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Forward Deployment: The AI Industry's Next Great Shift

Part I: From Building Intelligence to Deploying Intelligence For nearly three years, the global artificial intelligence race followed a remarkably familiar script. Technology companies competed to build larger foundation models, train them on ever-growing datasets, acquire more powerful GPUs, construct hyperscale AI data centres, and climb benchmark leaderboards. Every major announcement revolved around model releases, reasoning capabilities, inference costs, context windows or custom AI chips. Governments announced sovereign AI missions. Investors rewarded companies building ever larger computing infrastructure. Enterprises rushed to experiment with generative AI. The defining question of the industry appeared straightforward: Who can build the world's smartest AI? Then, almost quietly, another race has begun. Over the past few months, a series of seemingly unrelated announcements from some of the world's leading technology companies has revealed a remarkable convergence. On 1...
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Administrative AI: Building Institutional Intelligence for India's Public Administration

Beyond Government AI Artificial intelligence has rapidly moved from research laboratories into governments around the world. India's central and state governments are increasingly deploying AI to improve citizen services, automate routine processes, summarise documents, analyse large datasets, and assist public officials in carrying out their daily responsibilities. As governments continue their digital transformation, AI is widely expected to become an integral component of India's public administration. Much of the current discourse, however, remains centred on relatively familiar applications. Governments are experimenting with AI-powered citizen service portals, grievance redressal systems, document processing, translation, compliance monitoring, policy analysis, and departmental automation. Equally common is the use of AI by individual civil servants to draft notes, summarise reports, conduct research, or prepare presentations. Yet an important question has received compar...
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From Ownership to Stewardship: Why India's Universities Should Steward Local Heritage

India possesses one of the world's richest and most diverse heritage landscapes. Some sites attract millions of visitors every year. They feature prominently in tourism campaigns, receive significant government attention, and enjoy dedicated conservation efforts. These iconic monuments and pilgrimage destinations have become symbols of India's civilizational heritage. Yet beyond these well-known landmarks lies another India — one of forgotten temples, archaeological mounds, historic schools, abandoned monasteries, intricate inscriptions, stepwells, traditional water systems, sacred groves, old pilgrimage routes, community archives, and European-era buildings. Many of these assets are historically significant. Only few attract tourists. Consequently, they often receive limited public attention and intermittent institutional support. The problem is not that India lacks heritage. Nor is it that these sites and collections lack legal owners. The problem is that many of them lack st...
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When the Monsoon Moves In: Reflections from the Uttarakhand Himalayas

The 'Announcement' in the Night Every year in early July, news platforms announce the advance of the southwest monsoon into North India, as meteorologists explain its progress with weather maps and rainfall forecasts. Those reports, no doubt, are scientifically precise, but they say very little about what the arrival of the monsoon actually feels like in a Himalayan town. I was reminded of that around a week ago. It was around 2 am. It had already been raining heavily for a few hours. Unlike the scattered pre-monsoon showers of previous weeks, this was continuous, determined rain. The kind that settles in rather than merely passing through. Then came the siren.  Living close to the Ganga, we occasionally hear warning sirens whenever the upstream UJVN dam is about to release excess accumulated water. Its purpose is to warn people to stay away from downstream river-banks. That night, however, the experience was unlike anything I'd had before. The first long siren blared acros...
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Beyond Transactions: Why Fintech's Future Lies in Financial Intelligence

Fintech Has Matured. What Comes Next? India's fintech sector has been one of the country's most remarkable digital success stories. Built upon a strong Digital Public Infrastructure comprising Aadhaar, UPI, e-KYC and several other digital public goods, fintech has expanded financial inclusion on a scale that would have been difficult to imagine even a decade ago. Millions of individuals and businesses now make digital payments, invest in financial markets, purchase insurance, access credit and manage their finances through digital platforms. The sector itself has grown rapidly. Today, India hosts one of the world's largest fintech ecosystems, encompassing payments, digital lending, WealthTech, InsurTech, RegTech and numerous other specialised segments. As the ecosystem matures, the conversation is also beginning to evolve. Investors increasingly speak about profitability and resilience rather than simply user growth. Regulators continue to strengthen consumer protection whi...
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