logo
The Troika: Focused R&D, energy sovereignty and values

The Troika: Focused R&D, energy sovereignty and values

Time of India06-05-2025

Imagine a world without zero. No binary code, no computing, and certainly no AI. The concept of zero, first formalised by Brahmagupta in 7th century India, was a philosophical breakthrough that enabled progress in fields from astronomy to finance and computer science. From Aryabhata's calculations of π to CV Raman's Nobel-winning work, India has a deep legacy of scientific inquiry and innovation, which continues today as Indian-origin talent fuels the global tech economy — leading AI breakthroughs, powering innovation at top firms, and shaping the digital world.
#Pahalgam Terrorist Attack
Pakistan's economy has much more to lose than India's due to the ongoing tensions, warns Moody's Ratings
The day Pakistan got the power to poke India
FM Sitharaman meets ADB chief and Italian FM, discusses economic issues; no mention of Pakistan
Now, as the world enters the Era of Intelligence, India faces an urgent need to harness this legacy for its own advancement.
The race for dominance is accelerating, with the US and China investing heavily to secure long-term advantage across chips, talent, and data. India's opportunity lies in seizing the boldest leapfrog bets—those with the power to redefine global paradigms.
by Taboola
by Taboola
Sponsored Links
Sponsored Links
Promoted Links
Promoted Links
You May Like
Fort-de-france Modular Homes: See Prices
Mobile Homes | Search ads
Undo
Focused R&D
R&D is the primary battleground of the Intelligence Era. To build global competitiveness, supply chain resilience, and national security, India must focus its R&D on critical domains.
Live Events
Biotechnology
will redefine healthcare, agriculture, and climate resilience. Building sovereign capabilities in synthetic biology, precision medicine, and bio-manufacturing will be critical to food and health security—and to reducing reliance on global supply chains.
Discover the stories of your interest
Blockchain
5 Stories
Cyber-safety
7 Stories
Fintech
9 Stories
E-comm
9 Stories
ML
8 Stories
Edtech
6 Stories
Advanced materials are the backbone of next-generation semiconductors, aerospace, defence, and clean energy. Controlling these innovations will be essential to decoupling from vulnerable supply chains and achieving strategic self-reliance in critical sectors, including electronics and defence.
Quantum computing
and communications will be foundational to the next era of encryption, cybersecurity, financial systems, and scientific modeling. Early leadership is essential to safeguarding national security infrastructure and setting new global standards—before others do. In the next 10 years, we must move from value-chain participation to value-chain creation—disrupting chokepoints and setting new rules for global competition.
Energy Sovereignty
AI may run on data, but it thrives on energy. As adoption accelerates, electricity demand from data centres and AI supercomputing is expected to double by 2026. Energy is now a strategic asset—central to digital power and economic leadership.
India, with over 200 GW of renewable capacity and a 2030 target of 500 GW, is well-positioned to lead. The`19,744 crore National
Green Hydrogen Mission
is a bold step toward making India a global hub for green hydrogen. If executed with ambition, India could become in this century what oil-rich nations were in the last: the bedrock of global energy ecosystems.
Strategic investments in green hydrogen, battery storage, smart grids, and next-gen renewables will make India the destination of choice for energy-intensive industries—from semiconductor fabs and AI clusters to quantum labs and advanced manufacturing.
Human-Centric AI
India's most profound contribution to the Intelligence Era may not lie just in its technological prowess but in its values. As the world races toward hyper-automation, India must lead with a human-centric AI vision—one that augments, not replaces; empowers, not exploits; and keeps people, not machines, at the heart of progress.
AI should be harnessed to solve India's most pressing challenges: boosting agricultural productivity, bridging learning gaps, democratizing access to quality healthcare, and building climate resilience.
We are walking the talk with the India AI Mission, but India must go further—and shape global governance frameworks rooted in our values dignity, inclusion, and equity.

Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Stablecoin firm Circle scales record high after blockbuster NYSE listing
Stablecoin firm Circle scales record high after blockbuster NYSE listing

Time of India

time10 minutes ago

  • Time of India

Stablecoin firm Circle scales record high after blockbuster NYSE listing

Stablecoin issuer Circle Internet 's shares climbed 41% to hit a record high on Friday, extending a stellar run after a blowout market debut on the New York Stock Exchange a day earlier. The New York-based company's stock touched as much as $117.45, more than triple its offer price of $31 and valuing the company at $30.5 billion on a fully diluted basis. The blockbuster listing also reinforced expectations that the IPO market was regaining its momentum after being stifled by tariff-driven volatility. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like What to Know Before Buying Health Insurance in 2025 Search7 Learn More Undo "This is big enough that it extends beyond crypto ," said Matt Kennedy, senior strategist at Renaissance Capital, a provider of IPO-focused research and ETFs. Wall Street executives also struck an optimistic tone on Thursday at an industry conference, emphasizing that markets were ready for the right companies. Live Events NYSE President Lynn Martin said Circle's IPO was a bellwether for the IPO market this year and not just for crypto listings. Discover the stories of your interest Blockchain 5 Stories Cyber-safety 7 Stories Fintech 9 Stories E-comm 9 Stories ML 8 Stories Edtech 6 Stories Investors are also realizing that the uncertain environment is going to be relatively persistent and focusing on putting their dollars at work, Nasdaq CEO Adena Friedman said. "This is the latest sign of building momentum in the IPO market. We'll likely continue to see moderate activity over the next month, but there is still some tariff uncertainty on the horizon, which is why we're expecting more of a full IPO rebound in the fall," Kennedy said. Digital banking startup Chime is poised to go public in New York next week. Sixth Street-backed cancer diagnostic firm Caris Life Sciences, private equity-backed debt buyer Jefferson Capital and Florida-based Slide Insurance have also joined the IPO pipeline in recent weeks.

Census that has to be more than just a head count
Census that has to be more than just a head count

Hindustan Times

time14 minutes ago

  • Hindustan Times

Census that has to be more than just a head count

The Union government announced this week that the long-delayed census will be carried out in two phases with the reference date of March 1, 2027. For the Union Territory of Ladakh and the snow-bound areas of Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand, the reference date will be October 1, 2026. Late April, the Centre announced that caste enumeration will be a part of the next decennial census. This is a significant shift. I have previously argued in these pages that a carefully conducted caste census offers more positives than negatives, but two considerations must be taken seriously. First, the data must be collected with care. Second, the data must be made accessible — not just to policymakers and researchers, but to the people themselves. India's three most urgent structural challenges over the next two decades are clear – job creation, rising centralisation, and the growing social and economic marginalisation of Muslims. A well-designed caste census can speak to all three. This is not to suggest that such a census will resolve these challenges outright, but it can meaningfully illuminate specific aspects of each. The first challenge concerns employment — or rather, the lack of meaningful, secure work for large segments of India's population. Caste in India has long been closely tied to occupational hierarchies. We need a clearer map of who is doing what work today, which jatis dominate the public sector, which remain concentrated in casual labour, who has exited traditional caste-based occupations, and who remains locked into them. Without this information, it is difficult to design effective affirmative action policies, employment guarantees, skilling programmes, or education pipelines. For instance, using data from its caste census, the Telangana government has created a sub-quota for particularly marginalised Scheduled Caste (SC) jatis within the broader SC reservation quota. This does not increase the overall SC share in public jobs, but ensures that historically left-behind Scheduled Caste (SC) jatis have a fairer chance. If the national caste census includes occupation data by jati, it can illuminate why some communities remain trapped in insecure, informal work while others diversify. Unless we make caste visible in our understanding of labour markets, we cannot address the structural roots of inequality in employment outcomes. The second is centralisation. India is among the most centralised countries in the world: only 3% of all public expenditure is made by local governments, compared to 51% in China. Key governance decisions are made in Delhi and there is simply not enough wiggle-room for federal and local governments. Yogendra Yadav has previously argued that a caste census is a diagnostic tool — the X-ray before the prescription. But a well-executed caste census can be more than an X-ray of a broken limb. It is a high-resolution, full-body scan. It offers a hyperlocal picture of Indian society — who lives where, who owns what, who does what — allowing for policies that respond to the specificities of place. Over time, the objective should be to invert the current governance model — one in which Union and state governments play a supporting role while village and municipal governments chart their own development paths. A caste census can help accelerate this transition. One long-standing concern with decentralisation, articulated most forcefully by BR Ambedkar when he described villages as 'dens of ignorance', is the risk of elite capture: The possibility that decentralised governance will merely consolidate the power of dominant castes. India — and its villages and towns — has changed considerably since Ambedkar made that assessment, but the problem of elite capture exists to varying degrees. A caste census can offer a granular view of where power is concentrated and where it is more diffuse. It can help identify which local governments are dominated by a single elite group and which display broader representation. This allows policymakers to tailor the pace and sequencing of decentralisation — perhaps beginning where elite capture is lower, building capacity and trust, and expanding from there. A caste census, therefore, enables us to approach decentralisation more intelligently. The third challenge is the growing marginalisation of Indian Muslims. A 2024 study by Asher, Novosad, and Rafkin shows that Muslims are now the least upwardly mobile group in India — faring worse than even Dalits and Adivasis when it comes to educational progress over generations. Another recent analysis by Himanshu and Guilmoto (2024) using data from Bihar's caste census finds that Muslims, as a group, are located near the bottom of the state's economic distribution — in some cases, below Mahadalit groups. What's more, the study finds that this deprivation is strikingly uniform: Across jatis like Pathans, Sheikhs, and Ansaris, economic indicators remain consistently poor. This makes a strong case for targeted policy action. But politics at the national level may not allow for it. States, however, can. A caste census gives state governments the tools to recognise and respond to intra-Muslim variation and provide tailored support — in housing, education, political representation — to those who need it most. Crucially, none of this is possible unless the data reaches the people. In India, data flows from citizen to State — but rarely the other way around. This must change. Marginalised groups should be able to view their own position relative to others — both within their localities and across districts. Platforms such gram sabhas can be used to disseminate findings, supported by civil society and domain experts. When citizens see that their mohallas and communities have done worse than others, they are more likely to mobilise and demand change. Equally, elected representatives — from ward members to MLAs — should receive localised reports that compare their jurisdictions with others. This is how data becomes a tool for accountability — not just for the state to monitor citizens, but for citizens to challenge the state. India's caste census, then, must do more than count heads. It can be both a mirror that reflects the structure of society and a lever for meaningful, democratic change. MR Sharan teaches at the University of Maryland, College Park. He is the author of Last Among Equals: Caste and Politics in Bihar's Villages. The views expressed are personal

Remembering a text and reviving a cultural link
Remembering a text and reviving a cultural link

Hindustan Times

time14 minutes ago

  • Hindustan Times

Remembering a text and reviving a cultural link

In April, Prime Minister (PM) Narendra visited Saudi Arabia for a third time since assuming office 11 years ago. During this period, India has enhanced its centuries-old ties with the Persian Gulf nations, which host the largest (25%) share of Indian expatriate population globally (about nine million), to the level of strategic cooperation. In an interview with Arab News ahead of his April visit, PM Modi emphasised the long-standing ties between India and the Arab world. He said Indians and Arabs have interacted with each other since the days of Kalila wa Dimna. Much of this interaction has centred on culture, through transmission of ideas and translations of texts. The PM did not elaborate on Kalila wa Dimna; nor did Arab News add a parenthesis, for it has been among the most popular books in the Arab world since Ibn Muqaffa compiled it in the 8th century from Panchatantra for philosophers to benefit from the wisdom of the Indian classic. Panchatantra reached the rest of the world as a celebrated treatise on governance tutelage through its Arabic translation. Novelist Salman Rushdie has argued that Alf Laylah wa Laylah (The Arabian Nights/One Thousand and One Nights) also has probable Indian origin. The Arabian Nights, the Arab world's biggest contribution to literature, has influenced storytelling and inspired writers globally for centuries. In a May 2021 New York Times piece, Rushdie cited scraps of information and wrote that The Arabian Nights stories first found their way into Persian somewhere around the 8th century Indian texts were of great interest during what is regarded as the Islamic Golden Age, when Arabs preserved and transformed the lost Graeco-Roman philosophical and scientific knowledge. In 771, the Abbasid ruler Al-Mansur commissioned translations of Indian texts into Arabic, when Baghdad's centrality to scholarship and trade drew people to the city. Baghdad had an Indian quarter apart from Jewish and Christian suburbs, Greek, Chinese, and Armenian quarters by the 9th century. The milieu facilitated the exchange of pivotal ideas. An Indian text in the 8th century introduced nine numerals and zero to Arabs and helped develop the decimal system. Polymath al-Khwarizmi, who invented the algorithm concept, built on these ideas in Baghdad and created what is known as 'the Arab hegemony' in mathematics. The new system of numerals reached Europe via the Arab world. The Europeans called them Arab numerals, while Arabs rightly refer to them as the Indian numerals or Hindsa. The Cheraman Juma Masjid in Kerala, among the oldest mosques in the subcontinent, has stood as a symbol of deep India-Arab ties for centuries. Chera emperor Cheraman Perumal, the story goes, travelled to Mecca after Arab traders told him that the miracle of the moon splitting, which he saw in his dream or from his palace, was associated with Prophet Muhammad. The legend is that, in the 7th century, a friend of Perumal built the Cheraman Juma Masjid after he died in the Arab peninsula. In modern times, India continues to be part of the Arab world's social fabric, thanks to the expatriates in the region. Their remittances have enhanced living standards in states such as Kerala. Six Indians in the UAE were on Forbes' India's 100 Richest List in 2023. The Gulf countries accounted for an average of 28% of total remittances from 2014 to 2020, according to RBI. But it all began with words and trade: PM Modi's recall of Kalila wa Dimna was a reminder of an ancient connection, a cultural bridge of civilisations. The views expressed are personal.

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into the world of global news and events? Download our app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store