Why We All Should Care About India

1. Working From Home in Style

Headquartered in India’s Silicon Valley, Bangalore, Meesho is a platform that enables small businesses and individuals to start their online stores via social channels such as WhatsApp, Facebook and Instagram. In a 1.4-billion-strong country, where the majority of businesses are still not online, Meesho is helping millions launch businesses without capital. And it’s especially good news for women: 80 percent of Meesho’s users are female.

2. New Twist on Home Delivery

Across India and much of Asia, hairdressers, cleaners, plumbers, masseurs and workers in similar services have traditionally been part of a massive unorganized workforce that has had to rely on contractors to find work. Urban Company is changing that. The aggregator — the largest of its kind in India, with a presence in Singapore, Australia and the UAE — connects them directly with clients, improving transparency for both and cutting out middlemen. It’s particularly vital at a time when the pandemic has made us cautious about whom we allow into our homes. On Urban Company, the professionals have been vetted. The company, which has raised $190 million in funding, also provides health insurance to its gig workers.

3. Keeping Warm Without the Guilt

Fashion entrepreneur Gowri Shankar is harnessing the calotropis gigantea, a wasteland shrub common around his southern India home, to create vegan wool. That’s right, wool without the hassle of penning and shearing adorable sheep. With growing interest in Europe amid a sustainable fashion boom, don’t be surprised if you see Beyoncé wearing Shankar’s Weganool soon.

4. Learning All About Speed

Moving education primarily to the virtual world is fine for those with access to the right equipment, 5G and high-speed internet. But for students in places like Kashmir, who endured an internet ban by PM Narendra Modi’s government last year and now only have access to 2G internet, online learning is more of a gamble. So Mubeen Masudi from Kashmir and Bilal Abidi from Lucknow — friends who met at a top STEM school in India — have devised a 2G-friendly video interface app that allows students and teachers to cut through problems of scheduling, and makes teaching and assessments over a slow internet connection feel as close as possible to a real classroom.

5. India's TikTok?

Several apps have jumped into the breach in India — including one owned by YouTube — since the country banned TikTok in June amid tensions with China. But homegrown Chingari (which means “spark”) has risen to the top, with nearly 100,000 downloads and 2 million views every hour, and is trending at the top spot on Google Play Store. “When an ex-TikToker comes to Chingari, he doesn’t have to spend time learning the database,” says Chingari co-founder Sumit Ghosh. “He feels at home.”

We were too and our search led us to Cariuma. This sustainable sneaker brand makes ethical, crazy-comfortable shoes with you and the planet in mind. They’ll even plant two trees to help replant the Brazilian rainforest with each purchase! On top of that, they’re so stylish and perfect for fall.
Get $15 off when you order now using code OZYxCariuma.

1. Rich Get Richer

Asia’s richest man, Mukesh Ambani, managed to keep the checks rolling in despite the pandemic. Reliance Industries Limited, his company, has for years been a giant in energy, textiles and retail. Now as more and more countries turn away from China’s Huawei, Big Tech is betting on Ambani's telecommunications firm, Jio, as a global alternative. Jio raked in $15 billion amid the pandemic through investments from Facebook, Google and others. Ambani, worth $80 billion, has overtaken Warren Buffett to assume fourth place in global wealth rankings, and Jio is poised to launch India’s first 5G network.

2. Uneasy Calm in Kashmir

On the surface, India’s government appears to be winning the battle against militancy in the region a year after scrapping its semiautonomous status and imposing a brutal crackdown. Since January, Indian soldiers have killed more armed rebels than at any point in a similar period over the past decade. But guns don’t kill grievances. An internet ban imposed last year has yet to be fully lifted — only 2G networks are available in large parts of the region. And in recent months, police have stepped up arrests of Islamic clerics and prayer leaders and clamped down on mosques in what was the country’s only Muslim-majority state.

3. Muslims and Dalits Targeted

Since Modi’s Hindu nationalist BJP came to power in 2014, lynchings of the country’s minorities at the hands of Hindu nationalist vigilantes have surged. Human Rights Watch reported at least 44 such murders between May 2015 and December 2018, with hundreds more injured. Other victims include lower-caste Hindus and Christians. But it’s more than just the violence. Muslim children are being targeted for bullying in school, and their families are finding it harder and harder to rent apartments outside the community’s ghettos. Their alienation has further increased after the government pushed through a controversial new law late last year that bans Muslim immigrants from seeking citizenship through naturalization.

1. Numbers Don’t Lie

While it took India almost six months to hit the 1 million case mark in mid-July, it’s only taken two months since then for that number to rise fivefold. More than 1,000 people are now dying daily from the disease. Only the U.S. is doing worse, with an excess of 6 million confirmed cases, but India has been adding more daily cases than America for the past month. Without another strict lockdown, India will struggle to slow the spread of COVID-19.

2. Vaccine Fever

The rush to release a vaccine — even before it is fully tested — is proving to be as infectious as the disease itself. Russian President Vladimir Putin launched a vaccine last month, and U.S. President Donald Trump is hoping for one by October. Now “India is considering emergency authorization of a COVID-19 vaccination,” said Health Minister Harsh Vardhan. Russia will supply Indian pharma company Dr. Reddy’s with 100 million doses of its Sputnik V vaccine. Meanwhile, the CEO of the Serum Institute of India — the largest vaccine manufacturer — has cautioned that the world will not have enough coronavirus vaccines until 2024.

3. Snubbing Doctors, at What Cost?

With the coronavirus numbers increasing with every passing day, India is in no position to prevent doctors from working. Yet, thousands of Indian medical students who graduate in China are blocked from working upon their return unless they pass a special exam. Interestingly, medical students graduating in the United States, Britain, Australia, New Zealand and Canada are not required to take the test. And amid border tensions between the two countries, these China-trained doctors face other prejudices too.

1. Modi Supporters Fool Facebook and the Public

Three of India’s 10 biggest political advertisers on Facebook, and eight of the top 60, are high-spending, hard-to-track organizations serving as surrogate campaigners for Modi while masquerading as independent, organic support groups, an OZY investigation reveals. The addresses these “companies” shared with Facebook either don’t exist or are the same as the addresses of other known public entities, such as Modi’s party, the BJP. These groups have spent 20 percent more than the BJP itself on political ads on Facebook. In 2018, Facebook made it mandatory for all political ads to carry disclaimers identifying the spenders, but these disclaimers disappear the moment a political ad is shared — the company then treats the shared ad as “organic content.” As a result, people who see a political ad will never know that it’s sponsored, and not organic political messaging.

2. Test for America

The disappearing disclaimer is a Facebook practice globally. Together with the opacity that even prominent, high-spending political advertisers enjoy in India, analysts fear this positions the world’s largest democracy as a potential test case for dodgy peers to emulate in other major nations — particularly during the 2020 U.S. presidential election campaign. Already, U.S. researchers are beginning to find evidence of hard-to-track proxy advertisers using Facebook to push political messaging in America.

1. Fermented Fantasy

India’s northeast states have a cuisine so distinct that most Indians from the rest of the country haven’t tried it. Many of the dishes use fermented foods and ghost pepper — one of the hottest chilis in the world. The smell is strong — there’s a wonderful new film about it — but don’t turn up your nose, or you’ll miss rare delicacies that are finally entering mainstream India’s consciousness.

2. Tech Helps Dying Cuisines Survive

Keeping India’s myriad flavors alive in an era of globalized markets that encourage sameness isn’t easy. But a growing number of food enthusiasts are using technology to do just that.

Through pop-ups and online cooking lessons, they’re introducing a new generation of Indians — and people around the world — to a range of traditional dishes that many feared had died with the arrival of modern fast food. It’s also offering a platform for housebound women to share their skills with the world for the first time.

3. The Tropical Indian Drink

Feni, a brandy made from the fruit of the cashew tree, comes from the state of Goa — known for its sun and sand — in western India. Like Champagne or tequila, it is a geographically protected product; you cannot technically make Feni anywhere other than Goa. And unlike many other types of alcohol, Feni is distilled to a proof of 42.8 percent, meaning that no water is added to cut its potency.

Today on 'The Carlos Watson Show'

Top Chef judge Tom Colicchio knows how to dish it up, and he's bringing humanity to the food industry. He and Carlos discuss Anthony Bourdain, Colicchio's unexpected restaurant success and the vast changes (positive and negative) COVID-19 may bring. He also shares some of the behind-the-scenes secrets from the Top Chef set.

1. The Michelin-Starred Chef Turns Filmmaker

Vikas Khanna has written more than 40 books, is working on his third Ph.D. (he’s studying the effect of global warming on spices), is planning restaurants for 2022 (his latest, Kinara, opened in Dubai just over a month ago), is judging MasterChef India, consulting for numerous organizations … I could go on. He has made popular documentaries, and he’s working on a collection of recipes. The next mountain to climb? Hollywood. Khanna's directorial debut, The Last Color, premiered last fall in the U.S. and was long-listed for an Academy Award nomination. Next up: Raincatcher, which Khanna just wrapped and could cement him as a mover and shaker in the film world.

2. The Actress Facing a Media Witch Hunt

She’s the most-talked-about personality in Bollywood at the moment — but not just for her work. Rhea Chakraborty, 28, is at the center of a weekslong television drama that has gripped the nation following the suicide of her boyfriend and fellow actor Sushant Singh Rajput in June. Chakraborty, who was originally accused of abetting the suicide, is currently under arrest for supplying illegal drugs to Rajput. But the case has also reopened debates about patriarchy in a country where male stars are often treated with kid gloves for similar offenses. As Chakraborty proclaimed on her T-shirt recently: “Roses are red, violets are blue. Let’s smash patriarchy, me and you.”

3. The Comedian Taking on Modi

Kunal Kamra, 31, is the most prominent comedian to consistently critique India’s most powerful leaders. When Modi’s reelection was announced last year, “everyone I know called me that day as if there had been a death in my family,” he says. Kamra has more than a million subscribers on YouTube, and his most viral stand-up bit has been watched more than 10 million times. Clearly, there’s an appetite for his criticism of the right-wing BJP and second-term Prime Minister Narendra Modi. But in the comedy world, he stands pretty much alone.

4. Don’t Dare Judge Her

Swati Bidhan Baruah is the first transgender judge of the northeastern state of Assam, and the third in all of India. In recent months, she has been consumed with fighting the Supreme Court of India on behalf of at least 2,000 trans people who risk being deported under India’s new citizenship law.

5. Modi’s Right-Hand Man

Indian Home Minister Amit Shah joined the BJP’s mother organization, the RSS — the fountainhead of right-wing Hindu nationalism — when he was a teenager. He earned his stripes as Modi’s confidant in the state of Gujarat, where the current prime minister used to be a chief minister. Shah was jailed on charges of masterminding illegal police killings that were promptly dropped once Modi became prime minister. Now, he’s Modi’s enforcer, behind everything from the Kashmir crackdown to the Citizenship Amendment Act.

6. Teenage Shooting Star

She shoots with her gun … and from her mouth. Manu Bhaker, 18, is the world champion in 10-meter shooting — and among India’s brightest prospects at the Tokyo Olympics, whenever they’re held. Bhaker is also fiery away from the shooting range. After a minister reneged on his promise to reward top athletes, she took him on publicly — and refused to bow down.

1. The White Tiger

Have you ever empathized with a murderer? You will, with Balram Halwai. Dark yet humorous, the winner of the 2008 Man Booker Prize captures the deep economic divides and cultural tumult that mark a rapidly rising India — as seen through the eyes of a chauffeur who kills his boss and escapes with his money to start a business in which he employs all the tricks he learned from his dead employer.

2. The God of Small Things

Fall in love with rural Kerala, the southern sliver of a state that gave the world its first democratically elected communist government. Even if love has boundaries, as this epic Booker Prize–winning novel by Arundhati Roy reminds us. You could read it just for Roy's unparalleled command of language or for her delicate depiction of the complexities of family life in India. Either way, you won’t be able to put it down once you pick it up.

3. Midnight's Children

It’sSalman Rushdie’s magical realism at its finest. Saleem Sinai was born at the exact moment when India gained independence in 1947, and so has special powers — a metaphor for the hopes that generation grew up with. Yet he can’t escape the trauma of the subcontinent’s partition, religious strife, wars and political turmoil that eventually wear him down. In 2008, the novel was awarded the Booker of Bookers — the best among the Booker winners in the first 40 years of the prize.