I returned to India after six years, travelling between 24th December 2025 and 4th January 2026. It was a short ten-day trip, but one I used deliberately, not as a tourist insulated byhotels and private travel, but by moving on foot and public transport, among the common people. I wanted to experience grassroots reality and…
It can be conveniently contended that Preemption, whether be it in the realm of strategy, political diplomacy or even economic diplomacy happens to be the au currant order of the day. When the “Grandiose Order” fluctuates, then the regulator state ideally has to come to the rescue and act in the veneer of a “philanthropist”,…
Is our higher education compliance centric? The answer is yes, because higher education institutions (HEIs) lay larger focus on securing timely approvals from regulating bodies, subsequently accreditation with a good score, good national/international ranking, etc. Indisputably, the compliances are supposed to assure quality, but the obsession with compliance estranges the HEIs from achieving excellence in…
Do older people always give good advice? Sometimes they do. But young people also need to think for themselves. When Sam Altman told a hall full of IIT students that “listening to old people is the biggest mistake young people make,” many students clapped. He was mostly talking about career advice. And he had a…
AI to do most white-collar jobs soon? Improbable. But, say, it does. Then even the rich won’t be so rich A 7,000-word blog post by a tiny New York-based financial research firm spooked US investors on Monday. Titled ‘The 2028 Global Intelligence Crisis’, it paints a scenario in which AI agents have gutted white-collar jobs….
AI to do most white-collar jobs soon? Improbable. But, say, it does. Then even the rich won’t be rich A small financial research company in New York wrote a very long blog post that scared many investors in the US. The post was called “The 2028 Global Intelligence Crisis.” It imagined a future where AI…
An egg-supply hub hatches an inhuman scam Maharashtra’s Thane-Badlapur belt bred militant trade unionism in the 1970s. That ghost was laid, and replaced by laying hens. Badlapur’s eggs became a brand. Now it’s been branded with shame – for incubating human eggs. Last week, cops reportedly arrested four hen-honchos of this ‘operation’. Apparently, at least…
Expansion and the hidden risk Technological universities across India are expanding at unprecedented speed. New programmes in artificial intelligence, semiconductor technologies, clean-energy systems, robotics, biomedical devices and advanced manufacturing are being launched with urgency. Industry partnerships are deepening. Start-up ecosystems are growing. Applied research and commercialisation are celebrated as markers of relevance. This momentum reflects…
The recent detection of a Rs 590 crore fraud in IDFC First Bank has once again highlighted the vulnerabilities in India’s banking oversight system. While banks—whether government-owned, private, or cooperative—are regulated by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), the framework for statutory audits remains fragmented and, in many ways, inadequate. This gap in auditing practices…
There is a particular kind of optimism that feels productive but isn’t. It announces targets, celebrates milestones, and mistakes momentum for progress. India’s electric vehicle story, at least so far, has been a little too comfortable with that kind of optimism. AI image A report released this week by the Institute for Energy Economics and…