The Test of Our Times—Integrity, Power, and the Demands of Viksit Bharat If Part I is a reflection on what India’s civil services have been, Part II must confront what they are in danger of becoming—and what they must yet strive to be. For all their history and institutional depth, the civil services today standContinue reading “Service at the Crossroads: Part II”
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Service at the Crossroads: Part I
The Idea of the Civil Service—From Steel Frame to Living Institution There are institutions that merely administer a nation, and there are those that, in quieter and less visible ways, help shape its destiny. India’s civil services have at their best, belonged to the latter category—an enduring presence through upheaval and change, lending continuity toContinue reading “Service at the Crossroads: Part I”
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”
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”
Delhi Declaration – A Global South Moment
The India AI Impact Summit 2026 concluded at Bharat Mandapam with the endorsement of the New Delhi Declaration by 88 countries and international organisations — among them the United States, China, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Japan, Brazil, Russia, the European Union, and IFAD. When these 88 nations endorsed the New Delhi Declaration at theContinue reading “Delhi Declaration – A Global South Moment”
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”
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”
A Budget of Consolidation in an Uncertain World
The Union Budget 2026–27 has been presented at a moment when the global economic and political environment remains deeply unsettled. Wars continue to disrupt trade routes, financial markets remain sensitive to interest rate movements in advanced economies, and supply chains are increasingly shaped by geopolitics rather than efficiency alone. For an economy like India—integrated withContinue reading “A Budget of Consolidation in an Uncertain World”
The “Mother of All Deals”: India, Europe, and the Re-Making of Global Trade
When India and the European Union concluded what leaders on both sides have described as the “Mother of All Deals” in January 2026, the moment marked the end of one of the longest and most tortuous trade negotiations of the modern era—and the beginning of a new geoeconomic alignment in a fractured world. Negotiations forContinue reading “The “Mother of All Deals”: India, Europe, and the Re-Making of Global Trade”
India in 2026: Her Moment of Measure Part-II
Pressures, Possibilities, and the Shape of Influence In the first part of this essay, I reflected on India’s economic scale and the institutional resilience that now underpins it. Yet macro stability alone does not tell the full story of a nation’s moment. Beneath the surface lie social tensions, external pressures, and environmental limits that willContinue reading “India in 2026: Her Moment of Measure Part-II”
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