Articles by Kavita Kanan Chandra

Through the years that saw it transition from being an industrial nerve centre to the country’s best-known hub of coaching centres for all kinds of competitive and other exams, Kota has seen a lot of action. But COVID-19 has brought the city to a screeching halt. Once known for its flourishing manufacturing units, the local economy suffered a large negative ripple effect with the closure of its biggest unit JK Synthetics in 1997, which rendered 5000 people jobless. Other units like Oriental Power cables, Rajasthan metals and Samtel Group soon followed suit. With the shutdown of government-owned Instrumentation Ltd in…

The once bustling pink city’s bazaars located in the walled city area lie forlorn and quiet today. Before the COVID lockdown, locals and tourists used to throng the famous Jauhari bazaar and Bapu bazaar, drawn to it by the glitter of gems and jewellery, sparkle of embellished lac bangles and colourful bandhej (traditional tie-dye) fabrics. But hopes are high that shops and workers will be able to return, albeit slowly and painfully. The tourists who kept the city’s economy buzzing will probably not return in the foreseeable future. And locals may not have the resources, or the inclination, to spend…

It’s become the model for containment zones now being declared in many cities across the country. The Bhilwara model. A positive story of how a much-maligned district and state administration successfully contained the country’s first corona hotspot. Today, there is reason to cheer the news from Bhilwara. All the 25 COVID-19 positive cases have recovered as on April 9th. (The first positive case emerged on March 19th. Out of the total 28 infected since, two had died earlier). Though the news of a fresh positive case on April 10th came as a dampener, it is only the second case since…