nerd girl — Policy Impact

Pinky, 23, has two children. Since both are girls, she is likely to take another shot at motherhood in the hope of a son to "complete the family

Is 'Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao' different from previous policies?

The policy is one in a long line of policies for the girl child; the effort is fragmented in various departments and lacks cohesion. What is needed is one nodal officer dealing with everything: foeticide to contraception to maternal health

nerd girl — Investigation

Parents wait for findings of an audit of 9 private schools ordered by Gurgaon divisional commissioner D Suresh

It is parents vs. schools -- with teachers somewhere in between -- as fees wars break out

Parents across the country are taking on schools over what they see as lack of transparency in fee increases. Schools say facilities they provide are expensive and generating a surplus is necessary to stay in business. A war no one is winning. A 2-part series

nerd girl — Profile

Jasdeep Kaur Chadha with her dead husband's photo at their bus depot on the outskirts of Delhi. Chadha's husband died with Ponty Chadha in an apparent fratricide

Life after the shootout

A housewife inherits liquor and transport businesses after her husband's slaying and learns to negotiate rough, male-dominated sectors

nerd girl — Profile

Nisha, a toilet attendant at a club, with her children in her one-room home in Munirka

Kickass Women

When fresh census data in 2015 showed rising number of women-led households, I sketched the lives of these breadwinners

nerd girl — Data

Business Standard runs a voter turnout meter on poll days to gauge if the Indian public's greater engagement with political discourse in the last couple of years translates into votes in this election.

Predicting voter behaviour

Mr Modi's polarizing influence led to a spurt in voter turnout in 2014, which I predicted and then captured in this meter.

nerd girl — Investigation

The investigation included graft allegations, and the AICTE chief drawing a double compensation, besides his hasty permission to a relative's college

A corrupt regulator

A six-month probe into AICTE, a govt-run regulator of engineering and medical colleges

nerd girl — Feature

Saikat Dutta (centre,in black t-shirt), a student of IIM Bangalore, was in a 'cross-campus' relationship; his girlfriend was at the SP Jain Institute of Management and Research in Mumbai

Love rules at b-schools

A quiet reality of b-schools in India are live-in relationships among students. Tech schools, in sharp contrast, have strict hostel rules for women scholars

nerd girl — Feature

Navdeep Narang at his factory in Naraina which makes ladies' handbags. Narang, and his wife, used to dream of opening a real retail store but have been astonished by the business opportunity offered by Amazon and Flipkart

Goliaths Flipkart and Amazon ride on the shoulders of many Davids

India's e-commerce success story is made up of efforts of many small businessmen.

nerd girl — Profile

V K Bansal, who founded Bansal Classes in Kota, starting the town on its journey to become a test-prep mecca, took surprisingly lively classes

Mr Bansal's classes

When a coaching center changes a town, making it the mecca of test-prep in India, people need to know who is behind the business.

I reported on impact of changes in adoption rules on religious minority parents in 2007 and effect of the formation of a central online database of free-for-adoption children in 2016; on the University Grants Commission's control in 2014 and its habit of spamming universities in 2016; the government's reluctance or inability to collect data on surrogacies and IVF in India while bringing a law to restrict the industry ; caste on campus ; the heady recruitment season at IIM-Ahmedabad in 2007 by living on campus for a week ; how the PR industry forces unrealistic expectations on its members after the death of a Tata Steel communications head in 2013 (a story that went viral after being widely shared by PR practitioners). I investigated Amity and DPS chain of schools ; how government schools push vocational courses on poor children, while taking science away, and pieced together how universities in India isolate and punish student union leaders.