Lighthouse Projects for Sustainable Development

 Diwali, the Festival of Lights and the rise of the hunter's moon from behind the Nubble Lighthouse in Maine, USA got me recalling lighthouse projects this environmental and SDG awards season. 

A lighthouse project is a small-scale, high-impact initiative designed to act as a visible example, guide, or "beacon" for broader innovation, digital transformation, or organizational change.

Beyond pilot projects, publicly recognized and nominated or awarded lighthouse projects generate a buzz and awareness about sustainable solution. Thus however limited the audience, environmental awards are great PR for sustainable solutions. The power of environmental awards such as the Earthshot Prize the the Heroes of Tomorrow goes beyond awareness, exposure and getting recognized as showcased lighthouse projects get a place at the table where decisions about funds and implementation are made. The power of strong networks. Be it access to CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) or ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) funds and their decision makers, when lighthouse projects with sustainable solutions get recognition they get better access to funds and opportunities to become scalable. 

Implementation COP: Solutions Hyperfocus

As environmental awards season gathers steam and the 31st UN Climate Summit (COP31: November 9-20, 2026) gets underway in Turkiye this first half of November it becomes important to highlight Sustainable Solutions - or at least lighthouse projects that show the effectiveness of a circular economy and sustainable development. 

As the world observes Public Transport Day, day 2 at COP31 in Antalya, November 10th is also Energy and Transport Day with the push for the stated push for its Global Electrification agenda 35X35 - 35 percent electrification by 2035. Living in a city (Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India) whose Metropolitan Transport Corporation won an urban mobility award as well as Chennai's Metro proving the case for electrified public transport and Chennai's fleet of electric buses where women get to travel for free. I experience and benefit from efficient electrified public transport. Thus a focus on energy security and transport makes for a commendable start as world leaders are to arrive at COP31 on 11/11, some fresh off the G20 meeting!

As some content creator tapping into the pulse of the public's ease of commute from Chennai to Bengaluru by Metros and train puts it - "I took a walk from Chennai to Bengaluru!" A great commendation of sustainable last mile mobility - great climate action.

Earthshot Prize 2026, Mumbai, India

This year, India's coastal financial capital, Mumbai will host the Awards ceremony of the prestigious Earthshot Prize. The event on November 17th will be streamed on Amazon Prime later in the month. Earthshot Prize 2026 will be hosted by Bollywood bigwig Karan Johar as well as featuring many popular Indian and international entertainers aimed to draw the most public attention to this environmental prize offering a million pounds to winners in five categories of efforts to Save Earth. 

There are fifteen finalists in these five categories vying for the million pound Earthshot Prize, Mumbai. In the past five of the Earthshot Prizes (2021-) this year's host nation, India, has produced 7 finalists many of whom went on to win in their categories.

2026 Earthshot Prize finalists trying to Protect and Restore Nature include the following:

• The Kingdom of Bhutan
• Australia's Indigenous Desert Alliance 
• Canada's Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative 

The finalists trying to Fix Our Climate this year include, Pula from Kenya, Orsted from Denmark and Mahila Housing Trust from India. 

In Build a Waste-Free World category the finalists are South Korea's Zero Waste Movement, PFAS-Free France and Mother Earth Foundation from The Philippines.

With Lee Jong Suk's Korean drama (Kdrama) The Remarried Empress making waves, it would be irresponsible of me not to share his screen grabs from his older kdrama Romance is a Bonus Book raising awareness about South Korea's waste problem!

In Revive Our Oceans, the finalists include USA's ZEMBA (Zero Emission Maritime Buyers Alliance), Niue Ocean Wide Trust from the South Pacific small island nation as well as the City of Barcelona, Spain. 

The following are the finalists trying to Clean Our Air: India's Mahindra Last Mile Mobility, Satellites on Fire from Argentina as well as AirQo from Uganda. 

Heroes of Tomorrow

The UN SDG Action Awards, called "Heroes of Tomorrow" was held in Italy's capital Rome on October 29, 2026. All winners and finalists as well as the powerful judges of the prizes were true examples of powerful lighthouse solutions for the SDGs as well as decision and policy makers who foster the Sustainable Development Goals. It's also a great coincidence that on International Internet Day the whole award ceremony was livestreamed reaching many interested in the efforts.

 The 2026  Heroes of Tomorrow Winners by Category are:  

• Resilience Award: Women’s Justice Initiative (Guatemala) — A legal aid and advocacy group supporting Indigenous Maya women and girls to access justice, prevent child marriage, and combat gender-based violence.

• Creativity Award: Mothers of Courage (India) — Led by Shikshaagraha (Khushboo Awasthi), this initiative mobilizes village gatherings (Shiksha Chaupals) to engage communities and secure pledges to keep girls in secondary school.

• Changemaker Award: Rokiatou Traoré (Mali) — An entrepreneur honored for her work in restoring degraded farmland and strengthening local agricultural livelihoods.

 Other UN SDG Action Awards 2026 Finalists and Honorable Mentions include  

• Resilience Finalists: Solar Bright Future (Cameroon), Young Emerging Farmers Initiative.

• Creativity Finalists: Return Water Home (Indonesia), Women for Change (South Africa).

• Changemaker Finalists: Ola Alaghbary, Taban Shoresh.

• Honorable Mention: UN Trust Fund to End Violence against Women and Girls.

BRICS Sustainable Lifestyle Week

The first week of November is BRICS Sustainable Lifestyle Week. With India having hosted the BRICS summit in these interesting times, the focus on sustainable practices ahead of COP31 is good timing. It also dovetails well with the efforts of all above mentioned winners and nominees' efforts to promote sustainable development and a sustainable world. 

There are many wonderful people, organizations and initiatives trying to solve the problems plaguing our people and planet  - let us seek and find them and implement them in our lives, communities, cities and countries!

Human Security: "ROTI, KAPADA, MAKAAN & Tea"

 What is Human Security,  beyond the textbook definition (from UNDP's 1994 Human Development Report "a people-centered framework that shifts the focus of security from the defense of state borders and military might to the protection, well-being, and dignity of individual human being." Isn't that -  Food, Clothing and Shelter (both home and environment) and emotional well-being - or as the Hindi slogan goes "Roti, Kapada, Makaan." I'd add a + here in honor of the Maslow's Hierarchy and call it "tea" both in honor of the ritual and my addiction to a good cup of chai, preferably masala chai, and the slag for drama and gossip - as in "Spill the Tea." In a way gossip and sharing juicy tidbits is a social lubricant - the entertainment hailed by leaders since the Romans to keep populations distracted. 

Ancient Roman rulers used public entertainment and free food—famously known as "panem et circenses" or bread and circuses—as a political tool to pacify the masses, prevent riots, and distract citizens from economic hardship, poverty, and corruption: "panem et circenses" Roman poet Juvenal (Satires), Mass Spectacle of the Colosseum. In the age of the Internet and disinformation this distraction is two-fold - surrendering to the external noise or internal retreat. Either joining the circus and cycles of disinformation and manipulation or distracting yourself with drama, beauty, creativity and your hobbies and self-care. Both have pros and cons but are sometimes essential to survive the madness that's our reality. 

As I write this, I am self-soothing bird-watching. A shikra, a sparrow hawk that has previously tumbled into my house (2024) has alighted on the custard apple tree (Sitaphal) near my window which is a regular haunt to hunt chameleons and little birds! Sky watching and bird watching as distraction in between drama binging that's my method in madness to survive the daily assault to our senses!

Priorities

According to the United Nations portal, it was mentioned that celebration and highlighting of causes for a special day annually or designating a year to raise awareness for a special cause is a means to emphasize the importance of that cause to the UN and the world. 

• The UN declared 2026 is both the International Year of the Woman Farmer (IYWF 2026) and the International Year of Rangelands and Pastoralists (IYRP 2026) under the aegis of the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) highlighting the centrality of food security and those providing it. 
• World Food Day - October 16, 2026  with the theme "Innovate Today, Nourish Tomorrow"
• World Habitat Day - October 5th 
• UN Day was October 24th, 81 years of the UN Charter in 2026, along with the International Day for Climate Action observed since 2009 (long before the Sustainable Development Regime Agenda 2030 of 2015 & SDG 13 - Climate Action), relatedly October 13th has been observed as the International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction since a UN General Assembly resolution way back in 1989!
•  In India we have observed, National Handloom Day on August 7th since 2015 to commemorate the Swadeshi Movement and Khadi central to the Indian Independence Movement.
• National Textile Day is observed on May 3rd and this 2025 Times of India article highlights some key priorities with regards to fabric dear to the hearts and skins of Indians.

"National Textile Day on May 3rd celebrates India's rich weaving heritage, highlighting iconic textiles like Banarasi silk, Kanjivaram silk, Chanderi, Pochampally ikat, and Pashmina. Investing in these handcrafted pieces supports artisans and preserves traditional skills. These textiles offer timeless style and cultural significance, making them valuable additions to any wardrobe."

 Arundhati Roy's An Ordinary Person's Guide to Empire in multiple essays emphasized the need to cover the struggles of daily life - peace times - like media covers wars and spectacles - a "peace correspondent"  

Sustainable Development Simplified

I like the virtuous circle this "Give a Shift About Nature post highlights reversing the vicious cycles of poverty leading to crime, emphasizing that you can reduce crimes by reducing poverty. 

Perhaps this is the prescription and policy our governments should prioritize to survive the near apocalypse that's our daily reality as the Doomsday Clock moves inexorably towards midnight (moved up to 85 seconds to midnight on January 27th, 2026, closest to doom since its debut 80 years ago) and doom!

Of Indian Wildlife & Nobel Women

 The first fortnight of October has many interrelated international and national observances and fall festivities.

1st to 7th October 2026 is Indian National Wildlife Week. The year's Nobel Prize winners for the six categories were announced in the  weekdays of Nobel Prize Announcement Week: October 5th-12th, 2026. This year the Nobel Prize went to two women in two categories thus adding two Nobel Women to ten Nobel Laureates this year. 

 

This is also Navratri/Dusshera season celebrating the power of the Divine Feminine - Goddesses of the Hindu Pantheon and the victory of Good over Evil. The trinity of goddesses Goddess of Power, Parvati, Goddess of Wealth and Luck, Lakshmi and the Goddess of Wisdom, Knowledge and Eloquence, Saraswati, are worshipped in turn every three days (3X3) over the nine days of festivities and they a re worshipped in combination the warrior Goddess Durga a combination of Power, Luck and Strategy used to destroy injustice truly resonates with the Nobel Women of 2026 and all the Nobel Women who came before. 

The festival of Dusshera is a celebration of victory of Good over Evil, Divine Justice if you will, both the context of the Supreme Warrior Goddess Durga killing the shapeshifting  near immortal buffalo demon Mahishasur as well as the killing of the 10-headed Demon King of Lanka Raavan by the exiled Gangetic plains prince, Ram - an avatar of the Divine Protector Lord Vishnu of the Divine Trinity of Gods atop the Hindu Pantheon - in the climax of the Divine Play recited in the epic poem Ramayana: the rescue of his kidnapped wife Sita from the Demon King. 

 

Indigenous People's Day (October 12th), International Day of Rural Women (October 15th) and World Food Day (October 16th); World Migratory Bird Day and Mental Health Day (October 10th, 2026: 10/10/2026) are all important international, US and UN-led observances during the first part of the month. 

The 80th Indian Foreign Service Day (IFS Day, 9 October 1946) coincided with the 100th Hangeul Day - centennial celebrations of the national holiday across the Korean peninsula in honor of  580 years of the Hangul script of Korea established by the Korean King Sejong to replace complex Chinese characters (Hanja) accessible only to the elite thus ensuring almost universal literacy in Korea as of 1446! 

Diplomacy, literacy, mental health, power and innovations are all vital for success just as much as a resilient natural world, environment and a ecosystem that supports life and livelihoods is essential for all our survival. 

Indian Wildlife Comeback

In time for Indian National Wildlife Week, the need for local communities and government to work together to successfully protect the environment and its flora and fauna was emphasized in The Hindu op-ed by  UN Environment Programme (UNEP) awarded and recognized Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer Supriya Sahu, who is currently additional chief secretary of the Environment, Climate Change and Forests department of my home state, the South Indian state of Tamil Nadu.

Source: The Hindu

Many endangered species have made a comeback slowly and surely because of community level participation in the conservation of them. It's a win-win for people and planet!

As an avid bird-watcher living near wetlands and water bodies that attract many birds and migratory birds my mental health gets a boost from the avian visitors and their birdsong. Bird song is believed to lower cortisol levels thus reduce stress and the feeling of awe - which is evoked by the miracle of nature heals mind, body and soul. Thus nature conservation and biodiversity preservation doesn't just create avenues for eco-tourism and income streams from revived natural habitats but actually directly heals humans and human psyche. 

The theme of this year's world migratory bird day in honor of the 60th Anniversary of  International Waterbird Census is "Every Bird Counts: Your Observations Matter!" The words and sentiment is "birdsong" to a birdwatcher's soul. Add to this the recurring coincidence of World Mental Health Day and World Migratory Bird Day annually on the spectacular date of 10/10  (October 10th) is perfect. Travel and nature watching does wonders for mental health!

Nobel Women of 2026

 This year on 10th December, Human Rights Day, there will be a Nobel Woman in both Oslo and Stockholm receiving Nobel Prizes. Canadian classicist Anne Carson will receive the 2026 Nobel Prize for Literature - a woman among eight male Nobel Laureates sharing the 2026 Nobel Prizes for Medicine, Physics, Chemistry and Economics in Stockholm, Sweden. While South African of Tamil origin celebrated jurist Navi Pillay will shine alone in Oslo, Norway and receive the Nobel Peace Prize 2026.

Gender Equality in world-shaping is still not a reality recognized by the prestigious Nobel Prize awarding committees! 

Meanwhile we celebrate the wins and establish links. I love that the Nobel Prize for Literature this year goes to a Classics Professor - Anne Carson's public funded national and international education in the Greek Classics was foundation on which she made her soul work (meraki) innovating in the field of  Literary Arts.

Meanwhile the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Navi Pillay overcame poverty as well as racial and gender discrimination by harnessing the power of knowledge and law to become a world shaking jurist whose work and public life is a testament to the causes of the Sustainable Development Goals especially SDG 16 - Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions as well as SDG 5 - Gender Equality.

Not just a lawyer and jurist of international crimes tribunals Navi Pillay also co-founded the international women's rights organization Equality Now in 1992, long before Hillary Clinton's famous words as First Lady of the United States in 1995 at Beijing from her "Power of Women" speech, with the iconic "Women's Rights are Human Rights" line.

Thus, its heartening for me that on Human Rights Day 2026 - 10th December 2026 - Navi Pillay will be the single star of the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony in Oslo. And the fact that Navi Pillay has ancestral roots in my home state of Tamil Nadu is the cherry on top! The fact that the Peace Prize was announced on October 9th the IFS day was a superb cosmic coincidence. 

Source: Times of India 

While it has repeatedly been proved that proximity to power is not power, influence and experience still is world changing. Young African woman and former UN worker Yasmina Bensimane shared this in a powerful substack. 

...that real power, the kind that actually moves things and actually resources people, actually creates conditions for different outcomes, is almost always connected to money and to the control of resources. 

            ... 

The stated agenda is always something like sustainable development, gender equality or climate justice. The real agenda, the one that never gets written into the communiqué and never gets discussed in the plenary session, is maintaining the relationships, the financing structures and the institutional arrangements that make the whole machinery possible.

those rooms actually run on, which is an enormous amount of unpaid and underpaid labour from exactly the kind of young, talented, passionate people who are most drawn to the mission

These “UN influencers” have become an extension of the abusive, colonial, patriarchal and exploitative system. 

Her words expose the power divide and invisible labor of women and young people in international organizations and corridors of power. Yet it reinforces the subtle influence of art, knowledge and people of influence - especially Nobel Prize Winners and Nobel Women. 

It bears repeating, Literature does not change the world but it changes the people who can change the world. It reminds me of the fact that V.D. Satheesan the Chief Minister of "God's Own Country" the South Indian state of Keralam, the first state to achieve universal literacy sharing that his decision and policy to establish a Maritime Museum in Keralam was influenced by the work of author Amitav Ghosh - The Nutmeg Curse, that breaks down the colonial context of the quest for the spice among other things!

Good Health [& Health Care] is Wealth

 The popular saying goes "Health is Wealth," but in today's world we can say that Good Health and Well-Being makes for personal wealth while Good Health Care Builds National Wealth and  is the basis for Sustainable Development. 

Source: Art from 2011 Sunshine Millennium Brochure showing a solar powered model village with access to affordable health care , clean water &  energy 

(SDG 3; SDG 5 Gender Equality, SDG 6 Clean Water and Sanitation; SDG 7 Access to Affordable and Clean Energy, SDG 11 Sustainable Community) 

Hence the third sustainable development goal (SDG 3) Good Health and Well-Being is a major development indicator and driver of development especially sustainable development. Infant and maternal mortality rates have long been key development indicators but post-pandemic access to affordable and quality health care, overall population morbidity and mortality, mental health services and access to counseling, metabolic and lifestyle diseases, especially diabetes, bone and joint health, eye health, stroke risk, cardiac and renal (heart and kidney) health and infectious diseases have been put front and center in health management. 

A news article from Times of India from yesterday (September 28, 2026) indicated that more working age men (16-64 years) from across India (~60.6%) but especially in Tamil Nadu (~86%) are dying than ever before. The cause includes poor lifestyles, undiagnosed metabolic conditions such as cardiac and kidney disease as well as road accidents, substance abuse, etc. 

Meanwhile Indian women survive "working age" but overall Indians women's life expectancy (73-4-73.9 years) and quality of life and health is not ideal. Women neglect their health because they know there's no one to care for them and their family if they are admitted for treatment. They suffer through and ignore their symptoms till collapse, always busy with the invisible load of family caregiving. No surprise then that blood pressure and heart attack are deemed "silent killers" in women across board and patients from poorer sections of society without access to health care - the conditions go undiagnosed till they kill!

Well-Being

Our health is always imperiled in a world where food adulteration abounds; where we breathe polluted air, drink water made potable through reverse osmosis that removes vital minerals and nutrients along with pollutants and toxicity; where one health emergency and hospitalization can impoverish patients and their families when there is access to health care or without access to health care lead to death and disability. Health insurance exists in many forms in India - rural and urban - but overall medical emergencies in India mean huge out of pocket expenses that break household budgets 

But all is not bleak. Many "Health Innovations" abound that enable affordable and quality "Last Mile Health" including a great international NGO with the same name enabling health care in remote, rural and impoverished areas across the globe. 

Health influencers on social media, health counsellors as well as virtual mental health counselling services, medical and lifestyle management apps, tele-medicine (e.g., Telemedicine Society of India) and Artificial Intelligence - Machine Learning (AI-ML) Clinics are also proliferating enabling remote access to quality health care. 

There are many success stories from  Pinky Promise, "India's first AI-enable digital and physical women's clinic" including one shared by my friend on LinkedIn. In a world where, even when women eventually go for a health consultation their condition is diagnosed as either stress, perimenopause, PCOS or weight related (the modern equivalent to the all-encompassing hysteria diagnosis of the Victorian Age), doctors and AI-ML clinics that listen and map women's symptoms and cure them is a true marvel and miracle worth appreciating and applauding. 

How a Medical Emergency Impoverishes

Paying out of pocket during medical emergencies keeps the less well-to-do and uninsured parts of the population trapped in cycles of poverty. A recent NITI Aayog blog post outlines how a medical emergency in a poor family - a child's health care - keeps a vast majority of Indians trapped in poverty: 

• High OOPE (Out of Pocket Expenses)
• Loss of Household Income
• Hardship Selling or Borrowing Using Assets 
• Debt Trap
• Medical Disability, Job Loss & Loss of Income 
• High Costs of Medicines Taken Daily 

Talking Medical Tourism 

All said and done in urban India medical services and access to quality and affordable health care is better than in many developed countries. This demographic and medical advantage has inadvertently led to a proliferation of Medical Tourists to India. With World Tourism Day falling on September 27th annually and it make sense to mention the prevalence of Medical Tourism especially in India. This Firstpost report explains the Indian medical advantage clearly. 

Rise of Health Influencers

In a world of misinformation and busy doctors and health workers with endless patients and paperwork the new voice of authority is the social media health influencer. 

Doctors have less than five minutes face time with most out-patients (those not admitted, who come for a consultation). The gap in care and hand holding which used to be filled by  fitbits, "googling symptoms" and "Asking Alexa" is now dominated by social media's medical influencers, lifestyle influences, traditional medicine influencers as well as nutrition influencers and generally health influencers - qualified and unqualified - who communicate well as capture an audience worried about symptoms a busy medical practitioner ignores in person!

Care Workers 

India's demographic dividend is apparent in the booming numbers of health care workers much in demand across urban India and around the world. With the world population aging rapidly as well as climate change and uncertain local economies making migration from rural to urban and India to the world inevitable, health care workers and senior care workers are growing fields of employment in labor rich India with millions living below the poverty line looking for a way out. 

With many Indians working and settled abroad with aging parents still in India, there is a huge boom in assisted living facilities for  senior citizens. Instead of training just nurses who require college degrees and registrations, These institutions also recruit and train health care workers in masses. Many Corporate Social Responsibility projects and Church charities are training  high school graduates in rural India as nursing aids, rural health care workers, senior care assistants, health care worker as well as nurses. Demand for them is enormous and for now this is a booming field of vocational training with employment guarantee. India has long exported trained and efficient nurses all over the world - more than the many Indian doctors who emigrate. Now the next labor export are all kinds of health care workers. 

Honoring Teachers

 September honors teachers in India and China in various ways. While World Teacher's Day is observed on October 5th annually, this September observance in parts of Asia coincides with "Back To School" - "First Day of School" traditions of a new academic year in United States of America and the United Kingdom. There are also coincidences with the American and Canadian Labor Day - the first Monday of September that marks the end of "Summer" / "Vacation season" calculated from May Day to Labor Day!

A good teacher is fundamental to the quality of education. The fourth Sustainable Development Goal (SDG4) is quality education. As vital and intrinsic as the second Millennium Development Goal (MDG 2) -  Achieve Universal Primary  Education by 2015. 

As Aristotle put it, 

"Give me a child until he is 7  and I will show you the foundations of the man."

SDG 4 

                             Millennium Development Goal MDG 2: Achieve Universal Primary Education by 2015.

 

Parents who can afford it pay a stiff fees to ensure quality education throughout their child's school years to ensure a good future, yet teacher pay and teacher recruitments have stagnated. 

In China, Teacher's Day has been observed on September 10th since 1985. Gift giving and honoring teachers is quite common as a teacher, especially in rural regions change lives of their students. 

India - National Teachers Day - September 5th

Dr. S. Radhakrishnan the second president of India who  assumed office in 1962 called for the celebration of teachers when this celebrated teacher's students wanted to celebrate his presidency. India has long had a reverence of teachers - putting the "Guru" even ahead of "God" though second to parents in the recommended hierarchy:

"Mata, Pita, Guru, Deivam" [Mother, Father, Teacher, God] 

India's Guru-Sishya [Teacher-Student] Tradition and residential learning at Gurukuls - the homes of teachers - is entrenched in myths and traditions thus centering the power and influence of teachers. 

Teacher's day in India also coincides with the rising of the Canopus star - the second brightest star in the night sky in the southern skies. Canopus is believed to represent the Vedic Sage Agastya - truly a teacher if teachers - in Hindu tradition. 

"Ancient Indian astronomers named the star Canopus after Sage Agastya because its rising in the southern sky historically coincided with the calming of the stormy monsoon waters of the Indian Ocean. The star is referred to in texts like the Brihat Samhita as Tirthakara or the cleanser of waters, signifying that waters become clear and calm for safe maritime travel and agricultural ease."

Agastya, the God of Wisdom & River Kaveri 

In addition to the honoring of teachers and the rising of the post-monsoon star, September in the subcontinent celebrates the Elephant Headed God of  Wisdom and remover of obstacles Lord Ganesha, who himself has a entertaining myth with Sage Agastya regarding the origin of the River Kaveri, the life line and life force of the Southern Indian States of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. Lord Ganesha took the form of  acrow and freed the river goddess when the sage set his water vessel with the river goddess he had obtained as boon from Lord Shiva to address the drought in the subcontinent. Thus the wise remover of hurdles decided where this mighty southern river started. 

Lord Ganesha also broke off his tusk in Hindu mythology to transcribe the Hindu Epic The Mahabharata - as narrated by the Sage Vyas. It must be noted that the famous guide to Hindu "dharmic-kaarmic" [moral duty & universal  law] life the Bhagwad Gita itself is centered in this civilizational epic poem. This then positions the God who gave us the Bhagwad Gita  as the ultimate teacher: That's Lord Krishna an avatar of the Protector God Vishnu of the Divine Trinity (Creator-Protector-Destroyer) atop the Hindu Pantheon, whose very challenging birth is also celebrated in September (September 4, 2026).

The ultimate teacher - Krishna and the Bhagwad Gita

Synopsis of Lessons from the Bhagwad Gita

Thus the beginning of September as the South West Monsoon clears in the subcontinent and Autumn begins across the world, we honor the Teacher - the Guru - in many forms. 

Living in troubled times, besieged by crisis after crisis (or as Shakespeare puts it in Hamlet's famous soliloquy  "...The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune"), finding shelter in teachers and their teachings - in foundation and faith we can access  our creativity and optimism to live through these times. To choose to be!

Putting a Price to Happiness

 After reading a LinkedIn Post about the "Price of Happiness" I began thinking this through.

What is happiness? 

According to the Merriam Webster's Dictionary:

Happiness is an emotional and mental state of well-being, characterized by positive emotions ranging from contentment to intense joy. 

More analytically happiness has its foundation in emotional state, life satisfaction and a sense of purpose. Thus intrinsically tied to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), especially SDG 3 - Good Health and Well Being. 

The post about the Remitly report "Global Cost of Happiness" and a 2018 Purdue University study point to a price point per country for well-being. I had strong recall of the poignant and en point Mastercard commercials of the late 1900s ;) I feel no one before AI and social media algorithms could assess the pulse of the masses (read consumers) like ad agencies. 

There were many resonances in other indices. 

Hierarchy of Needs

Source: Bite-sized Learning

I fell down the rabbit hole of looking up the Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs as well as looking into the well-known World Happiness Report 2026 by the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network and its echoes and resonances in the Corruption Perceptions Index 2026 of Transparency International (TI) as well as the progress on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs Report 2026 - SDG Indicators). 

But I kept coming back to the succinct summaries of the Mastercard Ads. 

Mastercard Ad "Priceless" - Parents (India)

Happiness Echoes in Other Indices 

The UN Sustainable Development Goals Report 2026 and more TI's Corruption Perceptions Index echo a lot of what is deduced from Remitly's Global Cost of Happiness and the World Happiness Report. 

The resonances become clearer in the Visual Capitalist rendering of where happy people live (Global Happiness by Population, visualization of the World Happiness Report) and mapping of the world's most and least corrupt countries (visualization of the Corruption Perceptions Index).

Emergencies notwithstanding having "FU Money" reserves gives people options, time an power. In a way the financial cushion paved the way for happiness not desperation. The power to walk away is very empowering to the human psyche. Money flows within the community instead of austerity and outflows also improve quality of life  and livelihoods thus making people happy.

Mastercard Ad. 1997 - Baseball (USA)

Friendship, Community, Social Safety Nets 

Research over the years has lined happiness to not just the self but also the community.

 Friendships and family, community - the village it took to raise a child - is now needed to counter the creeping loneliness epidemic.

 This has been clinically researched and chronicled in the 2023 paper by Korean researchers "The relative importance of friendship to happiness increases with age." 

Female friendships have repeatedly shown to improve the state of mind and health of girls and women of all ages. In a world where suppressed feminine rage results in increased instances of autoimmune conditions in women and girls friendships are life saving beyond and because of the joy they give. 

Benjamin Radcliff a professor of political science at the University of Notre Dame way back in 2013 in his book The Political Economy of Human Happiness emphasized the importance of the social safety net in the pursuit of happiness.

 The third space as well as a vibrant community free of austerity and money outflows make for happy people and places. IMF and World Bank mandated austerity make for poorer and unhappy communities concentrating wealth in the wrong places where it doesn't empower people, places and communities. The Great Good Place by Ray Oldenburg, a seminal book from 1999 centering "cafes, coffee shops, bookstores, bars, hair salons and other hangouts at the heart of the community" emphasize the connection between well-being and the third space. The 2009 blog piece "Happy Places, Third Places" from Psychology Today, emphasizes and summarizes the takeaways from the book. 

Green spaces, blue spaces - a connection with nature help to make people happier and healthier. 

Places of faith and community festivals add to happiness as much as they add to invisible labor but remain deeply connected to a sense of community and well-being. 

What do you think makes you happy?

What do you think will make your community happier?

What will it take to make your country happier?

Food for thought on this the day of the God who is the remover of obstacles (Maha Sankathara Chaturthi - celebrating the Hindu elephant headed god of knowledge, beginnings and solutions),  As we think about the road to happiness here's hoping he and our guardian angels remove the hurdles on this path!

Sustainable City: Madras that was, Chennai that is!

 As mentioned in previous posts, August 22nd is observed as Madras Day and in 2026 my city - Madras that was and Chennai that is - celebrates its 387th day based on an approximation of a 22nd July/August 1639 land grant. Though as many city historians including V. Sriram puts it, the references to Madrasapattinam and various locales/villages of our city are many millennia old.

 

Madras Day is something I regularly post about for over 12 years now and I have been privileged to  participate in multiple Madras Heritage events including a sail in Chennai Harbour after a Heritage tour of it conducted by the Royal Madras Yacht Club. In 2018 and 2019 I posted on LinkedIn too about the indomitable Spirit of Chennai and its blue-green spaces. In 2020 during the pandemic and the subsequent Lockdown, Earth Overshoot Day coincided with Madras Day and I posted about it in this blog!

Climate Resilient Chennai 

As mentioned in my post on this blog about Tackling the Monsoon Mayhem, a lot of effort has been put to make Chennai a model Sustainable City. 

This includes among many others mainstreaming the 3-30-300 rule put forth by forestry expert Cecil Konijinendijk in the city - 3 trees in view, 30 percent green cover/canopy and no more than 300 metres from a green space or park! A city with a robust Climate Action Plan and Heat Action Plans with efforts to revitalize mangroves in fishbone canals as well as free up through bio-mining the city's ultimate sponge the Pallikarnai Marsh, which became a landfill - a massive garbage dump yard - instead of the flood guard that it was! Lake and temple pond restoration is another initiative to make Chennai flood-drought and heat resistant and basically climate resilient.

After decades of flood-drought cycles and cyclone rife Northeast Monsoon and being groundwater stressed with regular fears of running out of drinking water for the Greater Chennai's population and overdrawing the water table in order to compensate making the city vulnerable to earthquakes, the decades of mandated rainwater harvesting and more recent storm water and grey water recycling recharging the Buckingham canal at the edge of city limits where the iconic East Coast Road (ECR) and Old Mahabalipuram Road (OMR - now the IT Expressway within city limits) converge are all helping with ensuring water security. 

The traditional eri (ஏரி) system of  interconnected lakes and water tanks ensured water security and safety from floods. The encroachment of these by buildings and garbage dumping has been a major reason for the city's increased vulnerabilities to climate change exacerbated extreme weather and natural disasters. 

Award-Winning Sustainable Transport & This City

Though now disrupted by traffic made worse by the Chennai Metro construction, the city has always had ace public transport and connectivity. Digital ticketing, public transport reach and the Metro have secured multiple awards for Chennai in urban mobility (Global Sustainable Urban Mobility Project of the Year 2025 at the GEEF Global Sustainability Summit in New Delhi, November 2025). The metropolitan transport corporation's (MTC) buses, super charged with the EV and AC bus fleet as well as free travel in "white board" buses for women connect citywide. The Chennai Metro and the Local Electric Train (MRTS - "Parakkum Rail") are award-winning sustainable mobility transporting tens of thousands across the length and breath of the city. 

Efforts have been made to make the city more pedestrian friendly as well as disabled friendly though the efforts remain localized to posher areas and tourist hubs. But every step forward is a win when overall the world and India is becoming the domain of the car rather than that of the pedestrian, Supreme Court of India ruling notwithstanding ("Right To Walk" - The SC's Footpath Judgement). 

The Beginnings of Madras

This past year I have been reading and re-reading a unique her-story - A Woman of No Consequence:  Memory, Letters and Resistance in Madras by Kalpana Karunakaran that has given great insights into the city's past and the status of some of its women! 

Chennai Live has been curating some great content about the city's history for a while now all highlighted during Madras Week. 

The Scottish Connection: Artist Katherine Read 

A recent episode of the BBC programme Fake or Fortune (season 14, episode 2) highlighted the international Art World intertwined with Madras and Chennai's past and present. Chennai's very own Ashvita's Ashvin E. Rajagopalan, Art consultant extraordinaire and curator of Mumbai's Piramal Museum of Art was called in to find the origins of a painting by celebrated and pioneering Scottish woman artist Katherine Read's commissions while in Chennai which led to the Nawab of Arcot's family the Madras Court and expatriate community in the city centre - Chepauk Palace, Fort Museum and Katherine Read and others sailing into the Madras beach long before the Madras Harbour was constructed. 

The history lives on just beneath the surface of this cosmopolitan metro with a small town heart that reveals itself in charming anecdotes, art, culture and heritage. 

Namma Chennai

Ancient and modern coexist, multiple ecosystems and ethnicities coexist in this coastal marshland of a city of Ancient Shrines and IT Expressway. Ancient texts refer to "Kovalam, Neerlagandapuram/Thiruneelagandapuram, Mahabalipuram, Kancheepuram and Madarasapattinam" just as much as the many social media weather forecasters of the city call KTCC (Kanchipuram, Tiruvallur, Chennai, Chengalpattu).

Events line up to celebrate the heritage and culture of Chennai that is and Madras that was long after August, Madras Week and Madras Day 2026, but for residents, citizens and natives of Namma Chennai - Singara Chennai [Our Chennai - Beautiful Chennai] appreciation and love for the city, its spirit and culture, is forever. Beyond UNESCO recognized Margazhi-Kutchery music season and tourist traps our vibrant city shines in the everyday conveniences for its residents. We are privileged but there is also a lot more to do to make our city sustainable, resident friendly and climate resilient.   

 

Independence at 80

 August is a busy month the world over but especially in India.

This year in the lead up to our 80th Independence Day and 387th Madras Day (Founded: 22 Aug 1639). There are other natural and international landmarks to keep in mind which in turn shape the definition of Independence in the AI, information and internet age that is the 21st century. 

Friendship 

India celebrates the first Sunday of August as Friendship Day, while the UN observes it on July 30th, which this year was Earth Overshoot Day.

Friends they say are the family we choose and a good friend can make us better while a bad friend can ruin us. In geo-strategy and geo-politics that shape International Relations, friends matter. Be it Chanakya's Arthashastra, Machiavelli or Sun Tzu's Art of War, a nation's friends matter. In the interesting times we live in India's international influence, allies and influence are a key component of its development in 80 years of independence and millennia of civilizational centrality.

Under the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) the progress of the SDGs is also dependent on cooperation between nations, institutions and individuals - SDG 17 - Partnerships for the Goals 

Natural Resources that Need Protection

In August we observe International Marine Fish Day (Aug. 6th), Indigenous Peoples (August 9th) & World Lion Day (August 10, 2026) all in the first ten days of the month. 

By supporting, empowering and protecting these initiatives and keeping in mind the  significance year round, we can ensure that Life on Land (SDG 15) and Life Below Water (SDG 14) thrives among others. 

Empowering Indigenous People ensures multiple SDG wins.

  Conservation is built into the culture of indigenous peoples and communities that choose to honor their connection with Mother Earth and nature

Ensuring that marine fish thrive requires that our oceans are healthy which again boosts multiple SDGs. 

The Lion, like all wild cats, is an apex predator and healthy lion population are indicators of its thriving ecosystem. Protecting lions, increasing their habitat and prey by ensuring thriving, forests, grasslands and mangroves without human and industrial encroachment is a win-win for us all. As the Apex Predator, the lion thrives in a healthy ecosystem with minimal man-animal conflict and instead harnessing their presence to build local community stakeholdership in their success means growing sustainable tourism, and economic growth by creating new income streams. Thus ensuring sustainable communities living in areas with thriving forests and lions benefit from forest and predator health. 

Thus the news that Asiatic Lions have been spotted in Gujarat's mangroves in Amreli district is cause for celebration as it is an indicator of the mangroves thriving. 

Swadeshi & Swaraj: Handloom & Independence 

National Handloom Day is observed on August 7th in India. To honor the Swadeshi Movement that launched in Calcutta on 7 August 1905, National Handloom Day is observed across India. Textiles, especially hand woven natural fabric are woven into the fabric of Indian society just as much as the Khadi is woven into the Indian Independence Movement. 

Source: Press Information Bureau (PIB) of Government of India

The standard Indian Flag is made from Khadi fabric. 

Thus the days observed in the first third of August echo what one values about India's Independence 80 years on. As we move towards the Viksit Bharat (Developed India) with Atmanirbhar Bharat (Self-Reliant India) at its core, we need to ensure that our development embraces concepts of Sustainable Development and the Circular Economy. Also in our quest to become a developed nation the easy and moral method is to ensure that our most vulnerable and marginalized populations are empowered and mainstreamed in the roadmap to development:

 Reduced Inequalities, Climate Action and ensuring our air, water, soil and environment thrives so that life thrives are hallmarks and the gold standard of an Empowered and Independent, Model Developed Nation.