Mishik Sharma

Uday Kotak's June 2, 2026 post on X was characteristically blunt. The veteran banker-entrepreneur pointed to Alphabet's decision to raise an additional $80 billion in fresh capital — despite sitting on $160 billion in annual profit, $62 billion in the last quarter alone, and a $4.5 trillion market capitalisation — and held it up as a mirror to India Inc. The contrast with the collective profits and market cap of all Indian listed companies was uncomfortable. His call: set aside the IPL distraction and get back to the "business of business." The post went viral quickly. Supporters praised the call for greater ambition and risk-taking. Critics pushed back, pointing to regulatory hurdles, tax uncertainties, high compliance costs, and a broader risk-averse culture in Indian business. The debate was healthy and timely. Yet, while Kotak's diagnosis of an ambition and execution gap (particularly in innovation intensity) is largely correct, the path forward demands more n...

In recent social media debate on Indian history, the Indus valley civilization has come into sharp focus. History enthusiasts from many countries are arguing whether the Indus valley civilization is a continuing one, and if so which nation or culture is its inheritor. Even if we leave aside the serious arguments, this debate actually reveals a recurring malaise: ancient-India-centric history discussion is disproportionately focussed on the Indus valley.  India's ancient history is not just about the Indus Valley. Its ancient history lies and lives in many river valleys across India. India’s relationship with its rivers runs deeper than geography. From the sacred waters of the Ganga to the life-giving Brahmaputra, India's many rivers have nurtured civilizations, inspired monasteries, shaped philosophies, and sustained communities for millenniums.  The problem is much of this rich riverine heritage remains fragmented—lost to erosion and flooding, confined to dusty museum display...

Introduction In his annual letter to shareholders, Mr. Gautam Adani positioned “Infrastructure + Intelligence” as the defining twin engines of the Adani Group’s future growth. He famously noted, “Before AI can think, energy must flow,” underscoring that reliable, large-scale power infrastructure is foundational to the AI era. On capacity, AdaniConneX aims to build a 2 GW data centre platform by 2030, as part of a larger $100 billion commitment to develop renewable-powered, hyperscale AI data centre capacity targeting 5 GW by 2035. This ambition is backed by the Group’s record FY26 financial performance and capital expenditure, including record renewable energy capacity expansion -- all aligned to support India’s emergence as an AI infrastructure powerhouse. This is the right direction. India will require enormous investments in renewable energy, transmission networks, and data centres if it hopes to emerge as a significant player in the global AI economy. Recent policy measures, includ...

Introduction In its Integrated Annual Report 2025-26, Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) highlighted the launch of Reliance Intelligence, a dedicated initiative aimed at democratising artificial intelligence across India. The company committed ₹10 lakh crore over the next seven years to build gigawatt-scale AI-ready data-centres, described as “patient, disciplined, nation-building capital” for creating sovereign AI infrastructure. Powered by in-house green energy and starting with it's first gigawatt-scale data-centre in Jamnagar, this infrastructure will serve as a sustainable, high-performance compute backbone. Jio, with its extensive network and customer reach, is positioned to play a central role in achieving RIL's aim of developing multilingual, voice-first AI platforms that make intelligence affordable and accessible to individuals, MSMEs, enterprises, and institutions across India.  This is a potentially paradigm-changing initiative. Around the world, AI discussions remain do...

Indian e-commerce has reached a critical inflection point. With projections placing the sector at $280-300 billion GMV by 2030, quick commerce is not merely reshaping urban consumption — it is emerging as a structural force in the broader economy. Yet public and policy discourse continues to reduce it to two narrow narratives: a competitive battle between large platforms and small retailers, or a gig economy story centred on the precarity of delivery workers. Both framings are real. Neither is sufficient. Indian e-commerce has catalysed far more than either story captures: an explosive rise of direct-to-consumer (D2C) startups, from a few hundred in 2018 to around 10,000 by 2025; the quiet modernisation of millions of kiranas; the formalisation of industrial value chains that once operated through kinship networks and informal trust; and the reshaping of cultural identities and consumption rituals across Tier II and III India. To reduce this transformation to platform rivalry or gig wo...

Introduction A recent Economic Times report, published on 26 May, said that a crop of Indian startups are deploying workers to record home-service chores and industrial tasks for global robotics and AI laboratories. These companies are increasingly deploying workers to generate physical-world data — washing dishes, folding clothes, assembling components, operating machinery — that will ultimately train the next generation of embodied AI systems. This news has brought into focus both the promise and the peril of India’s emerging position in the global Artificial Intelligence ecosystem.  At one level, this creates employment opportunities and inserts India into one of the fastest-growing segments of the digital economy. At another, it raises a deeper strategic question: Is India once again becoming a supplier of raw material—this time digital—within value chains controlled elsewhere? The question is particularly relevant because the AI economy is entering a new phase. The first gener...