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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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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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 | 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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Firstpost | As AI arms race heats up, India’s role will be crucial

While India may not be competing directly in Graphics Processing Unit manufacturing, its software-centric approach to AI development could redefine the parameters of technological leadership in the artificial intelligence era.

As countries seek to diversify their tech partnerships beyond the US-China axis, India's growing AI capabilities and neutral stance could make it an attractive collaborator.

By Arindam Goswami

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NDTV | Is India Ready To Go All-EV By 2034? Absolutely Not

A few days ago, Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari made a startling announcement: the Union Government plans to eliminate petrol and diesel vehicles by 2034, replacing them primarily with electric vehicles (EVs). This bold move, touted as a step toward reducing carbon emissions and achieving climate goals, could lead India into a crisis of epic proportions if not meticulously planned and executed. The hidden carbon footprint of EVs, the inadequacy of our renewable energy infrastructure, the strain on our power grid and the economic and geopolitical ramifications, all paint a grim picture of a policy that could backfire disastrously.

By Arindam Goswami

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Firspost | The carbon quandary: AI, big data, and impending environmental crisis

AI’s potential in combating climate change is tempered by a sobering reality: Its reliance on power-hungry data centres. Can ‘green AI’ become a reality before it’s too late?

By Arindam Goswami

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Moneycontrol | Reservation For Locals: Whither jobs, economic freedoms, and economic unity?

It is both easy and tempting to dismiss the entire saga of the reservation of jobs for the locals in Haryana as one of misplaced policy action duly corrected by the judiciary. It could even be tempting to celebrate the strength of the checks and balances present in the Indian Republic. Briefly, to set the context, the Haryana government, acting on the election promise of the current Deputy Chief Minister Dushyant Chautala, passed the Haryana State Employment of Local Candidates Act, which came into effect in January 2022. The law mandates that all private employers in the state must reserve three-fourth of jobs paying less than Rs 30,000 a month for local residents. Read the full article here.

India can fight COVID-19, but only if the private sector is allowed to step in quickly

It is important to say this because thus far, the task of addressing the COVID-19 has been delegated exclusively to the government. Almost all activities, from airlifting Indian nationals, screening arrivals at airports, testing samples, quarantining and treatment are carried out by the government. While this will be effective if the number of cases remains in the current order of magnitude, the government’s facilities alone will not be sufficient if the number of cases rises 100 times or more.The good news is that India has a private healthcare sector and R&D capability that can be used in the fight. The bad news is that we’re not letting them.If we even have a few lakh suspected cases, the government’s resources will fall short of what is required. The right time to think about the capacity required to handle such a massive crisis is now. The single most important thing for India to have a national response — as opposed to a government response — is to enable the private healthcare ecosystem to play an appropriate role to complement the government’s efforts wherever possible.Read more