Articles
For over two decades, Vandana Vasudevan’s newspaper articles have chronicled the textures and transformations of contemporary India.
Automation vs humans: How industry 4.0 is reshaping jobs in India's auto sector
Robots are marching into factories. What matters now is how firms and workers adapt. And how policy supports that transition.
Economic Times | April 2026
Why chest-thumping about gig job growth misses the point
Every year, as urban India ushers in the first day of January in a blur of beats and booze, thousands of invisible young men on two-wheelers quietly power the night’s merriment.
Times of India | Jan 6, 2026.
Voice of
the World
Thousands of people living in the many invisible Indias are helping tech companies build a database that will change their future
The Telegraph | August 2022
Is it time to give the local taxi service another chance?
Not so long ago, there was a time, at least in Delhi, when a few sardarjis lolled around a charpoy under a tree with a name board pinned to a tree trunk that said
DNA | Urban Beat | Dec 2017
My son just cleared Class XII. But do Board exams even matter today?
It is that time of the year when children who finish school pack their bags for the next phase of their lives. Last week, my son’s school had a felicitation ceremony for the Class XII students who had done well in the CBSE Board exams. The plans of the top three students revealed how little those results mattered.
The Indian Express | July 2025
Not so
great walls
Across India’s suburbs, gated communities promise security and order while quietly deepening the separation between social classes. What do these walls do to the idea of a shared city?
The Indian Express | February 2017
Separating the art from the artist in the age of TMI
Devyani Chaubal, the late gossip queen of 1980s Bollywood, had once written about a yesteryear showman who used to wipe his hands on her sari pallu whenever they ate lunch together on the sets. Since I misspent my growing years reading magazines, I came upon this nugget. I couldn’t un-see what I read…
Times of India | February 24, 2024
Can textbooks be less dull, more current please? A parent’s appeal to NCERT
Dear NCERT, In recent times you have been in the spotlight for deleting portions pertaining to the Delhi Sultanate, Mughal rulers, Darwinian evolution and other topics from your textbooks. As a product of the CBSE system and as the mother of children who have been through the same curriculum…
The Times of India | July 2023
Grand weddings of semi-rural gentry inspired by Bollywood
In the wedding season, there’s almost never a day when the village opposite our house in Greater Noida isn’t resounding with DJ beats. The land on which our apartment complex is built once belonged to this village and our lives are interconnected with the local people in myriad ways
DNA | Urban Beat | March 2019
RWAs can be extremely
arbitrary in their rules
The power to decide on rules of how others should live and the collection and management of money makes RWAs one of the most contentious, fractious and conflict-ridden entity of contemporary city life in India.
DNA Urban Beat | Dec 2107
Help! Lifts are only going down
As apartment complexes become the norm, the Lift Acts needs more teeth as negligence results in nothing short of death.
Mint | January 2013
The economics of buffet
Buffets are not merely about food. They reveal the curious psychology of consumption in urban India.
Mint | January 2013
Encounters of a different
kind in the urban jungle
There are about twenty monkeys roaming around,” the guards of our building society warned everyone the other day. The vanars jump from tower to tower and spread a reign of terror among the residents
DNA | Urban Beat | Sep 2018
You’re the pigeon and also the statue
Everyone lives downstream. Which means everyone is affected by polluted rivers, says an extensive study
Mint | March 2013
Understanding the Wisdom of Indian Residential Architecture
A reflection on traditional Indian residential design and the ecological intelligence embedded within it. The elements of Indian design — the airy veranda, the pavilion, terraces and courtyards are a common architectural legacy of all of us.
DNA | Urban Beat | May 2018
Not just Saif Ali Khan, the humble auto is every Indian’s lifeline
Despite fancy solutions ranging from feeder buses to electric scooters being discussed in many a seminar, on the ground, it is the informal network of rickshaws and autos that greet passengers alighting at a metro station and drop them at their homes
The Indian Express | Feb 13 2025
Why we need mobility: The Covid pandemic is a reminder that travel cannot be replaced by technology
In 2012 John Urry, an authority on the subject of mobility, examined in a paper titled ‘Mobility and Proximity’, why at all people need to travel with the emergence of communication technology. Eight years later, in a post-Covid world, the question has assumed more significance than Urry would have imagined.
The Times of India | Oct 2020
The working woman’s lockdown: Doing Zoom conferences, cooking and cleaning at the same time
Among the many memes that have popped up during the coronavirus lockdown, several relate to the division of labour at home. Some follow the tired narrative of the wife as the tyrannical villain who dumps chores on the husband.
The Times of India | April 2020
Mobility is a catalyst changing lives of women in India
Women have responded creatively to work around barriers to mobility. Two vehicles have played a stellar role in this transformation- the gearless two-wheeler and the humble auto rickshaw.
DNA | Urban Beat | March 2018
Memories from a trip to the Israel border: At the crossroads of conflict, quietly the river flows
Mount Nebo in Jordan is a biblical site where Moses was granted a view of the “promised land of milk and honey” before his death. From atop Mount Nebo, dry barren land extended ahead, broken by a thin dark strip of water, which was the Jordan river.
Scroll.in | Oct 2023
A New Year Reunion
An evocative account of the IIM Ahmedabad batch of 1995 returning to campus for their 15-year reunion with dorm tours, dance floors and resurrection of hostel legends.
Mint | Jan 2011
DNA, Urban Beat, May 2018
Canadian journalist Charles Montgomery has written a fascinating book called ‘Happy Cities’, a term that follows the Green City, Sustainable City, Livable City, in the lingo of urban planning.
DNA | Urban Beat | May 2018
Delhi’s Belly | Little spice girls
What began as a familiar middle-class apartment entertainment evening in Noida slowly revealed something else entirely: the growing urge to turn little girls into miniature Bollywood performers.
Mint Lounge | June 2007
Meal murder on Rajdhani Express
Plugging into India's diverse food tradition can make the journey way more interesting.
Mint | Tough Customer | January 2013
Odorous tales of Mylapore
As cities grow, waste management needs thought, study and a commitment to cleanliness.
Mint | January 2013
