Mishik Sharma

The Trillion-Dollar Export Question Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal has repeatedly urged Indian industry to enhance manufacturing competitiveness, reduce imports, take advantage of India’s recent trade agreements, and sharply expand exports. After India crossed a record USD 863 billion in exports in FY26, the government has now set an ambitious target: USD 1 trillion in exports in FY27. But beneath the export numbers lies a larger industrial question: what kind of manufacturing ecosystem would India require to remain competitive over the long term? For years, India’s manufacturing ambitions have largely been framed around low-cost labour, market size, and production-linked incentives. These remain important. But as industrial systems become increasingly intelligent, competitiveness will depend not merely on low-cost labour, but on increasing productivity by embedding technology directly into the operational core of manufacturing itself. To be sure, manufacturing and export competitivene...

Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi's five-day visit to India this week was a landmark in India's technology economy. The visit involved government engagement, strategic investment, tech capacity expansion, and showcasing of affordable mobility options amid competition. The two most important takeaways of his visit, to me, were:-  New GCCs: Plans to open two major technology/engineering centres in Bengaluru and Hyderabad by end of 2027, accommodating ~9,600 new employees to support operations and product development. Hyderabad already hosts Uber’s first engineering facility outside the US.  First data center in India: Partnership with Adani Group (AdaniConneX) for a data center, expected to be online in Q4 2026, enabling scaled tech testing and global deployment. Announced after Dara Khosrowshahi met Gautam Adani. At first glance, these may appear to be separate developments — one involving office expansion, the other involving cloud expansion. They are not. Together, they reveal somet...

For years, India's health consciousness movement has been understood primarily as a food story — organic produce, clean labels, reduced sugar, plant-based proteins. The conversation was about what Indians eat.  Then it shifted, gradually, to how Indians cook — less oil, slower methods, more intentional preparation.  What is now emerging is a third frontier: in what   Indians  cook. According to a recent BusinessLine report, published on 11 May,  Indian households are increasingly replacing Teflon-coated pans and conventional aluminium cookware with cast iron, enamel, and ceramic alternatives. The concern driving this shift is not aesthetic — it is chemical. Awareness around synthetic coatings, microplastic leaching, and long-term material safety has grown sharply, particularly among younger urban consumers setting up modern kitchens. Health consciousness has expanded its perimeter from the contents of the plate to the vessel that produced it. This is not a nich...

Three recent developments in India’s industrial discourse have quietly pointed towards a deeper shift in the country’s industrial imagination. On 9 May,  Vedanta Group said that India needs to accelerate domestic exploration of natural resources and operationalise such resource assets faster, to reduce import dependence and strengthen long-term resource security. It further said that vulnerabilities in global energy and mineral supply chains are structural, not cyclical, as India remains heavily dependent on imports for crude  -oil and several key resources. On the same day, Deloitte published a report saying India's mining sector has the potential to contribute an additional $500 billion to the economy and create up to 25 million incremental jobs by 2047, but achieving this will require a major shift towards "Mining 5.0" driven by artificial intelligence, integrated digital systems, and sustainable operations. Yesterday, the Union Cabinet approved the Scheme for Promotio...