Letters to The Editor — February 13, 2025

AI, the job market With a large and growing population, India faces significant employment challenges. The advent of AI could exacerbate these issues. Once hailed as a major job creator, the IT sector has seen a decline. This serves as a cautionary tale about the impact of technological advancements. While AI has advantages, it is … Read more

Reopening fiscal wounds – The Hindu

The Union Budget sparked anger in Kerala over the Centre’s “continued neglect” of the State on the fiscal front. For some time now, there has been deepening distrust between Left Front-ruled Kerala and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government at the Centre in the financial realm. The Kerala government has repeatedly accused the Centre of … Read more

Implications of the AI Diffusion Framework

The Biden-Harris administration unveiled a flurry of policies in their last week in office. The most extraordinary among them is the Framework for Artificial Intelligence (AI) Diffusion. It has many goals: preserving U.S. hegemony in AI technology, balancing innovation and national security, and deterring U.S. adversaries from harvesting the strategic rewards of AI. These goals … Read more

Going the retro way to listen to music

Cassettes and an audio player. | Photo Credit: Getty Images/iStockphoto Recently, the Official Charts of the U.K. published on its website the best sold audio cassettes of 2024. It reveals that the highest selling album of the previous year was Sabrina Carpenter’s Short n’ Sweet followed by Dua Lipa’s Radical Optimism and Taylor Swift’s The … Read more

When locomotive of a special train failed

 Rahul Gandhi placing an urn containing the ashes of Rajiv Gandhi on a special train at the New Delhi railway station in 1991. | Photo Credit: The Hindu Archives Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi immersing the ashes of their father, Rajiv Gandhi, in the Sangam at Allahabad. | Photo Credit: The Hindu Archives For decades, this … Read more

An aerospace expo to further India’s global presence

Aero India 2025, which is being held at the Indian Air Force station at Yelahanka in Bengaluru (February 10-14), is more than just an exhibition. It is a platform for innovation, strategic alliances, and technological advancement. The edition this year promises to redefine the standards of aerospace expositions and elevate India’s global presence in the … Read more

A gift horse’s teeth: on allocations and scientific research  

The Budget 2025-26 announcements suggest a potential bonanza for scientific research and development. The Finance Minister outlined ₹20,000 crore budgetary support for developing small modular reactors, with the goal of readying five such reactors by 2033. Another major initiative is the Research, Development, and Innovation fund, included in the Department of Science and Technology (DST)’s … Read more

India’s opportunity at the AI Action Summit

Venue for an upcoming AI Action Summit, in Paris. | Photo Credit: AP In early January, India accepted France’s invitation to co-chair the AI Action Summit on February 10 and 11 in Paris. This summit will be the third of its kind, following meetings focussed on AI safety in the U.K. (2023) and South Korea … Read more

Keeping a watch on the growing arc of violence

The present period is proving to be an unpredictable one for most parts of the world. Violence is raging across parts of Europe and in West Asia, while several other regions are facing internecine conflicts to varying degrees. At the risk of repetition, it can be said that the world order after 1945 has broken … Read more