Director of community engagement for @nytimes. I work on article comments, messaging, live audio. Formerly a Mumbai and Silicon Valley correspondent.
Joined December 2007
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A bit of professional news: I am moving to a new role at @nytimes, leading our community engagement efforts. I will be focused mostly on conversations on our site and app, but will still have a hand in messaging and Twitter Spaces. at.nyt.net/newsroom-audience…
The @nytimes channel on Telegram began with an email I sent on a Friday night. A team was formed, and a week later, we were publishing our news about the Russia-Ukraine war there. Here's the inside story of how it came together. nytimes.com/2022/04/06/insid…
The station’s uplink suddenly went dead. A bland message told viewers there was no signal. But this was no technical difficulty. It was censorship by the Indian government. nyti.ms/39yl1d3
India's wine country is nothing like Napa or Tuscany. Yet its lack of a tourist-industrial complex is part of its charm. During a 3-day trip to Nashik, we tasted some delightful wines, chatted with the winemakers and encountered very few other tourists. nyti.ms/38er1Xx
We got new data on Oyo’s troubles: It stopped offering hotel rooms in 200+ Indian cities in January and lost 65,000+ rooms since October. Mass layoffs begin as SoftBank pushes Oyo and other startups to shrink. With @Karan_Singhs @eringriffith nytimes.com/2020/01/13/techn… via @NYTimes
Backed by SoftBank, Oyo wanted to topple Marriott as the world’s biggest hotel chain. Instead, it’s shrinking fast. What went wrong? nytimes.com/2020/01/13/techn…
Backed by SoftBank, Oyo became India's largest hotel chain. But much of its growth was built on dodgy practices, like giving free rooms to the police and listing unavailable rooms, current and ex-workers said. A thread on the @nytimes investigation. nyti.ms/2Qk5Du8
Oyo keeps hotels on the platform even after they leave Oyo, CEO Ritesh Agarwal acknowledged. And the company listed rooms without air conditioning, hot water or even electricity, said current and former employees.
For our investigation into Oyo's practices, @Karan_Singhs and I interviewed 20 current and former employees and more than 20 others familiar with Oyo. We also spoke to 4 top executives to understand the company's perspective. Read the @nytimes findings: nytimes.com/2020/01/02/techn…
Even while Oyo claims to be more successful than ever, Oyo's front-line employees in India say their jobs are pressure cookers, with the company expecting them to be available 24/7. The company fired hundreds of people this year, claiming poor performance. nytimes.com/2020/01/02/techn…
Some Oyo employees and contractors are stealing from the company. In one scam, hotel workers keep a departed guest listed as checked in, then resell the room for cash, according to current and former employees. Oyo says it has terminated some employees for fraud.
Many properties on Oyo's service lack proper licenses. To deter harassment by authorities, Oyo gives free rooms to police and other officials, according to current and former employees. nytimes.com/2020/01/02/techn…
Sometimes employees are asked to hide problems. One former manager in north India, Saurabh Mukhopadhyay, said the company's legal department told him not to say anything about a woman who reported being raped by three men in June at a property run by Oyo.
In Narendra Modi's "Digital India," the authorities shut down the internet an average of twice a week. This week, 60 million Indians were cut off. nyti.ms/35wtyvF
When Indians protest, the first arrest is the Internet. India leads the world -- by far -- in internet shutdowns. During this week's protests about the citizenship bill, 60 million people were disconnected. nyti.ms/35wtyvF
India is poised to pass its first personal data protection law. It would give the country's 1.3 billion people much more control over how corporations use their data but also allow the government to exempt itself from similar restrictions. nyti.ms/2qGkTI3
Armed with $1 billion from SoftBank, Oyo became India's largest hotel chain by offering budget hotel owners guaranteed payments and big promises. Then, say hotel owners, it reneged on the deals. A thread on what we found: nytimes.com/2019/11/12/techn…
But Oyo says that the complaining hotel owners deceived the company. "Asset owners continue to believe that Oyo is the best option in terms of the value proposition we can provide for them,” said CEO Ritesh Agarwal.
Read our report on how SoftBank's billions have hurt workers on three continents. With @nathanielpopper, Arjun Hadrinanath and lots of help from @Karan_Singhs. nytimes.com/2019/11/12/techn…