Indian Express | The colonial era of AI is here — India must chart its own course

The Paris AI Action Summit, with its impressive array of declarations and initiatives, could not mask a deeper geopolitical reality: We have entered the colonial era of artificial intelligence, where corporate sovereignty increasingly trumps national sovereignty, and global governance and ethics have been put on the backburner while still being paid lip service. The final declaration by the real power players— the US and the UK — speaks volumes. They are the tech giants who have effectively colonised the digital frontier.

By Arindam Goswami

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The Hindu | Implications of the AI Diffusion Framework

India has set ambitious goals for its space programme in the next two decades. These goals hinge on powerful, reusable rockets such as the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO)’s upcoming Next Generation Launch Vehicle (NGLV). In addition to the NGLV, India must tap into its private sector to develop more such rockets in order to secure strategic autonomy in its access to outer space.

By Ashwin Prasad

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Firstpost | Paris AI Summit: How Indo-French partnership can be a rule maker for future innovations

As co-chair of the AI Action Summit in Paris, India, under the prime ministership of Narendra Modi, has the opportunity to kickstart a new chapter in global technological cooperation. Artificial Intelligence (AI) has a pervasive impact across different sectors. In that sense, it is a general-purpose technology (GPT), to borrow the term from Jeffrey Ding’s GPT Diffusion Theory, which promises to reshape various sectors. Nations are grappling with both its enormous potential and inherent challenges. Now is the time to come together and collaborate on setting a strong foundation for the years to come.

With its considerable experience in building and running a vast digital public infrastructure, coupled with a workforce that has proven expertise in software development, India could become an important voice in the global AI discourse

By Arindam Goswami

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Firstpost | Creative insecurity: What India can learn from Chinese DeepSeek saga

DeepSeek benefitted from a supportive structural Chinese research and development ecosystem that existed for several decades. Also, Xi Jinping’s vision for a ‘Chinese Dream’ and national rejuvenation is rooted in technological supremacy

By Arindam Goswami and Shobhankita Reddy

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The Hindu | The U.S.’s immigration blocks as a self-defeating path

What do we see in the bustling corridors of Silicon Valley, the research labs of Boston, and the biotech hubs of San Diego? Skilled immigrants do not just fill jobs; they create them. They launch startups, file patents and drive innovation, expanding the very foundation of American employment.

However, to understand this, we need to challenge our most basic assumptions about how labour markets work in knowledge economies.

The debate over H-1B visas in the United States seems to hinge on a seemingly very intuitive argument: that restricting skilled immigration will translate into more jobs for native workers. On the contrary, extensive research has shown that this approach is flawed and, in fact, counterproductive to innovation and job creation.

By Arindam Goswami

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News18 | Opinion | Atal Innovation Mission: Building An Ecosystem For Technological Diffusion

AIM focuses on accelerating innovation; the path to that is not just via capturing first-mover advantage, but also by creating linkages to enable cross-sectoral adaptation of technologies

By Arindam Goswami and Bhaskari J

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Deccan Herald | DPDP Rules and a missed opportunity

The draft DPDP Rules fail to address many of the ambiguities and concerns surrounding the DPDP Act. Additionally, some provisions in the rules appear to undermine rather than protect individual privacy, raising further doubts about their effectiveness.

By Anwesha Sen

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Outlook Business | How Satellite Internet Can Bridge India’s Digital Divide and Expand Its Strategic Heft

Recent events in India highlight the growing prevalence of satellite-based internet technologies. In the Northeast state of Manipur, Indian security forces recovered a Starlink dish and router with weapons during a raid. This is not an isolated occurrence; another Starlink device was recently found in a drug-bust off the Andaman coast. Authorities suspect that these devices were smuggled in from Myanmar, where Starlink is reportedly active despite lacking regulatory approval. It is likely being used to circumvent government-imposed internet restrictions there. These incidents highlight the potential as well as the penetration of space-based technologies like satellite internet.

By Ashwin Prasad & Rakshith Shetty

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Deccan Herald | Soaring over traffic

The rise of eVOTL technology demands new governance structures distinct from conventional aviation. This includes rules for aircraft certification, urban operations, pilot training, and vertiport construction. For a growing economy like India, seizing this opportunity early is vital to realising the potential benefits of eVTOL technology. The country must address regulatory gaps with air traffic management and pilot training rules and develop a roadmap to support eVTOL technology and infrastructure for building a robust urban air mobility ecosystem.

By Avinash Shet

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Moneycontrol | COP29 hyped nuclear energy but it won’t last

The hype surrounding nuclear energy in the aftermath of the COP29 would only translate into growth of the nuclear industry if the theoretical solution to highly-radioactive nuclear waste — deep geological repositories — translates into reality. A safe answer which has been adequately tested is not yet available.

By Lokendra Sharma

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The Hindu | India’s reliance on China for critical minerals

Does China have unparalleled dominance in the critical minerals sector? How was it able to do so? What are the minerals for which India is heavily dependent on China? Why has India not been able to excavate the lithium reserves found in Jammu and Kashmir?

By Rakshith Shetty

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Deccan Herald | AI and data centres: Misplaced focus in the energy demand

The narrative linking electricity demand growth to artificial intelligence (AI) and data centres has been exaggerated, diverting attention from more significant drivers of energy consumption. The International Energy Agency’s (IEA) analysis presents a sobering reality check: data centres are projected to account for only about 5 per cent of global electricity demand growth by 2030. This modest contribution is dwarfed by other sectors, yet media coverage and public discourse often inflate its significance.

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Life of Soldiers | Anti-Submarine Warfare: Doctrine and Capabilities of the PLA Navy

At the recently concluded Zhuhai Airshow in Guangdong, China, a new unmanned combat vessel of the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN), the ORCA, made its debut as part of the Asian giant’s naval arsenal. As official sources highlighted, this 500-tonne displacement high-speed stealth unmanned surface combat vessel, equipped with a diesel-electric dual-mode propulsion system, is capable of performing a host of tasks including Beyond-Visual-Range (BVR) fire strike, and air and missile defense. But perhaps what is most interesting, is its reported ability to perform anti-submarine search and strike autonomously. If true, the PLAN may just be ushering in a transformed era for China’s undersea warfare capabilities.

By Anushka Saxena

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StratNews Global | China’s R&D Engine: Technology Diffusion Seamlessly Across Sectors

China's giant strides in developing cutting-edge technologies and ensuring these are disseminated where they are needed, is a tribute to the scientific eco-system they have evolved.

Massive investment, a deliberate alignment of, and removal of barriers between military and civilian research, and a clear commitment to becoming the global leader in critical technologies are vital characteristics of China’s S&T ecosystem.

It is a whole-system approach, which also focuses on building the requisite skill infrastructure, and recognises the capacity of General Purpose Technologies (GPTs) to increase economic productivity, and thereby, military prowess, by the process of diffusion into pervasive use in a wide range of activities and sectors.

By Arindam Goswami

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Deccan Herald | Strengthening the IndiaAI mission

As details about the budget allocation for the IndiaAI mission emerge, this is an opportune moment to reassess its objectives for fostering India’s AI ecosystem and to evaluate how the government can achieve these goals. The authors argue that the government should promote open-source initiatives, adopt funding mechanisms that enable the market to evaluate value creation and innovation, and fund research to understand AI risks in an Indian context.

By Bharath Reddy & Rijesh Panicker

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The Hindu | Implications of the AI Diffusion Framework

The Biden-Harris administration unveiled a flurry of policies in their last week in office. The most extraordinary among them is the Framework for Artificial Intelligence (AI) Diffusion. It has many goals: preserving U.S. hegemony in AI technology, balancing innovation and national security, and deterring U.S. adversaries from harvesting the strategic rewards of AI. These goals signal the U.S.’s strategic vision for AI, heralding its transformative potential to advance economic prowess and military dominance in the coming years.

By Ashwin Prasad

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Deccan Herald | Private sector push for India’s open-source challenge

Zerodha’s recent announcement to commit $1 million for open-source software is a shot in the arm for researchers. But India’s private sector needs to do more.

By Arindam Goswami and Lokendra Sharma

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News18 | ‘Catching’ Innovation: What India Can Learn From SpaceX’s Latest Triumph

Embrace risk, support long-term thinking, and create ecosystems that turn ambitious dreams into reality.

What would an Indian SpaceX look like? Perhaps it’s not in space at all, but in renewable energy, biotechnology, or quantum computing. The key is that ambitious innovators need an environment where they can take big risks, fail fast, and keep pushing boundaries. This means rethinking everything, from our bankruptcy laws to our education system. We need to transform India’s innovation ecosystem from a permission-based system to a performance-based one, and move away from subjective approvals to objective criteria, much like how SpaceX operates under clear FAA guidelines rather than case-by-case permissions.

By Arindam Goswami and Ashwin Prasad

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Moneycontrol | Canada's inclusion of India as cyberadversary is a deliberate political move; here’s why

A perusal of Canada’s ‘National Cyber Threat Assessment 2025-2026’ report against the backdrop of the current India-Canada relations indicates that India’s inclusion as a cyberadversary is a deliberate last-minute political decision

By Lokendra Sharma

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Deccan Herald | A Strategic Thrust To Space Beyond Borders

As space activities grow beyond the traditional state-led programs, policy is beginning to catch up. On October 17, the US government eased space-related export controls to expand its commercial sector's reach. However, trade liberalisation in the space sector should evolve beyond allowing hardware sales. International cooperation between the US and its allies can distribute the space technology supply chains beyond national borders across trusted geographies. When spread across globally, technology development will reduce costs, enable specialisation, facilitate innovation, increase production rates and promote geopolitical stability on Earth and beyond.

By Ashwin Prasad

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