Dispatches from Kolkata Sandip Roy

Fountain pens might seem part of a vanishing world but a group of pen enthusiasts seen signs of hope in India. Sandip visits a Fountain Pen festival in Kolkata.

Some hailed it as a brave new financial revolution. But where there’s big money to be made, and made fast, there will also be people playing fast and loose. Just as crypto grew by leaps and bounds in India, so did crypto crime.

There’s a new focus this election season in India, a new type of influencer, the ‘Netizen.’ But what does this really mean for the democratic process?

An Indian institution turns 90 at the end of this week.It’s not a bricks and mortar institution. It’s one of India’s most prolific writers - Bond, Ruskin Bond.

It’s election season in India and time for two months of marching bands and rallies, but not much talk about economic and healthcare rights. In fact, in India economic rights became known as “directive principles of state policy.” Sandip Roy questions what that actually means.

As the Indian heat descends on Kolkata, Sandip considers how our perceptions about the rituals of summer have changed.