Episodios

  • India's First Computers | Part 3: How software won

    India's First Computers | Part 3: How software won
    Apr 6 2026
    India’s computing story unfolds in two distinct phases. In the decades after Independence, the country set out to build its own computer hardware. But from the 1970s onwards, that ambition quietly gave way to something else: software. In this concluding episode of the series, we trace how and why that pivot happened. During the 1960s, American universities began partnering with the Indian Institutes of Technology and other academic institutions, drawn by India’s deep pool of technical talent. Instead of manufacturing machines locally, these collaborations imported IBM computers and focused entirely on software and programming. This shift marked the beginning of India’s transformation into the world’s back office for software engineering. We examine how India came to dominate global software labour—and ask the big, unresolved question: why did the country give up on building computer hardware altogether? Hosts: Sobhana K Nair & Jacob Koshy Producer and editor: Jude Weston
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    27 m
  • India’s First Computers | Part 2: TIFRAC & IBM’s Double Game

    India’s First Computers | Part 2: TIFRAC & IBM’s Double Game
    Mar 30 2026
    In the mid-1950s, while the world was still reeling from the dawn of the atomic age, a group of visionary scientists in a makeshift barracks in Mumbai were chasing a different kind of power: computational sovereignty. This episode dives into the incredible story of TIFRAC (Tata Institute of Fundamental Research Automatic Calculator), India’s first indigenous digital computer. Spearheaded by Homi Bhabha and R. Narasimhan, TIFRAC wasn’t just a machine built from vacuum tubes and ferrite cores; it was a bold statement that a newly independent nation could master the most complex technology of the era. But the road to innovation was far from smooth. As India moved toward self-reliance, global tech giants were watching. We explore the shadowy “help” offered by IBM, which dominated the global market at the time. While IBM sought to establish a monopoly by leasing refurbished machines and pushing proprietary systems, the Indian government and TIFR scientists smelled a “technological trap.” Hosts: Jacob Koshy and Sobhana K Nair Guest: Dwaipayan Banerjee, Associate Professor of Science at MIT Producer and editor: Jude Weston
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    37 m
  • India’s First Computers | Part 1: A Historian’s Tragedy

    India’s First Computers | Part 1: A Historian’s Tragedy
    Mar 23 2026
    In the first of a 3-part series, we discuss the origins of India’s quest, first to procure and then to build a homegrown computer in India. Coming very close to the Indian independence, this is the period that is more closely associated with the birth of India’s nuclear programme. Dr Banerjee’s book: Computing in the Age of Decolonisation narrates this history and begins with the story of DD Kosambi, better known in India’s intellectual history as the father of Marxist historiography. As a graduate in mathematics from Harvard University, Kosambi was primarily a theorist in mathematics and sought to apply this knowledge to building a homegrown computer. However in this first part we explore how these plans came to naught. The Rearview is a podcast where the hosts guide you on a scenic route through the history of science. Filled with fascinating anecdotes, deep archival dives, and a closer look at the quirky minds behind groundbreaking ideas. Hosts: Jacob Koshy and Sobhana K Nair Guest: Professor Dwaipayan Banerjee, Associate Professor of Science, Technology, and Society Studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
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    35 m
  • PC Mahalanobis: India’s First Data Cruncher

    PC Mahalanobis: India’s First Data Cruncher
    Mar 11 2026
    Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis (1893–1972) was a Bengali statistician and institution-builder who became one of the most consequential figures in twentieth-century Indian science. Trained as a physicist in Calcutta and Cambridge, he discovered statistics almost by accident through an encounter with Biometrika, and went on to found the Indian Statistical Institute in 1931 out of a small laboratory at Presidency College, Calcutta. His most enduring scientific contribution was the D² statistic — a measure of distance between populations that emerged from his early anthropometric work on race mixture in Bengal and his critical re-analysis of Risley’s colonial survey data. He enjoyed close professional relationships with founding fathers of the statistical field - Karl Pearson and R.A. Fisher, though his dealings with Pearson were marked by a significant dispute over publication. Through the ISI he shaped Indian statistical practice across sampling, agricultural experiments, and economic planning, exercising powerful influence over the National Sample Survey and the Planning Commission. Hosts: Sobhana K Nair & Jacob Koshy Producer: Jude Weston
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    41 m
  • India's First 'Lady Doctors'

    India's First 'Lady Doctors'
    Feb 23 2026
    This podcast explores the lives of India’s first female doctors, framing their struggle not as a technological quest, but as a profound social rebellion. Beyond merely practicing medicine, women like Drs. Kadambini Ganguly, Anandibai Joshi, Rukmabai Raut and Jamini Sen, navigated a "structural trap" of colonial prejudice and domestic conservatism. The narrative highlights the contradictions of the era: progressive male allies who nonetheless didn't condemn child marriage, and nationalists like Tilak who viewed female education as "insubordination." Ultimately, the theme centers on agency versus institutional erasure, celebrating these women for their scientific contributions—such as implementing antiseptic protocols—while reclaiming their stories from historical obscurity. Hosts: Jacob Koshy and Sobhana K Nair Producers: Shiksha Jural and Jude Weston
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    37 m
  • The Vaccine Man: The Ukrainian who helped save India from cholera and plague

    The Vaccine Man: The Ukrainian who helped save India from cholera and plague
    Feb 9 2026
    Waldemar Mordechai Wolff Haffkine (1860–1930), born in Odessa (then part of the Russian Empire, now Ukraine), was a pioneering Jewish bacteriologist who spent more than two decades working in India. Barred from academic positions in Russia due to antisemitic restrictions, he fled first to Switzerland and then to Paris, where he worked at the Pasteur Institute. In 1892, Haffkine developed the world’s first effective cholera vaccine, boldly testing it on himself before beginning wider trials. In 1893, he travelled to India, where he conducted successful large-scale field tests. When bubonic plague struck Bombay in 1896, Haffkine urgently created the first plague vaccine in a modest laboratory, again testing it on himself before launching mass inoculation campaigns. His vaccines proved highly effective in curbing both cholera and plague, earning him the reputation of a “saviour of mankind.” Despite his monumental achievements, Haffkine remains little known today. One of the few visible reminders of his legacy is Mumbai’s Haffkine Institute, which continues to bear his name. Hosts: Sobhana K Nair and Jacob Koshy Producer and editor: Jude Weston
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    50 m
  • TAILSPIN: How the 1974 'peaceful test' retarded nuclear power with Jairam Ramesh | Part 2

    TAILSPIN: How the 1974 'peaceful test' retarded nuclear power with Jairam Ramesh | Part 2
    Jan 26 2026
    In Part 2 of the the history of India’s nuclear programme, we discuss the impact of the 1974 nuclear test on India’s civilian nuclear programme. Whether the consequent technological embargo dealt a body blow to Homi Bhabha’s three phase programme that was premised on sufficient uranium to tide India over until it could extract its vast reserves of thorium? Why electricity from nuclear reactors have been insufficient and whether the SHANTI bills encouragement of small modular reactors and private sector nuclear plant operators is viable. Guest: Jairam Ramesh Hosts: Jacob Koshy and Sobhana K Nair Recorded by Tayyab Hussain and Aniket Singh Chauhan Produced and edited by Jude Weston
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    47 m
  • SLOW BURN: India’s Chequered Nuclear Past with Jairam Ramesh | Part 1

    SLOW BURN: India’s Chequered Nuclear Past with Jairam Ramesh | Part 1
    Jan 12 2026
    India’s nuclear programme has been shaped by idealism, secrecy, ambition, sanctions, and strategic anxiety. In this two-part series, we trace its evolution from the pre-independence period to the passage of new legislation—the Sustainable Harnessing and Advancement of Nuclear Energy for Transforming India Bill, 2025, also known as the SHANTI Act. Along the way, we explore India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru’s close relationship with Homi Bhabha, often called the father of India’s nuclear programme. One a democrat and the other the sultan of Indian science. 21-years separated the two and yet their camaraderie evoked envy in many. Was the secrecy that Bhabha demanded and Nehru conceded to necessary? Tune in for answers to these and many questions. Guest: Jairam Ramesh Hosts: Jacob Koshy and Sobhana K Nair Recorded by Tayyab Hussain and Aniket Singh Chauhan Produced and edited by Jude Weston
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    41 m