There are some voices one grows up with, and others one has the rare fortune of encountering in person—voices that, even in conversation, seem to carry an echo of the worlds they have created. To have met Asha Bhosle a few times, in the course of official duty, was to experience precisely this quiet astonishment:Continue reading “A Voice for All Seasons: Asha Bhosle”
Tag Archives: india
The End of The Red Corridor
Is India’s Maoist Insurgency Truly Near Its End? When redoubtable Amit Shah, the Home Minister, declared that India would soon be free of the world’s longest-running Maoist insurgency, it carried the cadence of closure—a decisive end to a conflict that has simmered, flared, and endured for nearly six decades. Yet, like many long wars foughtContinue reading “The End of The Red Corridor”
Power, Data, and the Orbiting Future
Rethinking Data Centres in an Age of Energy Uncertainty It may seem almost incongruous to speak of the future of data centres at a time when the world is engulfed in an energy crisis. With tensions simmering across Iran, Israel, and the United States, and oil markets facing serious disruption, the immediate instinct is toContinue reading “Power, Data, and the Orbiting Future”
A light-Hearted Reflection of An Average Man on International Women’s Day (IWD)
For the average man, International Women’s Day is observed with admiration, respect—and a certain degree of carefulness. Today, the world overflows with earnest declarations, serious reflections, glorious tributes, and passionate advocacy. All of it is necessary and welcome. Yet every once in a while, it may also help to step back and view the day with a littleContinue reading “A light-Hearted Reflection of An Average Man on International Women’s Day (IWD)”
An Evening that Spoke for the “Third World”
The gathering was not large. Yet it was the kind of gathering where numbers quietly surrender to thought. On that evening, we had assembled to release a collection of poems titled तीसरा जहाँ, written by Savita Jain ‘Savi’, herself a retired senior government functionary. The book explores the lives, pains, hopes, aspirations and quiet resilience ofContinue reading “An Evening that Spoke for the “Third World””
After the Applause: India’s AI Inflection Decade
The India AI Impact Summit concluded with declarations, endorsements and a clear normative articulation of human-centric artificial intelligence. But the true significance of the Summit lies not in what was said at Bharat Mandapam, but in what must now be done beyond it. Declarations create direction. Execution creates progress. If the Summit marked India’s arrivalContinue reading “After the Applause: India’s AI Inflection Decade”
Algorithm and Imagination: Recasting Bollywood in the AI Age -Part II
From Cultural Scale to Strategic Influence If Artificial Intelligence can reorganise the mechanics of film production, the larger question is whether it can reorganise hierarchy itself. Can Bollywood, long prolific yet unevenly capitalised, evolve into a creative power whose global influence approaches that of Hollywood? To answer this, one must begin with structural realism. HollywoodContinue reading “Algorithm and Imagination: Recasting Bollywood in the AI Age -Part II”
Algorithm and Imagination: Recasting Bollywood in the AI Age-Part I
Why Media & Entertainment Must Enter the AI Policy Conversation As policymakers and technologists gather at Bharat Mandapam for the India AI Impact Summit 2026, discussions understandably gravitate toward sectors where Artificial Intelligence promises immediate developmental returns — inter alia, healthcare diagnostics, agricultural productivity, educational access, climate resilience. Yet in this otherwise comprehensive vision ofContinue reading “Algorithm and Imagination: Recasting Bollywood in the AI Age-Part I”
India AI Impact Summit 2026
From Global Dialogue to Global Delivery The India AI Impact Summit 2026 opened today at Bharat Mandapam. Remarkable for its scale and wide participation, it will reportedly be attended by more than 24 heads of state and government, including French President Emmanuel Macron and Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. The scale of representationContinue reading “India AI Impact Summit 2026”
Who owns A Language?
A widely circulated interview between Elena Reyes, a Filipino professor of English, and a veteran British broadcaster James Whitmore did something quietly radical. In a few unadorned exchanges, it unsettled a belief so deeply normalised that it often goes unquestioned: that there exists a proper way to speak English, and that this propriety is bestContinue reading “Who owns A Language?”