Eshaan Mani

About Me

Hi! I'm Eshaan, a rising sophomore at Harvard. I am a published author, poet, and filmmaker with over 150 bylines across a dozen outlets. As a passionate multimedia storyteller and community advocate, I strive to tell authentic, human stories through journalism, poetry, and documentary filmmaking. I have advanced wellness and the love of writing in my school and in the community by developing online platforms and facilitating in-person activities. I play the dhol, an Indian drum, and enjoy learning wherever, whenever, and with whatever I can.

Featured Articles from a variety of publications

Harvard Technology Review •

Electric, Intelligent, Homegrown Mechanization for Indian Farmers: Spotlight on Orbit Agritech - Harvard Technology Review

Keeping Up with Climate Tech vol. 11
In villages across the western Indian state of Maharashtra, smallholder farmers hunch over rattling diesel tillers, their arms and backs aching as the machines struggle across the uneven soil. Many suffer from health issues (pain in the back, neck, shoulders, and fatigue) and they see sky-high turnover. And their diesel-powered machines, which consume lots of fuel, break down often when they’re needed most, causing costly delays. Add to this their tiny, fr...
Harvard Political Review •

Governance in an Age of Change: An Interview with Leo Varadkar - Harvard Political Review

Leo Varadkar served as Taoiseach of Ireland, the Irish equivalent of prime minister, from 2017 to 2020 and again from 2022 to 2024. He led Ireland through the COVID-19 pandemic, Brexit negotiations, and historic expansions of civil rights. A medical doctor, Varadkar also served in cabinet for over a decade across the areas of Transport, Enterprise, Social Protection, and Health. As taoiseach, he oversaw record employment, a growing budget surplus, landmark climate legislation, and major investme...
Harvard Technology Review •

Plug-and-Play Decarbonization for the Steel Industry: Spotlight on Climitra - Harvard Technology Review

Keeping up with Climate Tech vol. 10
India’s steel industry is both an engine of growth and one of the country’s most carbon-intensive sectors, responsible for roughly 12% of national emissions. Undergoing an industrial boom, India’s steel sector is on track to add 100 million tons of new capacity by 2030, 90% of it coal-based. 

For an industry that imports 85% of its coking coal, the Russia–Ukraine war is truly a wake-up call: PCI coal prices doubled overnight, gutting steelmakers’ margin...
Harvard Technology Review •

Priming AI for Agricultural Insights: Spotlight on LetzFarm - Harvard Technology Review

Keeping up with Climate Tech vol. 9Globally, about 570 million smallholder farmers are responsible for 1/3 of global food production. Despite their crucial role, smallholders often struggle to make data-driven decisions, as they lack real-time, localized agricultural intelligence. LetzFarm, a collaboration between Abris Inc. and the Carbon Zero Institute of Trinidad and Tobago, is changing that. By harnessing AI and real-time data, LetzFarm provides farmers with personalized insights on soil hea...
Harvard Technology Review •

Tackling Plastic Waste with Synthetic Biology: Spotlight on Breaking - Harvard Technology Review

Keeping up with Climate Tech vol. 8All images credit: BreakingPlastic waste is everywhere—from landfills to oceans to the air we breathe.Today’s primary recycling processes are inefficient — crushing and grinding in recycling plans destroys the fibers in plastics and renders them unable to be reused. So only 9% of plastic makes it to a recycling plant. The rest ends up in landfills, waterways, or is incinerated, which releases toxic gases into the atmosphere.Breaking is taking a radically differ...
Harvard Technology Review •

Heating People, Not Spaces: Spotlight on Focal - Harvard Technology Review

Keeping up with Climate Tech vol. 7By Eshaan ManiOn sidewalks, patios, and rooftops, outdoor heaters have become a fixture of modern city life—especially in the post-COVID era. But behind the warm glow of propane flames lies a sobering truth: these systems are wildly inefficient, carbon-intensive, and technologically outdated. Enter Focal—a startup aiming to flip the paradigm by asking a simple question: what if we heated people, not the air around them?Founded by Raj Tilwa and Rohan Pandya, Foc...
Harvard Technology Review •

The Retrofit EV Revolution: Spotlight on Voltpost - Harvard Technology Review

Keeping up with Climate Tech vol. 6In a world racing to electrify transportation, one startup is taking a refreshingly grounded approach…by looking up. Specifically, at lampposts.Voltpost, co-founded by Luke Mairo, Jeff Prosserman, and Jörn Vicari, is retrofitting existing lamp posts into electric vehicle (EV) charging stations. “I started my career in banking at Barclays Bank, covered a range of industries, including the industrial companies and the autos, the energy sector — which was mostly o...
Harvard Political Review •

Can Bollywood Do Justice to Sex Workers? - Harvard Political Review

A petite lady wearing dark shades saunters to the mic at a feminist meeting in Mumbai’s Azad Maidan sports ground. She introduces herself as Gangubai Kathiawadi, a social activist and madam of a brothel in the Kamathipura red-light district.“Everyone here probably has a job,” she begins. “Those with intelligence sell their intellect; our business is of the body, so we sell our bodies. Why is only our profession seen as immoral? You all lose your dignity once, and it’s gone. We lose our dignity n...
Harvard Technology Review •

Minimizing Methane Emissions in Rice Farming: Spotlight on Mitti Labs - Harvard Technology Review

Keeping up with Climate Tech vol. 5Rice isn’t just a staple food for billions—it’s the lifeblood of food security in many parts of the Global South. Yet, conventional rice farming is one of the world’s biggest water guzzlers and a significant emitter of methane, a potent greenhouse gas. Mitti Labs, co-founded by Xavier Laguarta, HBS ‘23, Devdut Dalal, HBS ‘23, and Nate Torbick, is on a mission to transform rice farming by addressing water scarcity, climate change, and the economic challenges fac...
Harvard Political Review •

Inside Biden’s Messaging Strategy: An Interview with Michael Donilon - Harvard Political Review

Michael Donilon served as senior advisor to President Joe Biden, working on a wide range of domestic and foreign policy issues and acting as one of President Biden’s primary speechwriters. Donilon has worked for Biden since 1981 and has been involved in seven presidential campaigns, including for Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, in addition to Biden. He also played a role in more than 30 winning U.S. Senate and gubernatorial campaigns. The Harvard Political Review sat down with Donilon to discuss...
Harvard Political Review •

Driving Domestic Policy Change: An Interview with Neera Tanden - Harvard Political Review

Neera Tanden served as the Director of the U.S. Domestic Policy Council and as domestic policy advisor to President Biden. Tanden also served in the Obama and Clinton administrations and has worked on numerous presidential campaigns. She also previously held the role of President and CEO of the Center for American Progress and the Center for American Progress Action Fund, one of the nation’s largest think tanks. The HPR sat down with Tanden in October 2024 for a short discussion on policymaking...
Harvard Technology Review •

Building Battery Storage for Off-Grid Indian Farms: Spotlight on Zor Energy - Harvard Technology Review

Keeping up with Climate Tech vol. 4About 300 million Indians currently live off-grid, mostly in rural areas. Most are farmers who make around $4 a day in household income and often struggle to pursue productive, income-generating activities because of unstable power supply. This is an especially acute problem in eastern India, in states like Jharkhand and Odisha.Rea Savla, Harvard Business School MBA ‘24, and Vishesh Mehta, MBA ‘26, both of whom had field work experience in agriculture, decided...
Harvard Technology Review •

Democratizing Energy & Increasing Factory Efficiency: Spotlight on Nirmaan - Harvard Technology Review

Keeping up with Climate Tech vol. 3Manufacturing is often overlooked as a component of energy efficiency. When someone says energy efficiency, you might think of actions we take as individuals (e.g., turning off the lights or using electric vehicles), or even actions taken by corporations (e.g., investing in carbon offsets). But rarely do we consider factories.The United States has almost 300,000 factories, and a large number experience frequent power disruptions due to weather events or infrast...
Harvard Technology Review •

Making Buildings More Sustainable through Analytics: Spotlight on Infogrid - Harvard Technology Review

How many times in the past month have you left the lights in your room on? What about leaving the fan on? Leaving the tap running for the full time you’re brushing your teeth? We often brush these small actions under the carpet. How much could one individual’s actions impact the carbon footprint of the buildings we inhabit, work in, or visit anyways?
Harvard Political Review •

Shakespeare in the Himalayas - Harvard Political Review

A man in a brown suit stands in the middle of Srinagar’s Lal Chowk town square with a radio tied to his back and a rope tied like a noose around his neck.


“Hum hain ki nahi?” he asks, his eyes glinting with instability. “Do we exist or do we not? If we do … then who are we? If we don’t … then where are we?”


If this scene sounds very Hamlet-esque, it is because it comes from a Bollywood adaptation of Hamlet, called “Haider.” Ten years after its release, the film continues to garner praise f...
Harvard Technology Review •

Helping Utilities Smartly Invest in their Climate Resilience: Spotlight on Rhizome Data - Harvard Technology Review

Keeping up with Climate Tech vol. 1Year after year, electric utility companies across the country spend billions trying to minimize the impact of wildfires, floods, high winds, and other severe weather on their assets. Despite these investments, these companies’ assets are battered year after year by ever-intensifying climate events. What they need is effective, data-backed guidance on how much to invest and where, as well as how to best position those investments in front of regulators so they...
Harvard Technology Review •

The Role of AI in Wildfire Risk Prediction, Mitigation, and Management - Harvard Technology Review

The American West is equal parts myth and reality. It’s a place known for its incredibly beautiful and equally savage landscapes, from scorching-hot Death Valley in the east to the ice-cold Pacific Ocean in the west to the snow-capped Sierra Nevada in the north, where names like Donner Pass serve as a testament to the lengths man will go to survive.Over the past few years, another near-mythic danger has arisen in the West: wildfires.Miles and miles of forests erupt into flames each year during t...
The Nation •

What Will It Take to Solve the Youth Mental Health Crisis?

When I walked into my high school auditorium last December, I sensed something was wrong. The air felt heavy, the ground unstable. There was pin-drop silence, save for some stray sniffles from faculty members. One teacher’s reddened eyes stared straight ahead, not acknowledging anyone passing by her. Another struggled to make eye contact. But it was when our headmaster walked onstage and announced the suicide of a sophomore student that everyone in the auditorium was shattered.

This story was p
PBS NewsHour Classroom •

Student voice: Social media is the new Gorilla Glue

On December 17, 2021, students across the nation were bound together by a viral threat on social media.

I first learned about the threat the night before from a friend’s text. My friend attends a public school in the Fort Bend Independent School District (ISD) in Texas, and he sent me a screenshot of the ISD website. Blazoned across the homepage was an announcement declaring that students would not be allowed to bring backpacks to school on December 17, due to threats to the school’s security.
PBS NewsHour Classroom •

Student Recommends: 'My First and Only Love', a novel about 20th century Palestine through one girl's eyes

Living an ordinary life in a nation at war is not easy…to say the least. Add to that the members of your family breaking away to the join revolutionary Jihadi forces and an incomplete romance (also thanks to war), and you end up in the unique situation of Nidal, the protagonist of Dr. Sahar Khalifeh’s “My First and Only Love.”

When Nidal, an exiled Palestinian artist, returns to her family home in the city of Nablus in the West Bank years later, she travels down memory lane. Nidal grew up in 19
PBS NewsHour Classroom •

Student Recommends: Tahereh Mafi’s novel 'An Emotion of Great Delight'

Living between cultural lines has never been easy. Doing so in a time of conflict and prejudice while coping with loss is even more difficult.

Shadi, the protagonist of Tahereh Mafi’s novel “An Emotion of Great Delight“, is an Iranian-American girl living in New York City in 2003. Her brother Mehdi recently died in a car accident, her father is dying, her best friend Zahra is shunning her and Shadi is developing a romance with Zahra’s brother.

In the midst of negotiating a broken heart, Shadi
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