Reportage on a planet without equitable or sustainable development.
On Coal and Power
more on king coal. today’s economic times carries the first instalment of our final set of stories on Coal. the stories till now have been mainly diagnostic, focusing on the extent of mismanagement in the coal sector. the stories, starting today, take a look at the outcomes of how india manages coal on land, power and forests.
the first of these stories — on power — came out today. for a while now, we have been hearing about how power plants in the country are starved for coal. well, as the previous post said, ET travelled through Chhattisgarh last month. At the end of that trip, i was more or less convinced that much of the blame for this shortage can be laid at the lotus feet of the captive block policy, not Coal India as everyone tends to. The story out today and the one coming tomorrow (on Coal India) will argue this point out.
it has been educative. this string of stories on coal. lots of epiphanies on the kind of work i should do once coal ends. a blogpost on all that is mandated once the series ends, i think.
I am an Indian journalist with interests in energy, environment, climate and India’s ongoing slide into right-wing authoritarianism. My book, Despite the State, an examination of pervasive state failure and democratic decay in India, was published by Westland Publications, India, in January 2021. My work has won the Bala Kailasam Memorial Award; the Ramnath Goenka Excellence in Journalism Award; five Shriram Awards for Excellence in Financial Journalism; and, more recently, been a finalist at the True Story Award and GIJN’s Global Shining Light Awards. Write to me at despitethestate@protonmail.com.
“Westland closure: Titles that are selling fast and a few personal recommendations,” by Chetana Divya Vasudev, Moneycontrol. (Because this happened too. In February, a year after DtS was released, Amazon decided to shutter Westland, which published the book. The announcement saw folks rushing to buy copies of Westland books before stocks run out.)
Fractured/Earth 
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