In May 2023, Shubha Bhatnagar initiated a rather interesting dinner table conversation. She shared her dream of cultivating saffron indoors and providing employment to rural women in the nearby villages. A homemaker, the 63-year-old was “free of responsibilities” and wished to embark upon a journey of self-reliance by becoming an agriprenuer. On the dinner table were two engineers: her son and daughter-in-law, and her husband, who runs a cold storage business. They were intrigued by her idea and immediately started looking at how to make her vision a reality. Conversations in the following wee ..read more

Nine-year-old Sharmishtha is dancing in the living room of her home in Berunapadi village, Odisha. As she pauses between the beats of the music to perfect her moves, her parents watch on, with pride etched on their faces.  “My daughter is number one in class,” her father declares. “Not just in dance but also studies,” he adds.  The home has several clues to Sharmishtha’s love for reading – English story books, school textbooks and the likes. Not long ago, her parents would be amused if they were told that their daughter would one day be studying at an English medium school, let alone ..read more

Imagine bathing with just 3 mugs of water or having over 350 potted plants yet not using a single drop of fresh water to water these?  These are some extreme water conservation measures that Odette Katrak, a Bengaluru resident, has been adopting for 15 years, thanks to her unique Ecowaternomics framework, which she hopes will inspire many to save huge amounts of water too. “It took us a severe water crisis in Bengaluru to realise we need to save water,” she remarks. With thousands of public borewells running dry, strict restrictions and penalties being imposed on the wastage of water, Ben ..read more

When Akshay Kashyap went to Patna for JEE (Joint Entrance Examination) coaching, he had a tough time finding second-hand books. Coming from a lower-middle-class family, the then-teenager had to endure a couple of weeks of searching before securing a few books due to low stock. Despite multiple attempts, he couldn’t crack the IIT entrance exams. In 2021, after another unsuccessful try, Akshay shifted his focus towards entrepreneurship while continuing his engineering studies at the Sitamarhi Institute Of Technology. This wasn’t an isolated incident for Akshay; witnessing numerous students facin ..read more

‘Ctrl + F’ is probably the most dreadful combination on the keyboard for a UPSC aspirant. The Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) announced the result of the Civil Services Examination (CSE) 2023 on 16 April. Thousands of aspirants looked for their names on the final list, and while the ones who found it rejoiced, the ones who didn’t make it felt dejected. How do you cope with this dejection? Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer Jitin Yadav shared a message of hope and how to handle failure on X. Titled “For the ones who did not make it to the final list”, he gave his own example of ..read more

While many are celebrating the fact that Lucknow resident Aditya Srivastava cracked the daunting UPSC CSE exam with an AIR (All India Rank) 1, very few know the journey that led to this moment.  As a tweet by Srivastava reads, “From doubts to dreams, from aspiration to achievements and everything in between, the path has been a long and arduous one. But it was truly worth all the pain and struggle.” Throughout his academic years, Srivastava was a model student. His accolades and marks speak for themselves. The IIT-Kanpur graduate has a BTech and MTech degree under his belt and was working ..read more

Whenever the result of an examination is declared, the focus naturally gravitates towards the toppers and high achievers, particularly in competitive settings like the UPSC (Union Public Service Commission) CSE (Civil Services Examination). Amidst the celebration of success, however, it’s important to ponder the fate of those who fell short. On 16 April, the UPSC CSE results were unveiled, showcasing the inspiring narratives of the victors and achievers. Yet, amidst these tales of triumph, one post stood out for a different reason. It didn’t glorify success but rather emphasised the significan ..read more

On 9 March, 2024, Chungreng Koren — a mixed martial arts (MMA) fighter from Manipur also known as ‘The Indian Rhino’ — took his first step into the limelight at the Noida Indoor Stadium. Competing in the co-main event of Matrix Fight Night (MFN-14), India’s biggest MMA promotion, Chungreng Koren took on veteran fighter Mohammed Farhad in a five-round fight for the (Interim) Bantamweight Title (61 kg). As the fighters made their respective walk-ins to the octagon, the 16,000-strong crowd at the Noida Indoor Stadium cheered in anticipation. What followed was a dominant performance by Chungreng w ..read more

Trigger warning: This story has mentions of suicide. When Harishchandra Sude, the founder of the non-profit Grameen Shramik Pratishthan, was asked about his childhood aspirations, his response was rather peculiar and profound. He recalls how during an Independence Day celebration, where each student was required to share their dreams and aspirations, he had stood up and promptly declared, “I want to create a world where everyone helps each other; a world envisioned by Gandhi himself!” While many may have smiled at young Harishchandra’s aspirations, little did they know that this determined boy ..read more

For some, the thought of travelling with a random group of people is exhilarating; for others, it is terrifying. If you belong to the latter category, here’s a list that might help calm those nerves and plan yourself a solo travel, but with a twist. What you need is a bunch of other like-minded women who make travel fun, simple, and safe — all while respecting your need for space. We’ve put together a list of eight such women-only travel groups that go to great lengths to ensure your trips are just the adventure escapade you were looking for. 1. Bukit.travel  Bukit.travel is curating both ..read more