Books · 2023–2027
Each one begins as a document trail — court filings, factory records, shareholding disclosures, archives — and ends as a story about who paid for it.
01 · Published February 2023 · Pan Macmillan
How a Global Corporation Poisoned Kodaikanal
A thermometer factory operated for years in a hill station in Tamil Nadu. When its waste practices came to light, state authorities found the company had breached the accepted rules for toxic waste disposal, harming workers and the surrounding ecosystem. Ex-employees, local groups and Greenpeace fought a fifteen-year campaign that ended in an undisclosed settlement for around 600 former workers. 290 tonnes of mercury waste was eventually shipped back to the United States. Scientific testing later put mercury levels at the site far above the safe limit.
Shahul tracked the case for two decades, first as a campaigner and then as a reporter.
Book of the Year 2024 · Green Literature Festival Longlisted · Tata Literature Live! 2023
02 · Published August 2025 · Pan Macmillan
How Immunisation Shaped India
For the first time in a single volume, India’s vaccine journey from the 1800s to the present: the arrival of smallpox vaccination, the institutes that were built around it, the campaigns that reached villages before roads did, the resistance they met, and the manufacturing base that ended up supplying much of the world.
A history of a country told through what it chose to inject into its citizens, and who decided.
How Big Finance is Destroying India’s Healthcare
Western private equity firms, institutional investors, pension funds and reinsurers have taken controlling positions across India’s healthcare system — hospital chains, pharmaceutical companies, diagnostics networks, medical device makers and health insurers.
The book follows the money through each of those segments, with case studies of specific acquisitions and what happened to pricing and access afterwards. It examines who now sets insurance terms and claim rules, how lobbying shapes health policy, and what it means for a country where most people still pay for care out of pocket. It closes with what India could do about it.
04 · Forthcoming 2027 · HarperCollins
An investigation into a hidden nexus in climate change in India. In progress.
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