A chip in the head
Elon Musk’s company Neuralink demoed a chip-sized brain implant that could help humans do much more. Here’s why I want one
Charles Assisi
Co-founder and Director
Founding Fuel
Charles Assisi is an award-winning journalist with two decades of experience to back him. He is co-founder and director at Founding Fuel, and co-author of the book The Aadhaar Effect. He is a columnist for Hindustan Times, one of India's most influential English newspaper. He is vocal in his views on journalism and what shape it ought to take in India. He speaks on the theme at various forums and is often invited by various organizations to teach their teams how to write.
In his last assignment, he wore two hats: That of Managing Editor at Forbes India and Editor at ForbesLife India. As part of the leadership team, his mandate was to create a distinctive business title in a market many thought was saturated. When Forbes India was finally launched after much brainstorming and thinking through, it broke through the ranks and got to be recognized as the most influential business magazine in the country. He did much the same thing with ForbesLife India where he broke from convention and launched the title to critical acclaim.
Before that, he was National Technology Editor and National Business Editor at the Times of India, during the great newspaper wars of 2005. He was part of the team that ensured Times of India maintained top dog status in Mumbai on the face of assaults by DNA and Hindustan Times.
His first big gig came in his late twenties when German media house Vogel Burda marked its India debut with CHIP a wildly popular technology magazine. He was appointed Editor and given a free run to create what he wanted. During this stint, he worked and interacted with all of Vogel Burda's various newsrooms across Europe and Asia.
Charles holds a Masters in Economics from Mumbai Universtity and an MBA in Finance. Along the way he earned the Madhu Valluri Award for Excellence in Journalism and the Polestar Award for Excellence in Business Journalism.
In his spare time, he reads voraciously across the board, but is biased towards psychology and the social sciences. He dabbles in various things that catch his fancy at various points. But as fancies go, many evaporate as often as they fall on him.
My contributions
106 articles written
A brief history of the internet in India
It’s the 25th anniversary of Videsh Sanchar Nigam Limited (VSNL) launching the first publicly available internet service in India. Charles Assisi recounts his early experience with the technology that killed distance and democratised knowledge
The mascara effect
During a recession, people go out of their way to look good. It may seem counter-intuitive. But it is to retain a semblance of normalcy and that is why sales of lipsticks boom. But things are different now
When uncertainty and anxiety come calling
People respond to negative stimuli in their own way. What does it take to ignore the negativity and find a workaround for the stress?
The ultimate guide to good journalism
There is content, content and more content. But there is only so much you need
What employers don’t know about employee monitoring
Monitoring people at work from home is something employers are thinking about. But what about the economic costs, technical issues, legal implications and ethical aspects?
WFH: An unbalancing act (Or, I am distracted!)
The whole family is at home. I’m bombarded with calls all day. There’s housework too. I can’t find quiet corner to hunker down and focus
‘The value of technology is in solving meaningful human problems’
In this podcast Scott Hartley, bestselling author of ‘The Fuzzy and the Techie’, talks about why tech knowledge is necessary, but not sufficient for entrepreneurs. They also need a broader curiosity about the world around them
Growth forces you to take risks that are not always sensible
Ecosystems have consumers with problems, authorities seeking to facilitate resolutions, and entrepreneurs who see growth in attempting to resolve it. An interview with Anand Deshpande and Amit Ranjan
The measured, routine life
Some think all things must be quantified and managed. Others think of it as ridiculous. But the truth has nuances