Scinetist | Gyaneshwer Chaubey | Global Indian

Global Indianstory‘Gilli danda’ to Genetics: How Professor Gyaneshwer Chaubey is surprising the world with his findings

‘Gilli danda’ to Genetics: How Professor Gyaneshwer Chaubey is surprising the world with his findings

Written by: Vikram Sharma

(October 11, 2022) Who am I? The question constantly kept popping up in Gyaneshwer Chaubey’s mind until one day, in early 2000, he decided to find an answer to it. The young scientist took permission from his seniors, isolated his DNA from his blood and sequenced his mitochondrial DNA and Y-chromosome inside a Cytogenetics laboratory. The revelations were beyond what he could have imagined.

It suggested that his maternal ancestry shared a common ancestry with the tribal Koya population of South India, which went back 18,000 years and his paternal ancestry belonged to an indigenous population, which had roots in India for at least 30,000 years!

“The research about who I am surprised me. It made me reconsider and re-evaluate my early textbooks. From that moment on, I made up my mind to work in the field of Molecular Anthropology,” smiles renowned scientist Gyaneshwer Chaubey, known worldwide for his extraordinary work in the fields of Biological Anthropology, Medical Genetics and Forensics.

Scientist | Gyaneshwer Chaubey | Global Indian

Prof Gyaneshwer Chaubey is a well-known scientist.

“Research is a never-ending process,” says Chaubey, a Professor in the department of zoology at Banaras Hindu University, in an exclusive chat with Global Indian.

Growing up in a straw mud house in Chaubepur in Varanasi, his first love was science and dreamt of becoming a scientist one day. But his father, Sachchida Nand Chaubey, a biology teacher at an Intermediate college, wanted him to become a doctor and made him prepare for the MBBS entrance examination. As fate had it, Chaubey tried twice and failed.

“I dropped the idea of becoming a doctor and began pursuing my passion,” says Chaubey, who completed his BSc (Botany, Zoology, Chemistry) in 1997. Thereafter, he enrolled in VBS Purvanchal University, Jaunpur for MSc in Biotech (2001-2003).

While he was in the first year of his Master’s, the ever-inquisitive Chaubey had before him the option of a summer research internship. He wasted no time and joined the Cytogenetics lab at BHU.

“I worked there on a six-month project exploring Drosophila (fruit flies). That was my first exposure to the research, and I was so amazed at the fruit flies that I decided to take it further and join the same lab for PhD studentship,” recalls the professor, who studied in the village primary school.

Gyaneshwer Chaubey conducting an experiment in his lab

However, there was mandatory research work during the last semester of his MSc programme, where he was selected to work on the Human Diversity project at CSIR-CCMB. The work was on blood samples of the North Indian Brahmin caste and Santhal tribe of Jharkhand, which he had collected himself.

“Initially, I did not take it seriously and used to dream of only Drosophila. I wanted to finish this work (as required for the MSc degree) so that I could start my dream work, i.e., research on Drosophila,” recalls Chaubey, who worked day and night on the project and completed all the analyses by January 2003. By then, forensics had started to interest him. He ended up joining the prestigious institution as a project assistant after completion of his Masters.

After that, his life revolved around research and laboratories. Initially, Chaubey and his senior were given 2000 samples to isolate the DNA, which was a six-month task. Sheer determination and perseverance that sometimes involved working round-the-clock work led them to complete it in three months.

One day, when Chaubey was cleaning the lab, he stumbled upon a three year old old CD with some data. He wanted to explore it and started analysing the sequences there. This data was a complete mitochondrial sequence of Andaman islanders.

He scored the mutations from the scratch and started reconstructing the phylogenetic tree and the molecular dating of the Andaman tribes’ origin. It took almost a month to read the literature and complete the draft tree, but when it was ready, it left Chaubey amazed as it showed a split of Andaman tribes (onge and Jarawa) from the rest of the world some 65 thousand years.

Gyaneshwer Chaubey at Explorers Festival

He then wrote to the top mitochondrial DNA expert Prof Toomas Kivisild and sought his opinion. With his help, Chaubey completed the paper which became breakthrough research,” smiles the professor.

This paper brought Chaubey in direct touch with Prof Toomas Kivisild and he started teaching him population genetics. After that, they together published more than five papers on Indian pre-history.

Off to Estonia

A dream-come-true moment for Chaubey arrived when Prof Kivisild asked him about doing his PhD under him. Soon, Chaubey took off to Estonia and enrolled in the University of Tartu. There, he was also selected as a lecturer to teach Master’s students.

After completing his PhD, Chaubey went to Cambridge (Sanger Institute UK) as a visiting Scientist and learned more about the computational approach of genome analysis. Later, he returned to Estonia and joined as a Senior Scientist at Estonian Biocentre, where he worked till 2016.

He went on to publish papers in major journals like Nature, PNAS, Genome Research and American Journal of Human Genetics.

In 2016, Chaubey’s wife, Dr Chandana Basu, a geneticist, received the prestigious Marie-Curie Fellowship to work at Roslin Institute, Edinburgh, UK. He accompanied her, keeping his position in Estonia and UK, working from home and taking care of their son.

Scientist | Gyaneshwer Chaubey | Global Indian

Back to India

His father’s health brought Chaubey back to India in October 2017. Fortunately for him, the BHU position was advertised then. He applied and was selected immediately. Over the years, his in-depth work on several ethnic groups of South Asia including Andaman, Austroasiatic, Indian Jews and Parsis, had the attention of all the leading scientists across the world.

On Covid

Chaubey is also credited for doing extraordinary work during the Covid pandemic. “Our essential background in the knowledge of genes and ancestry helped us to take on the challenges of COVID quickly, and we became one of the most visible labs during this pandemic,” informs Chaubey. His team used a novel approach to understand the population level susceptibility and published more than 15 high-quality research papers on it. They had forecasted the third wave and its impact on the Indian population, accurately.

“Covid is not over yet as more than 1500 people are dying every day globally. Moreover, many people are still prone to infection due to vaccine hesitancy. Who knows, future variants may become resistant to the existing vaccine,” warns the senior scientist, adding that they are developing methods to track and forecast any future outbreak

Work in progress

The most challenging work he is still doing is the genetics of the Indian’ gotra system’. “We started this work as a PhD topic in 2006 when I joined Estonia, but it is still ongoing because of its complex Nature. There are no time limitations in science,” says the 44-year-old, who is simultaneously working on bringing the R1a paper, pertaining to Indian ancestry, soon.

Scientist | Gyaneshwer Chaubey | Global Indian

“We are also waiting for the British high commission to provide us with the list of Ajnala martyrs so that we should complete their last rituals. Besides, we are bringing a detailed paper on the origin of various Indian Muslim groups and detailed work on genomic ancestry in Ladakh is also underway.” He along with the doctors in BHU are also cataloguing the Gangetic plain diseases and their genetic causes.

Even though India has a great base of bright competent young scientists, Chaubey feels they cannot compete with the US or European Scientists. “This is mainly due to our strange policies which need a makeover.”

Is it all research and labs for Chaubey? “I lived in the village for several years and played many games including kabaddi, gilli-danda, cricket, hockey and badminton,” informs Chaubey, who also practices yoga regularly. Otherwise, one can see the humble senior scientist visiting his village every weekend and participate in singing and reading the ‘Ramcharitmanas’ as well as doing his ‘kirtan’.

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Dr. Rakesh Tamang

October 11, 2022 10:00 am

Prof. Chaubey is one of the best Population Geneticist in India. He is a brilliant scientist and a wonderful individual with a great leadership capabilities. He is a role model for every young aspiring scientists.

Prashanth N Suravajhala

October 11, 2022 11:25 am

What an awe-inspiring compilation of a great scientist – Gyan. Heartiest congratulations GYan. Thank you for showing us how Science is done. – Prash

Nikhil Srivastava

October 11, 2022 7:34 pm

Such an inspiration! Thanks for sharing his story.

Satyam Singh

October 11, 2022 8:13 pm

Professor Gyaneshwar Chaubey sir is from village named sungulpur, near Chaubeypur , varanasi where I aslo live. I know about the popularity of Sir but sir never shows his any type of attitude of his popularity to the people’s. Professor sir is very kind person I have ever not seen a kind hearted person like Gyaneshwar sir in my life . Professor sir always helps needy person’s of our village areas and always ready for supporting the poor people’s .

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Dinesh Sud

October 12, 2022 9:31 am

Thanks Vikram for a very interesting article about science and a scientist. We need more such write ups than political gibberish.

Anup Ganguly

October 12, 2022 10:07 am

Congratulations Prof. Chaubey. Ur journey is very impressive & inspired. I m in Finance ( Investment Banking in Mumbai) more than 25 years. Already closely work with DNA Strat up.. I like this subject very much. Being Ramakrishna Mission, Alumni, trying to help start up & young Scientists.. Lots of great persons & students r in india is available. Only need right Guides & platform to explore.. 🙏🙏

Avinash Rasalkar

October 13, 2022 9:43 am

Prof Chaubey, is remarkable Young Scientist with the highest human values and integrity that I witnessed. “Gyan”, as we all called him back then he walked in CCMB lab back then with his ever glittering eyes, always thirsty for work and collaborate. He is a true Prodigy of Dr Lalji Singh and Dr Thangaraj work and vision that was envisioned 25 years ago. He is taking it forward with true honesty, Scientific vigour and without any bias I spite of the complex nature of the problem at hand just because of sheer chance that he was born in Varanasi makes him target of some groups crazy and falls assumptions. I am sure he has all the strength and integrity to sail through. He is a Scientist with a rare combination of values and expertise, Nation must support, collaborate and protect him and his work.

Dr.Jitendra Yadav

October 13, 2022 9:40 pm

Sir, you are really a scientist.

Published on 11, Oct 2022

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Who is Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar? The scientist after whom Elon Musk named his son

(December 8, 2023) Early this November, a conversation between billionaire Elon Musk and India's IT Minister, Rajeev Chandrasekhar at AI Safety Summit, UK, unearthed a revelation. The 52-year-old disclosed that his son with Shivon Zilis has an Indian connect. He bears the middle name "Chandrasekar," a homage to the Nobel Laureate Professor Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar. Making the revelation, Rajeev Chandrasekhar tweeted, "Look who i bumped into at #AISafetySummit at Bletchley Park, UK. @elonmusk shared that his son with @shivon has a middle name "Chandrasekhar" - named after 1983 Nobel physicist Prof S Chandrasekhar." Look who i bumped into at #AISafetySummit at Bletchley Park, UK.@elonmusk shared that his son with @shivon has a middle name "Chandrasekhar" - named after 1983 Nobel physicist Prof S Chandrasekhar pic.twitter.com/S8v0rUcl8P — Rajeev Chandrasekhar 🇮🇳 (@Rajeev_GoI) November 2, 2023 Replying to Rajeev Chandrasekhar's tweet, Shivon Zilis tweeted, "Haha, yes, that’s true. We call him Sekhar for short, but the name was chosen in honour of our children’s heritage and the amazing Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar." Indian scientist Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1983 "for his theoretical studies of the physical processes of importance to the structure and evolution of the stars." Global Indian puts the

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Replying to Rajeev Chandrasekhar's tweet, Shivon Zilis tweeted, "Haha, yes, that’s true. We call him Sekhar for short, but the name was chosen in honour of our children’s heritage and the amazing Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar."

Indian scientist Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1983 "for his theoretical studies of the physical processes of importance to the structure and evolution of the stars." Global Indian puts the spotlight on the Indian physicist.

The child prodigy

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[caption id="attachment_47310" align="aligncenter" width="689"] Subramanyam Chandrasekhar | Global Indian Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar[/caption]

This interest led him to Presidency College in 1925, where he studied physics, maths, chemistry, Sanskrit and English. While his interest in physics and maths kept going, he was also inspired by S Ramanujan who had gone to England and was counted among the world’s most distinguished mathematicians. Though he eyed mathematics honours, his father was keen that his son too becomes a civil servant. But it was Chandrasekhar's mother who backed him up and asked him to follow his heart. Chandrasekhar opted for Physics honours in order to placate his father because his paternal uncle CV Raman was a noted physicist who had won a Nobel Prize in 1930.

The discovery that led to Nobel Prize

At the age of 17, he spent a summer working in his uncle's lab but soon realised that experimental physics wasn't his calling. However, in those days he befriended one of Raman's colleagues who introduced him to the work of Arnold Sommerfeld, one among a group of theorists revolutionising the field of physics through the principles of quantum mechanics. This group also had Ralph H Folwer who helped Chandrasekhar publish his first professional paper in the Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Towards the end of his college, he was offered a scholarship from Govt of India to study in England, and in 1930, he set off sail for the University of Cambridge. It was during his voyage that the 19-year-old, while reading physics publications, came across an insight that led him to win a Nobel Prize in 1983.

Almost seven decades ago astronomers saw a white dwarf for the first time. It's a tiny, hot, and super dense leftover from a star that ran out of fuel. But something didn't add up—this object should have collapsed under its own gravity. Fowler, who was going to be Chandra's teacher for a Ph.D. at Cambridge, figured out the mystery by using quantum theory to explain why the white dwarf didn't collapse. He explained that when the nuclear energy source in the center of a star such as the Sun is exhausted, it collapses to form a white dwarf, and he demonstrated that there is an upper limit — now called the Chandrasekhar limit — to the mass of a white dwarf star.

Subramanyan Chandrasekhar | Global Indian

Moreover, up until that time scientists used to think that when a star used up all its fuel, it would become a cold ball of ashes—a white dwarf star. Chandra's math proved that a white dwarf heavier than the sun couldn't exist. Instead, it would collapse forever into an incredibly tiny point with infinite density. This collapse would create something called a black hole, a place in space where nothing, not even light, could escape. Chandra's work was the first undeniable proof, backed by math, that black holes, as we now call them, had to be real.

The controversy that changed it all

Excited about his discovery, he thought that he would be welcomed with open arms in Cambridge, however, his hoped were dashed as the scientists ignored his discovery. Depressed, he continued and finished his doctorate in 1933. The same year he also won a fellowship to continue his work at Cambridge. Feeling encouraged by these achievements, he went back to studying what happens to stars in the future. Surprisingly, the well-known Sir Arthur Stanley Eddington, a leader in astrophysics, started visiting him often to check on his progress.

Encouraged by his support, Chandrasekhar prepared a paper for a meeting of the Royal Astronomical Society in London in 1935 that was to have all the leading figures in astrophysics in attendance. He presented the paper, showing a chart that if a star was heavier than a certain amount, it would definitely shrink away to nothing and even more. However, Eddington didn't back Chandrasekhar's conclusions and even stating that it has no basis in reality. His reputation was so strong that nobody felt brave enough to disagree with him. Chandrasekhar wasn't even allowed a chance to respond. The argument continued for many years in papers and during scientific meetings.

Subramanyam Chandrasekhar | Global Indian

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Six years later, scientists identified the first black hole, named Cygnus X-1. Since then, many more black holes have been discovered. This meant that, 40 years after Chandrasekhar's first discovery, he was proven right, and Eddington was proven wrong. Chandra received the Nobel Prize in 1983 for his research on white dwarfs.

Subramanyam Chandrasekhar | Global Indian

The scientist breathed his last in 1995 and four years later, NASA's premier X-ray observatory was named the Chandra X-ray Observatory in his honour.

And now the Nobel laureate is again in news as Elon Musk has named his son after Chandrasekhar. His groundbreaking contributions to astrophysics, particularly his work on the Chandrasekhar limit, significantly advanced our understanding of stellar evolution. Musk's choice to honour this scientist underscores the enduring impact of scientific pioneers and the importance of recognising their invaluable contributions to humanity.

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Anshu Ahuja and Renee Williams: Making takeaway in London sustainable with DabbaDrop

(February 10, 2024) Dressed in a white outfit and traditional Gandhi topi, an army of about 5000 dabbawallas push through every nook and corner of Mumbai to satiate the hunger of over 200,000 Mumbaikars daily with home-cooked food for 125 years. This very lifeline of Mumbai inspired a Mumbaikar, who is now settled in London, to start DabbaDrop - London's first plastic-free, waste-free and emissions-free takeaway. In just five years, co-founders Anshu Ahuja and Renee Williams have saved 2,03,370 plastic containers and prevented 2,500 kg of food waste from going into landfills through DabbaDrop. "In the past few years, people have started ordering a lot, thanks to the arrival of food delivery apps. After having that food, we end up with a bin full of plastic. The packaging is very wasteful and greasy. You can’t recycle it. So, I wanted to find a better way to order in," the Global Indian said in an interview. [caption id="attachment_48946" align="aligncenter" width="618"] Renee Williams and Anshu Ahuja[/caption] Zero wastage takeaway Growing up in Mumbai with a Tamilian mother and a Punjabi father, food remained a big part of Anshu's life. As a teenager whenever she stepped out to try some food, she would

| Global Indian" width="618" height="392" /> Renee Williams and Anshu Ahuja[/caption]

Zero wastage takeaway

Growing up in Mumbai with a Tamilian mother and a Punjabi father, food remained a big part of Anshu's life. As a teenager whenever she stepped out to try some food, she would end up recreating the same in her kitchen upon her return. "This way I could continue to taste the flavours."

However, after moving to London and working a high-pressure job as a TV producer, she would often end up ordering food. But the options for vegetarian food were very limited and the food always arrived in plastic containers. Keen to find a better way, she quit her 15-year-long stint in TV production to start Dabba Drop. It began with her reproducing her family's recipes, packing them in reusable metal tiffin or dabbas, and delivering it by bike in the nearby areas of Hackney. She texted a handful of friends about the idea, and the first week saw six people ordering in, and later the number rose to 25. In just 18 months, DabbaDrop was feeding 300 people weekly across Hackney, Leyton and Walthamstow.

[caption id="attachment_48947" align="aligncenter" width="679"] DabbaDrop Eco-friendly delivery[/caption]

One of her first messages landed in Renee William's textbox, who was a restaurant event producer. Coming from New Zealand, she believes in nature and sustainability and instantly fell in love with the concept of DabbaDrop. "I loved the theatre of not knowing what was inside the dabba before I opened it, and the wholesome food and sustainability element really ticked all the boxes for me," Renee said in an interview. In no time, the conversations between the two turned into how to make this idea bigger and better.

Offering healthy South Asian cuisine

They work on a flexible subscription-based system that allows people to sign up weekly or fortnightly, with a set menu for every week. They curate the mains, and customers can add the sides. "We cook all our dals, curries and subzi's from scratch in our commercial kitchen, using 100% natural ingredients - vegetables, lentils, legumes, healthy fats, whole grains, nuts, and seeds. Our handmade spice mixes are made fresh every week and everything is made in small batches," reads their website. With DabbaDrop, Anshu and Renee wanted to introduce Londoners to Indian flavours and textures. "What we serve is not something that is easily available in a traditional Indian restaurant."

"Our meals are vegan and South Asian. We want to follow the journey of the curry. This way, we are uncovering the history of Indians as they emigrated across the world," added Anshu, who avoids wastage, thanks to pre-orders. The chefs cook for the exact amount of people who have ordered, as one dabba can easily serve two people.

DabbaDrop | Global Indian

The dabbas that serve meals from Japan, Vietnam, Sri Lanka, Kerala, Delhi, and Hyderabad are then mounted onto bicycles, e-bikes, and other emission-free vehicles for delivery in Zones 1-3 of London And the empty dabbas can be picked up during the next delivery. "We use everything that is reusable. We are constantly trying to improve our packaging. We want to leave a better planet for our kids," added Anshu.

Dabbadrop has more than 2,000 subscribers and delivers food all over East London. They want to grow bigger in the future. They got £500,000 in their first funding round, which made the company worth £2.7 million. "We want to change the way London does take away," said Anshu.

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The Mathemagician: Field’s Medal winner Manjul Bhargava bridges tradition and modernity

(July 6, 2024) In the summer of 1998, Manjul Bhargava's eye caught a mini Rubik's cube sitting in a corner of his room. He began visualising numbers on each of the corners and in his own words, "saw binary quadratic forms coming out, three of them." Bhargava, who was a student at Harvard University then, wrote down the relations between them and realised he had found a description of Gauss' Law (which explains how electric fields behave around charged objects). He linked it to the work of the ancient mathematician Brahmagupta, which he had read in Sanskrit as a child. It was one of Bhargava’s first major breakthroughs, which paved the way for his winning the Fields Medal in 2014. To Bhargava, Math is music, and poetry and patterns – and magic. He brings this playfulness to his lectures at Princeton too, where he became the youngest ever full mathematics professor at the age of 28. In class, he is known to use magic tricks, puzzles, toys, poetry and music, which he believes "should all form a key part of the mathematics classroom. When people see mathematics done as described above, as a playful, creative, interactive subject, they see that

eves "should all form a key part of the mathematics classroom. When people see mathematics done as described above, as a playful, creative, interactive subject, they see that it is not terrifying at all," he gushes. "It is beautiful!" Once, he even used chocolate bars to demonstrate the principles of algebra, cutting and rearranging the pieces to solve equations. This hands-on approach not only demystifies complex concepts but also infuses a sense of play and discovery into the learning process.

[caption id="attachment_48752" align="aligncenter" width="590"] Manjul Bhargava[/caption]

Apart from the Fields Medal, Bhargava's accolades include the Padma Bhushan, one of the highest civilian awards in India, and the Infosys Prize, recognizing his contributions to the mathematical sciences. He has also been elected to the National Academy of Sciences, an honor reserved for distinguished scholars in recognition of their original research.

Early life

Manjul Bhargava was born on August 8, 1974, in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, to a family deeply rooted in academia and the appreciation of classical Indian culture. His mother, Mira Bhargava, who is a Mathematics professor at Hofstra University in New York, told Quanta that his interest in Math became evident when he was a toddler. The only way to make him sit still, she said, was to ask him to add or multiply large numbers, he would do by "flipping his fingers back and forth and then give the right answer. I always wondered how he did it, but he wouldn't tell me," she said.

At the age of eight, he would stack oranges into pyramids before they went into making juice. Several months later he produced an equation to figure out a formula for the number of oranges in a pyramid. By this time, he was also attending his mother's math classes in college, even correcting her if she made an error.

[caption id="attachment_48753" align="aligncenter" width="469"] Photo: Peter Murphy[/caption]

Another big influence in his life came from his occasional trips to Jaipur to see his grandparents. His grandfather was Purushottam Lal Bhargava, a renowned scholar of Sanskrit and head of the Department of at the University of Rajasthan. Learning from his grandfather, Manjul Bhargava fell hopelessly in love with Sanskrit poetry, and found, to his total delight, that they were highly mathematical. "I also learned from my grandfather how much incredible mathematics was discovered in ancient times by scholars who considered themselves not mathematicians but poets. Linguists such as Panini, Pingala, Hemachandra and Narayana discovered some wonderful and deep mathematical concepts while studying poetry."

He found math in music too and learned to play a number of instruments although he had a special love for the tabla. He enjoyed thinking about the mathematics of the complex rhythm structures contained in Hindustani and Carnatic classical music.

University life

In 1991, Manjul Bhargava graduated from Plaineridge High School in North Massapequa, and had already been admitted to Harvard University. That was where he decided on a career in Mathematics - he had toyed with many options, including being a musician and an economist. He graduated in 1996, winning the Morgan Prize for his research. From there, he went to Princeton University with a Hertz Fellowship and worked under Sir Andrew Wiles, a Royal Society Research Fellow at the University of Oxford. By this time, he had a slew of awards to his name, including the Hertz Fellowship, the Hoopes Prize and the Morgan Prize.

In 1991, he graduated from Plaineridge High School in North Massapequa, and had already been admitted to Harvard University. He graduated in 1996, winning the Morgan Prize for his research. From there, he went to Princeton University with a Hertz Fellowship and worked under Sir Andrew Wiles. It was during his time at Princeton as a graduate student that he also solved a 200-year-old math problem.

Solving Gauss' composition law

As a child, Bhargava had read, in one of his grandfather's Sanskrit manuscripts, a theorem developed by the great mathematician, Brahmagupta, which had excited Bhargava very much at the time. Then, during his time at Princeton, he discovered the work of Carl Gauss and his composition law, which is one of the pillars of electromagnetic theory. Was there a simple way to describe Gauss' 20-page law, Bhargava wondered.

He sat with the question and one night, as he sat in his room which was "littered with mathematical toys," he looked at a mini Rubik's Cube. There are three ways to cut a Rubik's Cube in half, and each of the three forms, Bhargava found, add up to zero. He had found an elegant, more minimalist explanation of Gauss' Law, which today is known as Bhargava's Cube. That became the core of his PhD thesis at Princeton, for which he won a five-year Clay Postdoctoral Fellowship.

Making history at Princeton

Bhargava used the funding to stay on at Princeton for another year, as well as at the Institute for Advanced Study, and then moved to Harvard. He was now a very sought after mathematician and at 28, after considering a food of job offers, accepted a position at Princeton University.

In 2014, Manjul Bhargava was awarded the Fields Medal at the International Congress of Mathematicians in Seoul for "developing powerful new methods in the geometry of numbers. He applied these to count rings of small rank and to bound the average rank of elliptic curves. One year later, he was awarded the Padma Bhushan. In 2017, he became a member of the American Academy of Arts and Science and like his mentor, Sir Andrew Wiles, was conferred a Fellowship at the Royal Society in 2019.

Manjul Bhargava’s work has been described as “epoch-making,” and is widely regarded as one of the greatest mathematicians of our time. He also remains a passionate musician and occasionally trains under Ustad Zakir Hussain.

Travin Singh: The eco-entrepreneur reducing food wastage by converting it into beverages

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ersity in Australia, and a few years later, hopped onto the entrepreneur bandwagon with CRUST. He was keen to create a value-based company that could create solutions to real-world problems like food wastage and sustainability.

Travin Singh | Global Indian

How it began

The notion of reducing food wastage was ingrained in the mind of Travin as a young lad by his mother, who encouraged him to finish all the food on his plate. In case he couldn't, the leftovers were incorporated into subsequent meals. This formed the basis for Travin's CRUST, a food-based startup that converts surplus food and food scraps into beverages, thus reducing food wastage. "People have this misconception that you have to be affluent to be sustainable, which isn’t necessarily the case. We did not come from a very rich household with four kids, and therefore had to maximise our resources," he told aplus.

It began as a homebrewing project after Travin learnt that beer could be made from bread. "I wanted to start a value-based company and started dabbling in bread beer when I found out that ancient Egyptians fermented bread to make alcoholic beverages, to ensure they did not waste anything," he added. With the help of YouTube videos, he started his initial trials, and even invited a handful of friends for it, which unfortunately produced "very bad beer."

"I ground the bread up, which was the worst mistake ever. When you do that, you can’t extract enough sugar, and it messes up the taste profile. It was a disaster,” he told Singapore Global Network. Though the results were disastrous initially, it ignited a passion in him to learn more about beer making which took him to California on a month-long trip, visiting 11 breweries across Santa Rosa, San Francisco, San Diego, and Los Angeles. He lapped up as much information as he could on brewing methods and processes and returned to Singapore with a zeal to restart. He attempted home-brewing once more, this time with leftover bread from a small bakery.

[caption id="attachment_30217" align="aligncenter" width="691"] Travin Singh | Entrepreneur | Global Indian CRUST was launched in 2019[/caption]

The start of CRUST

This worked in the Global Indian's favour, and after four attempts, he created his bread beer recipe, and soon after commercialising the process, he dived into the market with the first product - Breaking Bread Ale - a velvety brew with citrus notes and a malt finish. This was the beginning of CRUST in 2019.

Soon more products were added, incorporating new ingredients like coffee grounds, pumpkin and quinoa, and kaya toast. What initially started as a brewing startup has now taken the shape of a food tech company, as CRUST expanded its horizons when it started upcycling food waste like fruit peels into functional drinks under the CROP label. Till now 2536 kg of food waste and loss has been saved by CRUST.

Making a name for themselves

In just three years, CRUST has packed quite a punch but the initial years were an uphill task as many didn’t understand the concept. "They confused food waste and food loss and thought that we were taking food that had been consumed or used by others and turning it into beer. Actually, we were taking surplus ingredients that hadn’t been used or sold. Now that we are three years in the market, more people understood what we are doing through educating them about concepts such as upcycling, and perceptions have changed," the eco-entrepreneur told Waste Today Magazine.

[caption id="attachment_30218" align="aligncenter" width="735"] Entrepreneur | Global Indian | Travin Singh Travin Singh with CRUST COO Ben P[/caption]

It began as a B2B (business-to-business) model but Covid 19 pushed CRUST to shift to the D2C (delivery-to-customer) model, which led to its delivery service and a web store from where customers could directly order their brew. "I'm a Punjabi in Singapore, which is a very small minority. I guess being from that background helped me become a lot more adaptable to different situations and scenarios," he said.

Travin has now expanded his business to Japan and plans to focus on Asia markets first before taking it to the other parts of the world. He opines, "As long as there is food waste in the world, we will always find a way to build a solution around it."

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Reading Time: 5 min

Nilu Gupta: The recipient of Pravasi Bharatiya Samman is keeping Hindi alive in California

(February 5, 2023) Hindi stands tall as one of the significant identities of India’s heritage, and Nilu Gupta, the California-based Indian-origin professor is an ardent proponent of it. As a US resident for the last 25 years she has made great initiatives to preserve Hindi amongst the diaspora and popularise it amongst both Hindi as well as non-Hindi speakers. In 2021, for her initiatives to promote the language and the Indian culture, and for her exceptional leadership to support the needy back home in India, Nilu Gupta was honoured with the highest award for non-resident Indians and overseas citizens - the Pravasi Bhartiya Samman. “I am grateful to the Government of India for recognising my efforts,” she tells Global Indian. [caption id="attachment_34724" align="aligncenter" width="639"] Professor Nilu Gupta[/caption] A well-respected member of the Indian diaspora, Nilu Gupta, the Professor of De Anza College in California is also the founder of UPMA US (Uttar Pradesh Mandal of America). It’s a leading non-profit organisation in North America to help promote and preserve the rich cultural legacy and create a platform for socio-economic growth, and charitable causes of India. The organisation has been supporting various causes in Uttar Pradesh like free education to the

wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Capture.jpg" alt="Indians in USA | Nilu Gupta | Global Indian" width="639" height="691" /> Professor Nilu Gupta[/caption]

A well-respected member of the Indian diaspora, Nilu Gupta, the Professor of De Anza College in California is also the founder of UPMA US (Uttar Pradesh Mandal of America). It’s a leading non-profit organisation in North America to help promote and preserve the rich cultural legacy and create a platform for socio-economic growth, and charitable causes of India.

The organisation has been supporting various causes in Uttar Pradesh like free education to the under-privileged children, free skill development with placement, facilitating mass marriages of poor girls and better health facilities for the needy.

From being an exporter to becoming a professor

Before she moved to California, life took Nilu Gupta from Delhi to Europe. Quite different from what she is doing now, Nilu started off her career in the business of textiles. “I have been to many countries as an importer and exporter of textiles,” she says.

After completing her Masters with a first class in Hindi from Delhi University, when Nilu got married, her husband was working as an engineer. It was Nilu’s keenness and acumen for entrepreneurship that he left his job to work with her as a business partner in their export-import venture. “I had honed my business skills watching my exporter father while growing up, and had joined him and my brothers in the family business.” she says. “After my marriage, my husband and I started our own venture,” adds Nilu.

[caption id="attachment_34727" align="aligncenter" width="689"] Indians in USA | Nilu Gupta | Global Indian Professor Nilu Gupta receives Pravasi Bharatiya Samman from DR TV Nagendra Prasad, Consul General of India, San Francisco, California[/caption]

Business took them to different parts of the world. “We stayed in Belgium and Holland for few years before deciding to set base in California,” she recalls. The couple were parents to three boys by that time.

“When the kids were young, we took turns to travel for business,” says Nilu. Once they grew up, the boys secured admission in the US universities, and later the couple moved to US too from Europe. “By that time our kids were settled there and we had wrapped up our business venture to lead a more relaxed life.”

A fresh start…

Enjoying life without much work was not Nilu’s cup of tea, and she decided to engage in something meaningful to get a sense of fulfilment once she set base in California 25 years back. During those times the western US state did not boast of a rich and large Indian diaspora like today.

In her second innings, Nilu decided to make use of her degree in Hindi and start working on promoting the language there. She was joined in her efforts by members of the India Community Centre there. She started teaching Hindi to people from the non-Hindi speaking states so that they are able to communicate in their national language.

[caption id="attachment_34717" align="aligncenter" width="762"] Indians in USA | Nilu Gupta | Global Indian Nilu Gupta at an Indian Consulate event in California[/caption]

Spreading her wings, Nilu reached out to De Anza College in the bay area of California to promote Hindi as a second language option on campus. “Students of the college had options to choose from more than a dozen foreign languages as their second language which included German, French, Spanish, Mandarin, Japanese, Korean and many more but Hindi was not part of the curriculum,” she says, adding, “Members of the India Community Centre and I wanted the national language of India to be one of the choices for students at De Anza like the languages of other nations.”

Nilu found success in getting Hindi introduced in the college and was also selected to be the professor of the subject from a list of 50 applicants. It was the year 2006. She remains a professor of Hindi at De Anza College, California.

“As per the rules, we were given the chance to introduce the language on the campus on the grounds that it would be discontinued if it fails to garner a given number of students.” Nilu did not want her efforts to go in vain.

She worked hard to make learning so simple and interesting that it appealed to learners massively. With her efforts the course took off so well that De Anza has been running not one but two batches of Hindi learners.

[caption id="attachment_34719" align="aligncenter" width="739"] Indians in USA | Nilu Gupta | Global Indian Nilu Gupta at an Indian Consulate event in California[/caption]

“Twenty-five percent of learners are those who want to learn the language even if they are not from a typical Indian family, with just one parent belonging to the diaspora. The percentage also comprises learners who are not Indians but love the country very much and plan to visit it some day or love Bollywood films so much that they want to understand the language in totality,” reveals Nilu.

“They find the classes so lively that they do not want me to take even a single day off,” says Nilu, who does not just teach the language but also introduces learners to Indian culture, its diversity and richness.

“After completing my Master’s in Hindi, there was a desire to take up teaching and that was fulfilled later in life,” smiles Professor Nilu Gupta. A great satisfaction for her in this whole endeavour is keeping pace with the times of being a teacher in this modern era. Having passed out of Delhi University in 1960 when no one had ever heard of online learning, the dynamic teacher learned to impart lessons through the online mode during the pandemic.

For the sake of Hindi

Nilu has written several elementary books with unique techniques to make Hindi learning simpler for people based in California. She has also written several books of poetry and literature.

Talking about her latest book, Vijayi Vishwa Tiranga Pyaara, Nilu mentions:

What is special about the book is that it is a compilation of poetry and prose of Indian origin people staying in 45 different countries.

[caption id="attachment_34720" align="aligncenter" width="457"] Indians in USA | Nilu Gupta | Global Indian Cover image of her latest book that Professor Nilu Gupta has co-authored with Ritupriya Khare[/caption]

Apart from teaching De Anza College students, she imparts free Hindi lessons to people in need of it. Nilu and her Hindi loving friends in California have also formed a group called Vishwa Hindi Jyoti. “We meet every month for Kavi Ghosthis (sessions of poetry),” says the poet who has written over 500 poems. One often finds her writing poetry using her smart phone. “I keep on writing as and when ideas come to my mind,” she says.

The Indian Consulate of San Francisco, California has entrusted Nilu and her Vishwa Hindi Jyoti team with the responsibility of organising significant events like Hindi Diwas (14th September) and Vishwa Hindi Diwas (10th January) since the last two decades.

“I am grateful to my team members of Viswa Hindi Jyoti for their dedication and support over the years,” she says. “It’s because of the entire team that we have been doing so well,” says the humanitarian who is in the thick of all diaspora happenings, including welcoming and hosting events for Indian delegates visiting the Consulate.

Giving back…

Nilu and her friends from the diaspora started UPMA (Uttar Pradesh Mandal of America) in 2006. Through leading organizations in India and America, the organisation has been actively working on the causes benefitting the society like free education and skill development with placement, facilitating mass marriages of poor girls and providing better health facilities to the needy in Uttar Pradesh.

[caption id="attachment_34722" align="aligncenter" width="813"] Indians in USA | Nilu Gupta | Global Indian Nilu Gupta with members of Vishwa Hindi Jyoti[/caption]

“Pravasi Bhartiya Samman that got bestowed upon me was looking at my contribution in not only the sphere of Hindi but also for my social work initiatives,” she adds. The professor is very active in charitable initiatives.

I tell people that they can call me anytime for social initiatives. I am available 24X7 for a good cause.

The philanthropist has been actively supporting a charity - SaiDham, run by her brothers in Faridabad, Haryana. Through this, Nilu and her family in India have been providing free education and food to close to 1,500 children. They have also contributed money to help poor parents marry off their daughters.

The course of life

Professor Nilu Gupta feels happy that she has played a role in a movement where people now feel proud about learning the national language of India. “Earlier people of different diasporas like Spain or Germany used to talk in their mother tongue but we Indians communicated with each other in English. Through UPMA there is a constant effort to keep Hindi and the cultural link with India alive especially amidst the Gen Z of the diaspora who are born and raised in America,” says the humanitarian who does not want youngsters to lose touch with their roots.

Indians in USA | Nilu Gupta | Global Indian

“We have created a little Bharat here and have been organising programmes to bring the Indian diaspora together to celebrate festivals and contribute to humanitarian causes. Close to 6,000 people gather during festive times to be part of garbas and other celebrations,” she mentions.

Hindi in the blood

“Hindi is in my blood because it’s my mother tongue. I don’t feel I do not live in India. In this digital world, staying connected with your country is easier,” Nilu remarks.

India is in my whole being. We might be living away from Bharat but Bharat has not gone away from us

The doting grandmother is a role model for her granddaughter. “She loves conversing with me in Hindi only,” says the proud matriarch who is happy to help young people stay in touch with their cultural legacy, so that they can take it forward for generations to come despite being born and raised in a foreign land.

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Reading Time: 7 mins