Pune-based engineer’s innovation brings relief in the time of LPG shortage Mumbai: As urban households continually grapple with fluctuating LPG prices and supply constraints, a Pune-based engineer has developed a sustainable, home-grown solution.   Priyadarshan Sahasrabuddhe, an IIT-Bombay alumnus, has invented 'Vaayu'—a compact, domestic biogas reactor that seamlessly converts everyday kitchen waste into clean cooking fuel. By bringing renewable energy generation directly in

From missed opportunities in the 1960s to today’s fab ambitions, India’s semiconductor quest hinges on aligning world-class chip design with homegrown manufacturing. In the context of the ‘Make in India’ initiative, our ambition of becoming an independent semiconductor‑manufacturing hub has become a national discourse. Having spent the last decade and a half in hands‑on micro-manufacturing, both in academic and industrial R&D with a few patents in the field, I know how crucia

AI generated image It appears to be a quiet reversal of everything we were trained to admire. In school and in professional life, we celebrated the student who produced the right answer, the executive who delivered solutions, the leader who spoke with authority… Questions were treated as stepping stones, corridors leading to the grand hall of conclusion. The answer was the destination. Yet in the age of Artificial Intelligence, particularly in this era of the ‘prompt,’ the hi

Artificial Intelligence is not merely a technology upgrade cycle but a once-in-a-generation test of managerial courage and operational discipline. In 1876, when Alexander Graham Bell demonstrated the telephone, a senior executive at Western Union reportedly dismissed it as an “idiotic toy” with no commercial possibilities. The company famously declined to buy the patent. A few decades later, that ‘toy’ had rewired global commerce. Similarly, in the early 1900s, automobiles we

I recently read James Webb Young’s ‘A Technique for Producing Ideas’ purely out of curiosity. The book was written primarily for people in sales, advertising, and marketing. At first glance, it did not seem relevant to science or technology. Yet, as I read on, it became increasingly clear that Young’s approach is not limited to any one profession. The method he outlines applies equally well to scientific research, technological innovation, and even everyday problem-solving. T

As India unveiled its ambition to become an artificial-intelligence superpower, an unsettling sequence of protests and riots marred the summit. The India AI Impact Summit 2026 last week brought together global technology chiefs, investors, policymakers and heads of state from some 20 countries. At New Delhi’s Bharat Mandapam, gleaming halls hosted what the government billed as the largest artificial-intelligence gathering the world has yet seen. But disturbingly, outside the

While the India AI Impact Summit signalled ambition, building credible AI capacity will be harder. For decades, India’s economic rise was measured in visible achievements in the form of highways laid, ports expanded and software exported to the world. But last week at Bharat Mandapam in New Delhi, the metric of national power shifted during the India AI Impact Summit 2026 - the first such global AI summit led by a nation of the Global South. Which saw delegations from over 10

A borrowed machine exposed the gulf between technological ambition and institutional care during the AI Impact Summit. India wants to be taken seriously as an artificial-intelligence power. That was the message delivered with customary confidence by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the inauguration of the AI Impact Summit, a gathering impressive on paper: 20 heads of state, 60 ministers and hundreds of global AI executives. The ambition was to announce India’s arrival as a lea

Artificial intelligence is fast snapping our work-based social contract and populous countries like India will feel the strain first. For more than two centuries, modern societies have rested on a deceptively simple bargain. In exchange for labour, citizens received wages, dignity and a stake in the future. Work was not merely a means of survival but the organising principle of economic life, social status and political legitimacy. Governments taxed it and democracies were bu

Indian patent for portable sound absorption testing device Kolhapur: Researchers from Shivaji University, Kolhapur, have developed a portable sound absorption testing device that can scientifically assess whether an installed sound system and its acoustic treatment are functioning effectively. The innovation has been granted an Indian patent, marking a first-of-its-kind development in this field, the university said on Thursday. The patented device, named the Portable Sound A

When my generation first watched  Modern Times , we laughed easily. The scenes were funny, and the central character unforgettable. That character was the Tramp, a small man in an oversized coat, tight trousers, worn shoes, a bowler hat, and a thin walking stick. For many readers today, the Tramp may need a brief introduction. Charlie Chaplin created him to represent an ordinary person, poor, vulnerable, often confused, but never without dignity or hope. Yet beneath the laugh

The real ethical crisis is not AI in art but who owns cultural intelligence. The current debate on artificial intelligence and art is filled with anxiety. Artists worry about machines replacing human creativity. Scholars fear the loss of authenticity. Audiences wonder whether tradition will survive automation. These concerns are understandable, especially in societies where art is closely tied to identity and livelihood. However, these debates often miss the real ethical prob

It started with great excitement, the kind we have seen before whenever something new promises to change our lives. In tea shops, offices and online discussions, people spoke in awe about machines that could diagnose diseases, drive cars, analyse mountains of data, create art, write computer code and even talk back like humans. Companies rushed to show their Artificial Intelligence (AI) plans, investors poured in money, and share prices climbed rapidly, almost as if they coul

India’s SME digital revolution will succeed not through code or speed, but through context, language and patience. When I worked as an L&D head, training call-centre teams for UK and US clients, I often found myself explaining why empathy is not a script. You could teach someone to say, “I understand how frustrating that must be, ma’am,” but that wasn’t the same as feeling what it meant for a couple in Manchester to have their washing machine break down on a winter evening. I

India’s next leap depends on how deftly it fuses energy, technology and innovation into a single national strategy. India’s economic ascent has long been told in terms of demographics, consumption and reform. Yet the real test of its future power will be determined not in its markets but in its laboratories, data centres and energy grids. The country now stands at a decisive juncture: the choices it makes in science, technology, energy and innovation will define whether it me

As synthetic media blurs the boundary between fact and fiction, India’s proposed amendments to the IT Rules seek to anchor truth in law. In 1818, Mary Shelley warned that invention without restraint could spawn monsters. Her Frankenstein was a parable about humankind’s failure to foresee the consequences of its own ingenuity. Two centuries later, that cautionary tale is playing out in digital form. The creature this time is a vast, shape-shifting artificial intelligence (AI)

If left unchecked, deepfakes pose a direct threat to public trust—the social foundation for media, institutions, and law. In today’s...

In their brilliantly original 2023 book, Acemoglu and Johnson upend techno-optimism, revealing how choices we make about technology have...

Critics of technology often forget that tools are only as alienating as the purposes to which they are put. The same screen that hosts...

Deepfakes expose urgent gaps in India’s legal architecture and demand swift legislative reform. Imagine watching a video where a famous...