Unravelling the secrets of science journalism

I have been interested in physics ever since I can remember really - space and dinosaurs," Sumit Paul-Choudhury tells me. He is now probably the most influential science journalist in the UK as editor-in-chief of the New Scientist , the first of Indian origin to hold the post.

The journal is said to be the "world's most popular science weekly" with a circulation of 1,30,000, plus 2.2 million followers on Twitter and 3.3 million on Facebook.

"A third of the people who follow us on Facebook are Indian," reveals Sumit.

As editor-in-chief, he is in charge of not only the printed magazine and its website but also the video wing, the section bringing out "business white papers", and the publishing arm (18 books are planned in the next three years).

He is also responsible for organising public lectures and an elaborate events programme. For example, Sumit is creative director of New Scientist Live, which involves 130 presentations at the Excel exhibition centre in London's Docklands over September 22-25.

"What it boils down to is editorial excellence is at the heart of everything," he emphasises.

Sumit was born in London in 1971 and attended Chislehurst and Sidcup Grammar School in Bexley, a London suburb. "My parents moved from Finsbury Park to Bexley Heath so that we could have the choice of all these schools in Bexley - the Grammar school is very much sought after."

His father, Sukhendu Paul-Choudhury, is from Shillong, while his mother, Mandira, comes from a family with roots in East Bengal but "she grew up in West Bengal".

Like most of his staff, Sumit has a science background. "I did my first degree in physics at Imperial College London, then a master's in cosmology astrophysics at Queen Mary and Westfield College."

Initially, he spent 15 years in financial journal- ism but two things changed his life. One was the global economic crisis of 2008. He has written about the other tragedy: "My first wife, Kathryn, died of ovarian cancer in 2005. I'm now very happily re-married."

He had always wanted to be a science journalist and had written to the New Scientist for a job in 1994 but was told to "go away and get some experience". He joined the magazine in 2008.

He is keen to publish many more science stories from India but Indian laboratories are apparently not as "slick" as their US and UK counterparts at publishing their work online.

"The other problem actually is a lack of science journalists on the ground in India," he says. "We have tried for some years now to recruit good Indian freelancers writing about science but it is difficult to find people. If we ever launched an Indian edition that would be a priority."

Putin coup

Vladimir Putin, who is just about Britain's public enemy number one, pulled off a publicity coup last week by inviting a group of 11 schoolboys from Eton to the Kremlin and then holding a two-hour discussion with them on world affairs.

"Guys, we truly gave Putin a deep impression of us and he responded by showing us his human face," one of the boys enthused on Facebook.

Theresa May, the British Prime Minister, and her foreign secretary Boris Johnson are yet to meet the Russian leader. And as The Guardian noted, "ministers wait hours for an audience with Vladimir Putin, CEOs sit nervously for months hoping for a summons to see him, and even Donald Trump was stood up during a 2013 visit to Moscow and told Putin was too busy to see him."

Eton College added to the mystery: "This was a private visit by a small group of boys organised entirely at their own initiative and independently of the college."

Eton is by no means the most expensive of the public schools where rising fees are straining the financial resources of most middle-class parents. But putting a boy through five years at Eton currently costs £2,40,000.

Hijab girl

Nadiya Hussain, 31-year-old Bangladeshi mother of three, wore the hijab when she won the Great British Bake Off on the BBC last year - and she wore it last week for the second and concluding part of her BBC documentary, The Chronicles of Nadiya, featuring her travels in Bangladesh.

The odd thing is that as she made her way round the country, cooking for family and friends, she seemed most of the time to be the only one wearing a hijab. In fact, the hijab is now probably more common in Britain than in Bangladesh, judging by the documentary.

Last charge

A long standing Indian member of the Conservative Party, Narindar Saroop, 87, last week caused a flutter by announcing he was returning the CBE (Commander of the Order of the British Empire) he had been given in 1982.

He said he was protesting David Cameron's decision to give honours in his retiring list to many of those who had served him as Prime Minister rather than the country.

He felt that Cameron had dishonoured the honours system - "there is a great deal of disenchantment about the way that the former Prime Minister has behaved."

Narindar is still addressed as "Major" in some circles - he served as a regular officer of the British Indian Army, the 2nd Royal Lancers (Gardner's Horse) and Queen Victoria's Own The Poona Horse before retiring in 1952. He is a member of the Beefsteak Club and the Cavalry and Guards Club.

He acknowledged his was "a futile cavalry charge" but "Cameron's list, in my view, included a lot of people who were undeserving of what they were given".

Narindar stood (unsuccessfully) as a Tory candidate in Greenwich in south London in 1979. He founded the UK Anglo Asian Conservative Society in 1976 and also the Durbar Club to connect wealthy Indians to the Tory Party.

He is understandably bitter at having been passed over a peerage, while so many other Indians have been elevated to the House of Lords.

Curry favour

If there is one thing that unites warring MPs of all parties, it is the love of curry. The enterprising Labour MP Keith Vaz is chairman of the Tiffin Club which encourages all 600 MPs every year to nominate their favourite Indian restaurant in their respective constituencies.

A panel of independent judges whittles down the number to a shortlist of about a dozen restaurants, whose chefs are then asked to cook their signature dish in the House of Commons kitchen.

The Tiffin Cup was awarded this year to the Saffron in Northampton, with Mehful in Southall taking second prize and Hoole Indian of Chester coming third. The prizes were handed over by Speaker John Bercow.

Last week, I went to Southall where Virendra Sharma, the local Labour MP, hosted a dinner at Mehful, which he had nominated. With him were the restaurant's head chef, Brijesh Mohan, and owner Arun Handa.

"You will be able to see why their Punjabi Lamb Masala won them 'Best in London'," Virendra's irresistible invitation had said.

Tittle tattle

This morning's Oxbridge entrance essay is: "Define what it means to be Pakistani, with special reference to Moeen Ali and Adil Rashid, two Pakistanis who helped England humiliate Pakistan in the ODIs".