Mishik Sharma

Over the past decade, India has emerged as the global nucleus of Global Capability Centers (GCCs) — offshore hubs set up by multinational corporations to manage IT, engineering, design, and even core R&D work. There are now around 1,900 GCCs in India as of mid-2025, with projections pointing to 2,500+ by 2030. This includes not just the usual IT players — Microsoft, Google, SAP, Bosch, Oracle — but also banks like JPMorgan Chase, insurers like Swiss Re, automakers like Mercedes-Benz, and pharma majors like GSK and Pfizer. Even aerospace and advanced robotics companies are setting up shop. Global companies choose India for GCCs for 3 key reasons: - - Cost advantage (up to 3x lower than in the West) - Abundant and easily up-skillable tech talent - Favourable  work ethic and  English fluency But now, this model is facing stress. The Metro Overload India’s success in attracting GCCs is also its Achilles heel: most of these centers are concentrated in four or five cities — Beng...

What comes to your mind when you think of an agri fair or a farm fair?  Farmers’ produce, right? A wide variety of grains, vegetables, fruits, oils, maybe even handmade items and processed foods. In other words, outputs from the field — harvested, packaged, sometimes processed — are what define our conventional imagination of a “farm fair" or a "krishi mela". But let’s flip this perspective. What if a farm fair was not about what farmers produce, but about what farmers consume? Farmers as Buyers, Not Just Sellers Think of a different kind of farm fair — where the booths and stalls aren’t stocked with cabbages and lentils, but with:- -Tractors and tractor accessories -Fertilizers — chemical and organic -Irrigation equipment and water pumps -Solar panels and wind turbines for decentralized power generation  -Agri-drones and soil monitoring sensors -AI-based farm planning tools and software -Crop insurance and digital credit products Sounds futuristic? It shouldn’t. Agricul...

In India’s consumer-facing industries, quarterly outlooks are built on a familiar mix of hard numbers — GDP growth, inflation rates, fuel prices, monsoon forecasts, and other macroeconomic indicators. In some sectors, weather patterns are closely watched because they directly affect supply chains or customer demand. Yet there’s another set of forces, equally powerful but less systematically tracked: the rhythms of social life. Across the year, India experiences multiple social and cultural cycles that strongly influence consumer spending. Marriage seasons. Pilgrimage seasons. Festival clusters stretching over months. Agrarian sowing and harvest cycles. Pitripaksha periods when auspicious purchases are avoided. Flood seasons affecting mobility and local markets. Spring and winter festivals and fairs that bring specific types of demand. These cycles are pan-India in presence but highly regional in flavour. A single festival might drive jewellery sales in one region, hospitality bookings ...

A few days ago, I stumbled upon an interesting trend: data annotation companies in the U.S. are attracting substantial investor interest. Curious, I dug deeper. What I discovered was more than just a funding pattern — it was the quiet emergence of a manpower-heavy, globally relevant, low-threshold industry that could hold serious promise for India. What is data annotation? It’s the process of labeling or tagging data — images, text, audio, video — so that AI models can be trained to understand patterns. Think of it as the invisible scaffolding behind every AI product we use today, from chatbots to facial recognition systems. Here’s the part that caught my attention: Unlike many tech jobs, data annotation doesn’t require an engineering degree. Even humanities graduates, with some training, can participate meaningfully. The work is often task-based, sometimes part-time, and doesn’t need a high-tech setup — just a computer, stable internet, and focus. In other words, exactly the kind of o...

India’s data centre industry has been in the news a lot recently. The growth is fast, the investment flowing in is huge, and the interest from both Indian and global players is only going up. What is happening here is not just an “infra story,” it is also a technological and social shift. When we look closely, three things stand out: 1. Data centre companies are expanding ambitiously. 2. Foreign investment firms are treating them like attractive, stable assets. 3. Some, like Airtel’s Nxtra, are already moving “upstream” into cloud and cybersecurity services. The first two points are expected. The third one is where the story becomes interesting The Demand Explosion Digital transformation is sweeping across India — in government, corporations, MSMEs, academia, healthcare, and even among individual professionals. This means demand for e-storage is already exploding, and with it, the demand for upstream services like cloud, cybersecurity, and data management will also explode. In other wo...

Over the past decade, the Ambani industrial family has become impossible to ignore. From lavish public celebrations to deeply symbolic nods to the Indian civilization, and from their green energy mega-projects to the unmatched commercial heft of Jio, they have etched themselves into the nation’s psyche. Jio Infocomm  Jio, in particular, stands out. In just a few years, it has reached tens of crores of Indians — a scale that few companies in the world can match. Through affordable SIMs, OTT platforms, and payment solutions, Jio has not only disrupted industries but also reshaped how Indians access and consume the internet. Mukesh Ambani himself has spoken of his desire to bring affordable AI to every Indian person and enterprise through the Jio SIM. But here lies the point of contention: Is that enough? More Needed  For all their wealth, industrial experience, and professed love for India’s future, the Ambanis seem to be stopping short in one critical domain — foundational tech...

Bhavish Aggarwal, founder of the Ola companies, is a rare breed—a tech entrepreneur with a patriotic mission to make India a global leader in electric vehicles (EVs) and digital innovation. His Ola Sankalp 2024 and 2025 livestreams (which I watched in full on X) showcased a dizzying array of promises: electric motorcycles, e-commerce EVs, home energy storage, AI-driven software, and even modular micro-warehouses. Aggarwal’s “India Inside” vision, backed by his defiance of tech giants like Google and LinkedIn, paints him as a disruptor. But does Ola deliver on its lofty goals, or is Aggarwal over-promising? More intriguingly, could Ola’s MoveOS spark a revolutionary consumer OS? Let’s dive in. The  Grand Promises: Ola’s Ambitious Roadmap At Sankalp 2024 and 2025 (and through posts on X, in between) Aggarwal has unveiled Ola’s plan to redefine mobility and tech: Electric  Motorcycles: A portfolio of mass and premium bikes, like the Roadster X+ and Diamondhead, powered by Ola’s ...

At a time when fears abound that local Kirana stores are on the verge of extinction—squeezed between shiny malls, retail chains, and e-commerce giants—a quiet but powerful transformation is underway. India’s B2B e-commerce revolution, largely unnoticed in mainstream commentary, is not just preserving these small shops—it is elevating them. What we are witnessing is not disruption for the sake of disruption. It is tech-enabled decentralised modernisation—a transformation that promises not only economic efficiency but social progress. The Fall of the Old Distributor Model  Historically, Kirana stores operated within a rigid supply chain: local distributors, often enjoying monopoly power, controlled prices, credit, and product access. This system bred inefficiencies, dependency, and informality. The distributor was less a service provider and more a gatekeeper. Enter B2B e-commerce platforms like Udaan, Jumbotail, ElasticRun, OfBusiness, and ShopX. These platforms are not just digitis...

In India’s booming digital economy, e-commerce has been one of the most celebrated success stories. But an equally powerful, yet underappreciated, movement is emerging right behind it — the e-commerce enabler industry. Startups and modernised legacy players like Delhivery, Ecom Express, Shadowfax, XpressBees, Loadshare, and others are no longer just courier companies. They are now end-to-end logistics orchestrators — handling warehousing, manpower, fleet procurement and management, vehicle fuelling and charging, training, tracking, and both first-mile and last-mile delivery. Many are also EV-first or EV-heavy, making the logistics backbone of e-commerce not just efficient but environmentally sustainable. Why E-Commerce Companies Must Outsource Logistics For an e-commerce platform, logistics is crucial — but not core. These businesses are already swamped with high-complexity work:- -Platform development and maintenance -Brand-building and customer experience -Inventory curation and loca...

Open the tech section of any news app today, and you’ll see AI news everywhere — from breakthroughs to backlash. Unfortunately, “AI taking away jobs” has become a recurring headline, especially in the United States. At the same time, India is staring at a very different challenge: a projected shortage of over a million AI specialists within the next two years. AI is the defining technological phenomenon of our era. For India to not just keep pace but lead, upskilling is not optional — it is fundamental to our technological, industrial, and economic future. I propose a simple but scalable three-branch delivery structure for AI upskilling in India: 1. Via universities: Deliver AI training to enrolled students (full-time and part-time), tailored discipline-wise, and embedded in existing curricula with faculty involvement. Whether it’s AI for engineering, sciences, business, agriculture, or healthcare, the training must be context-relevant. Universities will need faster curriculum revision...

For decades, United Nations agencies have relied heavily on expert advice and consultancy from the “world’s top universities.” This pattern extends to the design, planning, and evaluation of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs, 2000-2015) and their successor, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs, 2015-2030). But the reality is that measuring progress on the current SDGs—especially at the country level—is not the same as running experiments in a high-tech lab. It requires layers of sustained, face-to-face human interactions, and deep familiarity with local contexts -- something us, lesser mortals, call field engagement . You cannot helicopter in a methodology, run a quick survey, and expect to truly grasp a region’s social and economic dynamics. Take, for instance, the much-referenced J-PAL (Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab) at MIT. Its randomised control trials (RCTs) have brought rigour to development economics, no doubt. But critics have pointed out that such methods, wh...

Part I: Patna  Patna, once known as Pataliputra, offers an extraordinary tapestry of historical attractions spanning ancient ruins, colonial architecture, and sacred sites. The city is also known as being the capital of multiple ancient royal dynasties, including the Guptas, the Mauryas, the Haryankas; as well as a fundamental trading hub for all the Magadhan kingdoms. But, few people know that Pataliputra was also an ancient academic hub. Below I provide the circumstantial evidence:- 1. Strategic Location and Political Significance: Pataliputra, founded around 490 BCE by King Ajatashatru and later established as the capital by his son Udayin, was strategically located at the confluence of the Ganga, the Son, and the Gandak rivers. This position made it a natural centre for trade, defence, and governance, attracting rulers and their courts from the Brihadratha, Haryanka, Shishunaga, Nanda, Maurya, and Gupta dynasties. The presence of a powerful royal court would have drawn academic...

For three decades, India’s IT industry rode the globalisation wave — managing code, processes, and systems for the world’s biggest corporations. That era is ending. Weak Western economies are squeezing budgets. AI is automating coding work at lightning speed. Global Capability Centres (GCCs) in India are taking over niche industry-specific IT roles once dominated by India's IT majors. The storm is here. The question is: will Indian IT companies simply survive — or will they seize the AI future? The Cracks in the Old Model Client geographies are under strain – US and EU markets face slower growth, triggering cost-cutting cycles. AI is 'cannibalising' bread-and-butter work – Generative AI writes, tests, and refactors code far faster than human teams. The rise of GCCs – Big MNCs are bypassing Indian IT majors by setting up their own in-house Indian teams and centres to manage niche processes directly. In other words, the outsource-contracting model that made Indian IT global g...

Social media has given us unprecedented access to news and ideas — but also unprecedented exposure to mis- and disinformation. While platforms have tried various solutions, few have achieved the right balance between speed, credibility, inclusivity, and neutrality. One of the more promising ideas in recent years is X’s Community Notes — a crowdsourced way to add user-generated context to posts. But as it stands, the system is still largely unmoderated, inconsistent, and prone to both bias and misuse. I believe the idea can be greatly enhanced by blending democratic user participation with the speed and scale of AI. Not to fact-check in an aggressive, “true/false” sense, but to add benign, nuanced context that enriches understanding and reduces online polarization. The Model I Propose  1. Open Participation – The system should be open to all users, or at least low-barrier paying users. 2. Evidence-Based Flagging – Users can flag a post they believe lacks context or misrepresents eve...

Over the past few years, AI apps — especially ChatGPT — have done something extraordinary: They’ve earned the trust of the most skeptical, independent, and emotionally-complex generations alive today — Gen Z and Gen Y. And that’s not easy to do. The Trust Factor Think about it: These generations grew up in an era where every brand and platform is trying to capture their attention, sell them something, or nudge them into trends. Yet here’s ChatGPT and other AI assistants — not pushing, not judging, just listening and responding 24/7. That trust has been built through:- -Consistent availability -Non-judgmental tone -Adaptability to different moods and topics -Breadth of knowledge without arrogance -Affordability and accessibility This has made AI a first point of contact for millions — before friends, parents, Google, or professionals. The Problem: Fragmentation The life needs of Gen Z and Gen Y are broad and deeply personal:- -Education and career counselling -Mental health and emotiona...

Donald Trump’s economic nationalism — and the broader wave of industrial protectionism it has inspired — has pushed many nations to rethink their industrial policies from the ground up.  India must do the same. And it has to start, not in the factory floor, but underground. Vedanta Group chairman Anil Agarwal has often stated, in both news media and social media, that the natural resources India is mining today are only a fraction of what lies untapped beneath its soil. He has even described India as a potential “sone ki chidiya” of natural resources. This is more than rhetoric. It is a reminder that India’s self-reliance vision will remain incomplete without a deeper focus on mineral wealth. The Modi government’s push for self-reliance began with making finished products from imported components from foreign countries (for which it has also been jeered by foreign media). It is now shifting to producing many of those components domestically. This is progress — but in the era of agg...

In both the United States and India, the policy mood has shifted sharply toward economic self-reliance. In the U.S., Donald Trump has promised to bring industry back to American soil; while in India, the government champions "Atma-nirbharata" as a national mission to reduce dependence on imports. But both nations may be at risk of missing the forest for the trees. The Overreaching US Industrial Revival Trump’s vision of re-industrialization in the U.S. is sweeping and romantic. He speaks of reviving steel, autos, electronics, pharmaceuticals, and more—hoping to recreate a 20th-century industrial boom in the 21st century. But industrial revival isn’t just about tariffs or factory construction. It hinges on the availability of trained manpower. Decades of deindustrialization have hollowed out America’s skilled blue-collar workforce. Apprenticeships have vanished, vocational training has shrunk, and immigrant labour, once a vital part of the workforce, is now politically unwelco...

Over the past few days, the dominant narrative in Western news media, including and especially outlets like Reuters and Bloomberg, has been alarmingly biased in their coverage of the new tariffs imposed by the Trump administration on Indian goods.  Their reporting doesn’t read like neutral analysis—it reads like an extension of the U.S. negotiating team. They've practically asserted that the trade talks have 'collapsed' and India's negotiators are responsible for it. They have, by turns, benignly pointed out why stopping buying Russian oil and agreeing to Trump's trade deal would be better for India; and then, almost-threatened that not agreeing to a deal will have wider repercussions, including on Indian professionals' immigration and offshoring by US companies; -- all the while trying to distract from the obvious fact that Europe and China have been importing larger amounts of natural resources (either by value or volume or both); that India needs to protect i...

In recent days, there’s been a flurry of commentary around Donald Trump’s tariff policies, his social media rhetoric, and his attempts to reshape global trade flows. While some of this noise is familiar, there’s a deeper theme emerging — and it demands clarity. Let’s be clear upfront: Trump is absolutely right to reassert the principle of America First when it comes to manufacturing. After all, why should products consumed by Americans be made thousands of miles away? The idea that domestic demand should be met by domestic industry isn’t just economic nationalism — it’s common sense. But here’s the problem. Trump’s use of tariffs and trade policies too often seems to serve his own personal glory, not America’s manufacturing base. Tariffs should be designed to protect emerging domestic sectors, build capacity, and support job creation — not to punish countries for unrelated wars or geopolitical maneuvers. Yet increasingly, Trump seems to treat tariffs as symbolic weapons — tailored to b...