An Indecisive Indian

  Let me begin with a disclaimer, for what I am about to say will inevitably be dismissed by some as compulsive negativity, without the courtesy of examining the concerns being raised. The recent India AI Summit 2026 unfolded less like a conference and more like a coronation. Vast LED walls pulsed with algorithmic optimism, exhibition halls shimmered with robotic choreography, and panel discussions rose and fell in crescendos about ethical AI, sovereign compute and India’s moment in the digital century. Policymakers, top global government representatives, investors and venture capitalists, industry leaders from India and around the world, startups and researchers converged under one gleaming roof, each armed with slides, statistics and suitably visionary adjectives. India’s digital public infrastructure, from Aadhaar to UPI and other population-scale platforms, bore testimony to administrative success and, beyond that, stood as a civilisational proof of concept. The narrative...

  Union Budgets are meant to be moments of stock-taking and signal setting. As the Finance Minister speaks, priorities are revealed not merely through allocations, but through emphasis, intent and, at times, carefully choreographed silence. For Indian Railways (IR), that silence has now evolved into a full-fledged policy instrument, not accidental but “carefully budgeted”, with footnotes “strategically camouflaged”, delivering clearer signals than most speeches manage. Once a standalone spectacle, the Railway Budget was the annual confession booth where ambitions were proclaimed, inconvenient truths reluctantly admitted, and the nation’s transport backbone subjected to public cross-examination. Since its merger with the Union Budget, however, IR has been quietly demoted to a footnote. Vast operations, stubborn structural problems and a permanently fragile financial balance sheet are now squeezed into a few lines and a cluster of tables buried so deep in the documents that their...