their experiences

Virus and the village: A Covid chronicle

From poverty to poor health care, from mass reverse migration to fake news, rural areas are facing multiple crises at once as the infection spreads across the country.

HT Salutes: Everyday heroes of the pandemic

Championing resilience: As the country grapples with Covid-19, thousands of Indians are finding ways to help the vulnerable by sewing masks, holding donation drives, feeding stray dogs and countering fake news.

Living on social media and bartering our privacy for it

Facebook grew 600% in the last 10 years, boasting 2.45 billion monthly active users, who nearly make up one-third of the world’s human population.

How e-commerce changed our lives

As 2010s near their end, many are referring to the decade as the “age of Amazon and Alibaba” – the first started by Jeff Bezos in 1997 and the second by Jack Ma in 1999.

Media, politics, sex: Untangling a scandal that rocked Madhya Pradesh

Complicated web of property, media, politics, bureaucracy and sex intersected to put Indore under the spotlight.

‘Keep talking to me’: Hyderabad vet’s last phone call to sister

In common with the 2012 case, this too was tangled up in gender and class battles; while the victim was a middle-class professional from the city, the perpetrators are blue-collar workers from villages.

‘Keep talking to me’: Hyderabad vet’s last phone call to sister

In common with the 2012 case, this too was tangled up in gender and class battles; while the victim was a middle-class professional from the city, the perpetrators are blue-collar workers from villages.

‘Everything’s stuck’: PMC Bank account holders face miseries

In Mulund, which has been worst hit by the PMC bank crisis, many of the over 15000 account holders in the area say they are struggling to meet daily expenses, let alone handle medical emergencies and wedding plans.

PMC Bank fraud a humanitarian crisis now

For a majority of the 1.7 million depositors, the ₹4,335-crore loan fraud has resulted in a daily struggle to pay for medical treatment and bills

‘Everything’s stuck’: PMC Bank account holders face miseries

Nobel for Banerjee, Duflo a boost for their poverty action lab’s India programmes

Banerjee and Duflo, with long-time J-PAL affiliate Michael Kremer, were jointly awarded the 2019 Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences, or the Nobel Prize in the field of economics, “for their experimental approach to alleviating global poverty”.

Fourteen years, six deaths, one family suspect, and a trace of cyanide

Since Jolly Joseph’s arrest on October 5, a series of allegations have sprung up in and around Koodathayi of her involvement in other mysterious deaths in the recent and remote past, although only one of them has been registered as a police complaint.

5 more FIRs against Kerala cyanide killer

Kerala cyanide killings: Five more cases filed against Jolly Joseph, others

A police officer, who is part of the investigation team, said five cases were registered in two police stations-- one in Thamaraserry and four in Kodencherry-- based on the confessions of the accused. The evidence collection trip that began on Friday morning ended late in the evening covering six key spots.

She brought shame to family, we won’t help her: Kerala cyanide killer’s father

The remarks came on a day Jolly was remanded to six days in judicial custody and a co-accused said he procured the poison because Jolly told him she needed it to kill rats.

Kerala cyanide killings case: Accomplice says Jolly sought cyanide to kill rats

In one of the high points of the day, one of the co-accused Praju Kumar claimed he was innocent and had only supplied “little quantity” of cyanide to Jolly so that she could kill “big rats” in her house. Six members in Jolly’s family have died mysteriously over several years.

Kerala cyanide case accused may be linked to more murders: Cops

On Saturday, Jolly was arrested from Kozhikode’s Koodathai village in connection with six deaths in her family between 2002 and 2016.

The five Gandhis

One of the ways in which the Dravidian social reformer challenged Brahmanical domination in politics, education and administration in Tamil Nadu was to agitate against caste surnames.

How fear, rumours fuel mob fury

He said over the six months that he has been posted in Sambhal, not a single child has been kidnapped in the district. He attributed the string of mob lynchings in the region to low levels of literacy, an abundance of free time, and a general disgruntlement among the public.

TikTok suspends accounts of three users after Shiv Sena’s IT Cell files FIR

TikTok suspended the accounts of three of its users based on an FIR filed by a member of the Shiv Sena’s IT Cell. These are young Muslim men with millions of followers each on TikTok.

Connecting the TikTok dots in 2 murders that shook Delhi

Mohit Mor was sitting in a photocopy shop and scrolling through his smartphone when two young men barged in wearing helmets, pointed guns at him, and said, “Let us make you a TikTok star.” They fired so many bullets into him that even his teeth were found in pieces when the police came.

Desire for upward mobility unites India’s young voters

The lived realities of these 15 people couldn’t be more different from each other’s, but their expectations from the country’s next political leadership often intersected.

At BHU, gender intersects ideological battle

Women strive to carve out a space for themselves at the traditionally male-dominated campus, with people on both sides of the ideological divide saying that they are raising the issues concerning women students.

At BHU, gender intersects ideological battle

Hindu nationalism is central to BHU’s political life, and BHU has had a lot to contribute to the political life of Hindu nationalism.

A multi-million insurance fraud that preyed on disease, poverty, desperation

Between 2017 and 2019, nearly hundred people from villages in Haryana officially died in road accidents. What actually happened to them is beyond imagination.

Lok Sabha elections 2019: In UP, BJP woos Dalits, but must win trust

Choudhary’s transformation underlines the deep fault lines in the BJP’s strategy and politics around Dalits in Uttar Pradesh: the electoral and social dominance of upper castes, the need to win over Dalit voters (making up a fifth of the state’s voters) and the dichotomy of the party’s appeals to them.

Lok Sabha elections 2019: Opposing sentiments greet PM Modi’s Varanasi roadshow

The rally saw tens of thousands of supporter turn up, besides a number of prominent artists, musicians and national awardees.