Ramanathan S
TheNewsMinute
Bengaluru, KA, India
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Past articles by Ramanathan:
‘Exceptionally intelligent pilot’: Friends, batch mates mourn Captain Deepak Sathe
The last ‘happy memory’ most batchmates have of Capt. Deepak Sathe, the pilot who died in the AI Express IX 1344 in Kozhikode on Friday, was him beaming with happiness at his son’s wedding in March this year. Amidst his friends and family at the wedding, and just before the pandemic brought the country under a lockdown, the retired Wing Commander from the Indian Air Force was in a joyous mood. → Read More
Why TN journalists are fighting the right-wing attack on Tamil TV media
In the past few days, a seemingly well-coordinated attack on popular news anchors has shook Tamil media, but the response to it has been equally combative. → Read More
The walk of indignity: How migrant workers are being exploited on their way back home
Chennai, an important point of transit for migrant workers returning to their home-state, has become a hotspot for the exploitative � exodus economy� , and government action is striping them off their dignity. → Read More
After Senthil Balaji, will the DMK attempt to drag Thanga Tamilselvan into its fold?
As the General Elections near, the DMK is on war-footing not just in lining up with the right parties at the national level, but also working to strengthen the organisation at the district-level. While MK Stalin’s closest confidants, including his son-in-law V Sabarish, are in contact with national-level leaders, others from his immediate circle, like Anbil Mahesh are said to → Read More
‘Will be back with guerilla tactics’: Trupti Desai forced to return home from Kochi
There weren’t too many people, around 1,000, according to estimates. But they were determined and unrelenting. As Bhumata Brigade’s Trupti Desai landed at the Cochin International Airport in the wee hours of Friday, equally determined to enter the Sabarimala temple, she was met with a strong crowd of devotees, members of Hindu right-wing groups and the BJP. Chants of Ayyappa → Read More
TRS has one leader, want KCR to be CM forever: Kavitha Kalvakuntla to TNM
The female face of the TRS, a party which has a sub-par gender balance in its senior leadership, Kavitha Kalvakuntla has a distinct identity. She is seen as the key Delhi representative of the party, being a Member of Parliament and although Kavitha is not contesting herself in the upcoming Telangana Assembly elections, she is one of the frontline campaigners in key → Read More
Will ‘Me Too’ allegations against Nawazuddin finally sink ‘Sacred Games’ on Netflix?
Just as the dust around anonymous allegations of sexual harassment against its writer Varun Grover was settling down, season 2 of Sacred Games, the runway-hit Indian original on global streaming platform Netflix, is now facing yet another challenge – the recent allegations of abuse and harassment against one of its lead actors, Nawazuddin Siddiqui. → Read More
Why India’s narco cops are finding it hard to crack down on the new-age drug dealer
I am sitting with a senior police officer, and he pulls out his smartphone to show me a video. The video shows a teenager sitting in front of a desktop at a government office. He is seen waiting for the person behind the smartphone to give him a cue, and then he starts logging into an onion router. He explains every step as he proceeds to order illegal drugs from an online bazaar on the dark… → Read More
When dopers turn dealers: How India’s party drug users are peddling for a quick buck
Part 1 “This is not business bro, this is just for fun,” says Vicky (name changed), defensively. Standing outside an outlet of an international restaurant chain in an upper-middle-class neighbourhood in Chennai (also his preferred locations for an exchange), he was trying to convince me that he was not a drug peddler, but was ‘only spreading the joy of getting high’. I ask him → Read More
Chants of ‘Marina Venum!’ greet EPS at Rajaji Hall as he pays respects to Kalaignar
As Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi Palaniswami entered the Rajaji Hall to pay his last respects to the Dravidian veteran Kalaignar M Karunanidhi on Wednesday morning, it was his actions of Tuesday that spoke the loudest in the hearts and lips of the people gathered there. → Read More
Kalaignar bids goodbye: One of TN’s last tall leaders, M Karunanidhi passes away
When Indira Gandhi announced the Emergency in 1975, among the few Chief Ministers of the country who opposed her was Tamil Nadu’s Muthuvel Karunanidhi. His supporters say that despite having political control of the state, he took a stand against the draconian act and the despotic Maintenance of Internal Security Act (MISA), and stood by democracy. It cost him dearly – his → Read More
Karnataka House of Cards: Why Governor Vajubhai Vala is crucial for BJP
Even as the Congress party attempts to keep the BJP from forming the government by throwing in support for the JD(S), the role of Governor Vajubhai Vala has now gained significance. As the JD(S)-Congress combine stake claim to form the government, BJP sources say that they will do all that they can to form the government themselves, and Vala’s role will be crucial for that. → Read More
Karnataka Congress reaches out to independent candidates to keep BJP at bay
Even as the Congress high command in New Delhi dispatches Ghulam Nabi Azad to meet JD(S) patriarch HD Deve Gowda to form a non-BJP government, outgoing CM Siddaramaiah has reached out to the two Independent candidates who have won their seats in the Karnataka polls. → Read More
How Indian narco-cops got two Iranians convicted in the first meth lab bust in TN
When Masoud Mosavi was first spotted by officers of the Narcotics Control Bureau at the Chennai airport in March 2013, he was carrying a book by Franz Kafka. His literary preferences were a giveaway and would later be useful for the anti-narcotics cops who interrogated him for producing and smuggling methamphetamine from a lab in rural Tamil Nadu. → Read More
Can profit-seeking Big Pharma provide access to healthcare? The Novartis Experiment
Monique and Meghdoot work together closely, but their goals are worlds apart. For Meghdoot Deherkar, Head of Sales and Operations at Novartis India, the bottom line is profit. A steadfast salesperson with over two decades of work experience, his motive is money. Dr. Monique Kamat, however, is a social worker. The head of a social vertical at Novartis India, her ambition is to provide affordable… → Read More
Not guilty: What the 2G verdict means for Kanimozhi’s political future
Hitting the campaign trail ahead of the 2016 TN Assembly Elections, which the DMK lost by a thin margin, Kanimozhi had already embraced the public shame and legal suffering which came along with the accusations in the 2G case. In the preceding 5 years, she had laboured through sustained political attacks and a 193-day jail term, over allegations which have now been roundly debunked. But she had… → Read More
A Hyperlocal Legacy: How Kalyan’s NextGen plans to become the trusted jeweller for every Indian
Before TS Kalyanaraman opened his first jewellery store in Thrissur in 1993, he owned a textile business inherited from his father. As he stepped into the jewellery business, his sons Rajesh and Ramesh – with only a couple of years between them – were just about finishing school. Their memories of the textile business are from their school days. “We used to go out and play, and enjoy with our… → Read More
What the tax raids at Mannargudi, the heart of Sasikala Family Inc., tell us
It isn’t something the small yet influential town in Thanjavur district has seen before. On Thursday morning, as the offices of Jaya TV, newspaper Namadhu MGR and Jazz Cinemas – all establishments owned and controlled by the Sasikala family – were raided by Income Tax sleuths in Chennai, the town of Mannargudi also saw tax officials swarming into the residences of some of the most influential… → Read More
The News Minute Series on Mental Health: Why individual empowerment is key
“So, what got you interested in mental health?” Dr. Bhargavi Davar asked me, as I was leaving her office in Pune after a long interview for TNM Delve Series on mental health in India. “It was my own experience with depression, and the realization that if I, with all my privileges, could have had a tough time, then I cannot possibly understand or imagine the pain and suffering of others,” I told… → Read More
Decolonising mental health: How India’s mentally ill are being drugged without consent
Read part one, on India’s mental health burden and overmedication, before you read this: Decolonising mental health: How overmedication is destroying the minds of India’s mentally ill Part Two → Read More