Mishik Sharma

Raghavan Rao's article in Swarajya on Indian conglomerates' battery retreat, published yesterday, is sharp and well-documented. The reactions to the article post and thread on X are predominantly concerned and critical, aligning with the post's warning about India's battery/EV sector becoming "born dependent" on China (especially for cells, chemistry, and upstream materials). Many users view it as a cautionary tale of policy execution gaps, corporate risk-aversion, and geopolitical vulnerability — shifting from petroleum import dependence to battery-material import dependence.  The article's core observation is accurate: companies that announced battery sovereignty ambitions between 2021 and 2023 have, by 2026, largely settled into assembling Chinese cells into Indian enclosures. The contrast with Korean and Japanese firms — who paired technology licensing with sustained, long-horizon R&D investment and gradually converted external knowledge into indig...

The Manufacturing Competitiveness Question As I wrote in my previous article, India's export ambitions have entered a new phase. After crossing a record USD 863 billion in exports in FY26, the government has set a USD 1 trillion target for FY27. But beneath the export numbers lies a deeper industrial question: what kind of manufacturing ecosystem will sustain India's competitiveness over the long term? For years, the answer has been framed around cheap labour, market size, and production-linked incentives. These remain important. But as industrial systems become increasingly intelligent, competitiveness will depend less on the cost of labour and more on the ability to embed technology directly into the operational core of manufacturing itself. That technology is Industrial AI — and its most strategically relevant form for India is Edge AI. Unlike cloud-dependent AI architectures, Edge AI moves intelligence closer to the point of action. Models run directly on machines, sensors,...

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...