India’s pollution is becoming an economic roadblock: The government’s inaction runs counter to its goals. The latest budget cut funding for pollution control. It is all getting embarrassing. In December a cricket match between India and South Africa was called off because smog made it impossible to see the ball. In January one the world’s top badminton players pulled out of the India Open in Delhi citing the bad air (and getting a $5,000 fine). Those who did play sent an official complaint to International Olympic Committee.
The Price of Intelligence is Collapsing
One developer with Claude Code can now do what took a team a month. The cost of Claude Pro or ChatGPT is $20 dollars a month, while a Max subscription is $200 dollars. The median US knowledge worker costs ~350-500 dollars a day fully loaded. An agent that handles even a fraction of their workflow a day at ~6-7 dollars is a 10-30x RoI not including improvement in intelligence.
Microsoft’s Conundrum The cost collapse is destroying the seat-based software model. There has been no bigger share shift than Microsoft’s seat-based Office 365. Most of the cash today still comes from Office. The core way of how a human interacts with a computer is about to change, and Microsoft sits at the center of the old paradigm.
Why does a company need to standardize Salesforce if an agent is just going to query data on leads on your behalf? Salesforce is a form and workflow wrapper, and the form and workflow can likely be scaffolded by AI into a database and then queried as needed.
AI fears wipe out $50 billion from Indian IT stocks. . . Software ate the world. AI is eating software.
Dr Vishal Sikka: At a time when there was no ChatGPT, Gemini, or self-driving cars, Vishal Sikka gave a presentation on AI before NITI Aayog at the PM’s request, where officials of 20 Union Ministries were gathered. . . India's risk-averse capitalism has no place people like him
"India Has a Great Opportunity in AI, Period" – Dr. Vishal Sikka (Ex-Infosys)
1. TCS has partnered with him to fight its existential crisis
2. PM & officials have met him multiple times
3. Oracle, GSK, BMW, Stanford have him on their Boards for AI
Existential threat: The European Union should consider either an unprecedented 30% across-the-board tariff on Chinese goods or a 30% depreciation of the euro against the renminbi to counter a flood of cheap imports, according to a French government strategy report.
China is depleting the world's oceans of fish. Estimates are between 200,000 - 800,000 fishing vessels, going as far as Argentina.
They account for ~half of the world's fishing catch and do not respect stewardship protocols to preserve ecosystems. This is not industrial… pic.twitter.com/BfbJoGTveM
The SaaS -Pocalypse Has Begun: For most of the past two decades, enterprise software benefited from a remarkably stable economic story. Software was expensive to build. Switching costs were high. Data lived in proprietary systems.
Once a platform became the system of record, it stayed there. Recurring revenue was treated as a proxy for predictability. Contracts were assumed to be sticky. Cash flows were assumed to be resilient.
AI is now testing every part of that logic at once.
AI doesn't kill the software directly. It kills the headcount that uses the software. Which kills the per-seat revenue model. Which kills the business.
Satya Nadela is basically describing the death of the traditional SaaS model.
Explains the AI agentic future, and where the "value" lives.
Because business logic is moving from the software application to the AI agents.
Anthropic's new AI tools disrupts data analytics and software companies: AI developer Anthropic launched plug-ins for its Claude Cowork agent that would automate tasks across legal, sales, marketing and data analysis. That move has sparked worries of an impending AI-fueled disruption of the data and professional services industry, which were once seen as major beneficiaries of the AI era.
India's staffing-intensive IT sector shaken: "As Indian enterprises integrate Claude for critical coding workflows, dependency on large vendor teams may decline, squeezing billable hours and margins. Anthropic’s advanced AI systems also threaten entry‑level talent pool at Indian IT firms by replacing routine development and testing tasks".
Anything but Deep Tech: Indian corporate investment is characterised by low R&D intensity and concentration in real estate-linked, regulated, or quasi-monopolistic sectors with a relative lack of willingness and appetite to invest towards long-term risk absorption and become globally competitive.
A 'Greater Balochistan'? There is growing trepidation in Pakistan establishment circles that there could be a new great game underway in the region to create a Greater Balochistan comprising Sistan-Baluchistan and Balochistan. This is not just a mineral-rich area, but geographically, a very pivotal area.
A Greater Balochistan will alter the geopolitics of the region, straddling not only the entire Gulf region but also providing a base to access Central Asia and keep a watch over troublesome areas in Iran, Afghanistan and a rump Pakistan. In fact, the geographical relevance that Pakistan keeps talking about comes from its control over Balochistan.
The Pakistanis are losing sleep at the thought of powerful regional and global players waking up to the importance of Balochistan. Operation Herof 2 and the larger Baloch uprising are, therefore, no longer being seen as a local separatist movement but as part of a larger global conspiracy to cut not just Iran but also Pakistan to size.
The United States did not merely abandon the Kurds it handed them over to terror, to knives, to silence. Allies were turned into expendable bodies. Promises were buried alongside the dead. I am a Dutch journalist, and I refuse to look away. I feel the pain of the Kurdish people… pic.twitter.com/u5PYTJdbqD
Why Indian cities are hostile to pedestrians: Annual pedestrian deaths on Indian roads exceed fatalities reported in several active conflict zones globally, underscoring that Indian streets function as a daily warzone for walkers... “Attempts to redesign roads without prioritising pedestrians are a fundamental part of the problem. Footpaths are a default globally, not here.”
DRDO's GaN technology breakthrough: Denied access to compound chip technology by foreign powers, Indian scientists, operating in tandem from Delhi and Hyderabad, crack the code to make gallium nitride (GaN) monolithic microwave integrated circuits (MMICs).
India is no longer dependent on foreign powers for these high-value, cutting-edge chips. Instead, it broke into a select group of six nations—the US, France, Russia, Germany, South Korea and China. . . Defense and commercial applications!
EFTA was terrible. EU FTA is worse: India gives $100B concession without any accountability mechanism implying we got no hard commitment for investment and gave market access for nothing. When CBAM starts taking effect India will be immensely disadvantaged.
Major concession on Machinery/Electrical equipment. India already runs a $16 billion deficit with EU in it. 0% tariff means domestic mfg in this sector will likely never take off. One hopes that exports from labour intensive sectors go up enough to make up for it. https://t.co/Xl1ZozajOH
Foolish NRIs: The overconfidence of the Indian settler in the pre-MAGA days led to excesses. Such as the 90-foot-tall statue of Lord Hanuman, dubbed by some over-clever NRIs who installed it, as the “Statue of Union” in Sugar Land, Texas.
Besides being considered an eyesore by the enraged local Texans, it is a goad for the Christian Nationalists of the American south and southwest that make up the MAGA flock. So far they have restricted themselves to mocking the Monkey God, reviling Hindus as savages, Hinduism as satanic, and Hindu religious symbols as an affront to Christianity. Soon they may take a hammer to the statue, and run the Indians out of the town.
World University Rankings 2026: China shows remarkable progress. Apart from IISc, no other Indian university managed to secure a top 100 position in any subject area.
THE Subject Rankings 2026: While the US and UK institutions clinched the top ranks, China showed increasing strength, bagging seven top 10 positions across subjects. . . How India is failing its educated youth.
'Vishwaguru' is nowhere: From Malaysia to Germany: 10 countries where international students are heading beyond the Big Four... India continues to lag behind Asian peers such as China, Hong Kong and South Korea, Japan and Singapore in research-related performance... Even Bangladesh is trying.
How ASML Conquered The Chip World: Extreme Ultraviolet Lithography - the insane machines that make the most advanced computer chips.
Why the tech world thinks the American dream is dying: The argument is that tech companies (and their leaders) will become a class unto their own with infinite wealth. No one else will have the means to generate money for themselves because AI will have taken their jobs and opportunities.
With TACO help: Chinese EVs blow past Tesla and tariffs en route to global reign... Another record month for EV sales in China!. . . As Trump talks tariffs, his Argentine ally welcomes a first shipload of Chinese EVs
Even Kashi cannot escape from ugly bikAss: Manikarnika Ghat in Varanasi - the ancient & most sacred cremation ground for Hindus being bulldozed in the name of ‘redevelopment’.
UK considering social media ban for under 16s: The world's first social media ban for young people took effect in Australia in December 2025, prompting other countries, including the UK, to consider following suit.
Is avoiding carbs and sugar the key to a healthy old age?
No, the secret to longevity is not skipping carbs. Let's see what the actual data says: the world's longest-living groups (Okinawa, Sardinia, Ikaria, Nicoya, Loma Linda) eat a great amount of carbs.
Okinawans previously ate 85% carbs, and sweet potatoes and rice were their main source. Sardinians eat sourdough bread daily. These people are turning 100+ years old eating carbs in every single meal.
The key isn't eliminating carbs - it's eliminating processed garbage. Sugar? Yes, added sugar is something to avoid.
Madhav Gadgil, Kerala’s reluctant prophet: Gadgil was part of the scientific scrutiny that questioned the ecological wisdom of damming Silent Valley. That intervention helped reinforce an idea Kerala would never quite abandon, that development was not automatically virtuous and that expert knowledge could legitimately challenge state power.
US Companies Face Anti-Indian Backlash: Indian American entrepreneurs who obtained loans from the government-backed Small Business Administration have been singled out for coordinated harassment.
Why India-US Trade Deal Is Delayed: India has shown willingness to eliminate tariffs on nearly 95 per cent of US industrial exports and lower duties on products such as almonds, apples and avocados. Yet Washington continues to push for unrestricted access for dairy and genetically-modified crops, including corn and soybeans -- an issue deeply sensitive in India due to environmental, political and social concerns.
'China Wants India On A Tight Leash': If the Chinese and Pakistanis join hands, they have the resources to come down to Ladakh and into Leh.
However, the presence of Indian troops in Siachen is a deterrent to China and Pakistan from joining hands in the Karakoram.
Therefore, if that road is constructed to Aghil Pass and is connected to Khunjerab Pass, it will provide them access.
China will connect as much of the Karakoram Pass as they can.
They have also constructed a 170-kilometre artery from Gilgit to Siachen.
Artificial nation: Pakistan Should Actually Be 4 Different Countries.
Transforming India Post into a Rural E-Commerce Powerhouse: Can India Post, a state-run entity with a massive presence and logistical network across India, reposition itself as a leading e-commerce player, not just a logistical support provider?
The answer could lie in harnessing the power of its well-established network, employees, and extensive rural reach to create a transformative e-commerce platform catering specifically to rural markets.
It will also enable India Post to have a good share of the emerging e-commerce era pie, in terms of volume of sales, turnover, and profitability, making it a brand like Amul.
India's State-Sponsored Sugar Addiction
: Thanks to our policies, India produces way more sugar than it needs, using up precious water and financial resources; and as a result, Indians end up eating more sugar than is healthy.
When Dry January becomes permanent: ‘Even though I was fit and energetic the weekends were gone’. “You’d have few drinks on Friday night because you’ve worked hard all week long, and then Saturday was sluggish. You might have a few drinks on Saturday night, and Sunday was sluggish. All of a sudden it’s Monday.”
Ugly, smog filled 'bikAss' comes with a price: India is seeing dip in foreign tourists. In contrast, Vietnam became the fastest growing market for foreign tourist arrivals in south east Asia
What urban India needs: Walkaluru walkathon highlights Bengaluru’s pedestrian infrastructure, encourages walking culture
Indore tragedy: Indore, in spotlight over 20 deaths, allocated Rs 2,450 Crore for 'Clean' Water. What makes the tragedy even more disturbing is the scale of public money that has been spent on Indore's water and sanitation infrastructure over the past five years.
60% of top 1,000 stocks delivered negative returns in 2025: Even after the recent correction, the Nifty Smallcap 100 trades at a price-to-earnings multiple of 24.6 based on one-year forward earnings, well above its 10-year average of 18.3.
Why The Americans Were Opposed To Agni: 'The heat shield technology for re-entry vehicles was first mastered in DRDO for the Agni missile.' 'This is why the Americans were so opposed to Agni in the 1980s, unlike other missiles -- it was a re-entry vehicle.'
The Chinese way: Videos and photographs show how the Chinese authorities have tried to dismantle Zion Church, a Christian network with branches across the country.
The year of Chinese robotics domination: The real AI story of 2026 will be found in the boring, the mundane—and in China. Washington's fatal miscalculation was assuming its sanctions would hammer Chinese innovation. Instead, it only hampered the viability of the West's own tech.
MAGA doesn't like your skin: Sikh truckers found refuge in trucking until the Trump administration’s crackdown