Ananya Chakravarti

Aug 31, 2023 | caravanmagazine.in | Ananya Chakravarti

Around 2006, the Adventurers and Explorers Society of Delhi and the ministry of external affairs organised an expedition to follow the trail of a fifteenth-century Russian merchant, Afanasii Nikitin, who had travelled to India from his hometown of Tver, on the Volga River. It was a remarkable project of state-supported historical education and people-to-people diplomacy. On its return to India, the expedition visited the tiny town of Aland, in present day Karnataka.

Feb 16, 2023 | theconversation.com | Nehal El-Hadi |Daniel Merino |Ananya Chakravarti |Julianne Holt-Lunstad |Kate Siobhan Mulligan

Social isolation and loneliness are increasingly becoming societal problems, as they contribute to polarization and affect our physical health. Mental health professionals, community advocates and health-care providers have been raising the alarm about this impending crisis. The pandemic may have exacerbated social isolation and the subsequent feelings of loneliness, but it did not invent it. In 2018, two years before the pandemic, the United Kingdom created a ministerial portfolio for loneliness.