Who wrote 'Indica: A Deep Natural History of the Indian Subcontinent'?

Correct — B. Indica: A Deep Natural History of the Indian Subcontinent is by Pranay Lal, a biochemist who works in public health and the environment. Penguin publishes it under its Allen Lane imprint.

Its subject is deep time: the blurb ties the caves of Ellora to ancient lava floods and Bengaluru's climate to a tectonic event 88 million years ago → option (b).

Why the others are wrong

• (a)
  Sanjeev Sanyal — Sanjeev Sanyal, an economist, wrote about India's geography and oceans in Land of the Seven Rivers and The Ocean of Churn, not Indica.
• (c)
  Rohan Murty — Rohan Murty founded the Murty Classical Library of India and the digital transformation company Soroco. He is not the author of Indica.
• (d)
  Tony Joseph — Tony Joseph, a journalist, wrote Early Indians: The Story of Our Ancestors and Where We Came From (2018), on prehistoric migrations into India, not Indica.

Indica is popular science, a deep natural history of the subcontinent told through its rocks, climate and ancient life, including the lava floods that may have helped end the dinosaurs. Its author, Pranay Lal, is a biochemist working in public health and the environment.

It sits beside other recent Indian non-fiction on deep time, such as Tony Joseph's Early Indians and Sanjeev Sanyal's Land of the Seven Rivers.

Key facts

• Indica: A Deep Natural History of the Indian Subcontinent is by Pranay Lal, published by Penguin's Allen Lane imprint.
• Pranay Lal is a biochemist who works in public health and the environment.
• Tony Joseph wrote Early Indians: The Story of Our Ancestors and Where We Came From (2018).
• Sanjeev Sanyal wrote Land of the Seven Rivers: A Brief History of India's Geography.

Common traps

• Picking Tony Joseph because Early Indians is also deep history. His subject is human ancestry, and Indica's is natural history.
• Reading Indica as Megasthenes' ancient account of India. The title here belongs to Pranay Lal's modern book.

No directly related past PYQ was found.