“India’s scientific apparatus is not designed for speed. Its research ecosystem is fragmented across ministries, councils, autonomous institutes, public sector labs and universities.”

Nishant Sahdev, physicist, University of North Carolina, USA, in an essay titled ‘AIndia, Get Fast & Furious’ (The Economic Times, February 16)

“Compared to China’s $47.5 billion AI war chest, France’s $117 billion and Saudi Arabia’s 100 billion, India’s $1.25 billion pledge may look modest. But India has a robust industrial base ready to adopt AI at scale, and this far outweighs government investment.”

Vijay Govindarajan, professor of management, Tuck School of Business, Dartmouth College, USA on how industrial AI can enable Indian tech sovereignty (Times of India, February 17)

“Vocational education in most countries is around 2 percent of the education budget. For China and Germany, it is 11 percent. India has no data that is publicly available due to fragmented training schemes in ministries. India’s strategy rests on budget announcements which falter year-on-year. A scheme that was celebrated last year is forgotten the next year. Consider the internship announced in Budget FY 2026: only 5 percent of the allocated funds were spent.”

Santosh Mehrotra, research fellow, IZA Institute of Labour Economics & A. Singh, a skills practitioner in an essay titled ‘Skill India as herculean challenges, Galgotian blunders’ (The Hindu, March 1)

“For a president openly lobbying for the Nobel Peace Prize, Trump’s record is striking. In less than a year, he struck Iran in June 2025, attacked Venezuela and abducted its president in January 2026, and has now returned to war with Tehran. He has threatened Cuba and carried out sporadic bombing in Nigeria. This is not the profile of a peacemaker but a warmonger.”

Manoj Joshi, distinguished fellow, Observer Research Foundation on ‘Trump’s war on Iran’ (The Economic Times, March 2)