Sunil Bajaj - Group Director - CAD, ABG | Former Director - Essar Group

  Most people still associate the India-France relationship with the roar of Rafale jets over New Delhi. While those fighter planes and the Scorpene submarines remain the backbone of their military ties, something much larger is happening behind the scenes. In early 2026, the two nations officially transitioned to a Special Global Strategic Partnership. This is not just a change in title. It marks a shift from a basic buyer-seller dynamic to a deep-rooted alliance where both sides treat each other as equals on the world stage. This new level of cooperation is guided by a document known as Horizon 2047. It acts as a twenty-year plan that looks toward the hundredth anniversary of India’s independence. The goal here is long-term sovereignty. Instead of India simply buying technology from Europe, the two countries are now co-developing it. They are moving away from dependency and toward a shared future where they act as a joint force for stability in a very unpredictable global climate...

  For the last decade, the word “unicorn” usually made people think of a flashy app or a food delivery startup based in a Bangalore high-rise. But as we move into 2026, that trend is losing steam. The era of burning cash to acquire users is being replaced by a much grittier, more profitable reality. The next billion-dollar companies in India won’t be found on your smartphone screen. Instead, they are popping up in the industrial estates of Tier-2 cities like Coimbatore, Belagavi, and Nagpur. These are high-precision manufacturing workshops that have quietly become essential to the global defense and electronics supply chains. The shift is driven by a simple truth: the world is desperate to diversify its manufacturing away from a single source. As global giants look for alternatives, they aren’t just looking for cheap labor; they are looking for high-end engineering. This is where India’s smaller cities are winning. With lower real estate costs and a massive pool of hungry engineeri...

India woke up to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s powerful speech on the 15th of August 2025. The nation was anticipating some pivotal reforms in the GST 2.0 that would benefit the masses. The Goods and Services Tax reshaped India’s fiscal landscape at the time of its inception in the year 2017. This time, people had high hopes that GST 2.0 would prove to be a game-changer in the economic history of India. The GST 2.0 was positioned as a citizen-centric scheme that is focused on reducing the common citizen’s stress, simplifying taxation policies, and driving economic growth. In his speech, Mr Modi emphasised rate rationalisation, structural changes, and encouraged entrepreneurship and growth. This acted as the catalyst for the restructuring of the tax structure as an answer to long-awaited demands from business houses, economists, and consumers.  The announcement came as a breath of fresh air at a time when our country is still recovering from the horrors of the economic breakdown du...

 What is happening in our own backyard in the past couple of months requires more than headlines; it requires introspection. Bangladesh was jolted first, and Nepal was jolted next, by mass youth uprisings. While immediate provocation might vary, the common message is one of discontent: a new generation won’t tolerate arrangements it perceives as discriminatory, inaccessible, and out of sync with their dreams. Bangladesh: Demonstrations Against Job Quotas In July 2024, Bangladesh was convulsed in its largest social upheaval in three decades. Students and young professionals marched in huge numbers into the streets in defiance of the government’s system of job quotas, under which close to 30% of government sector jobs were reserved for specific sections of society. Peaceful protests initially mushroomed into a national emergency. Over 200 were killed, a series of curfews was imposed, and the government eventually did away with the quota system. For the youth in Bangladesh, it was not...

 For over a decade, apps have been at the centre of our digital lives — gateways to shopping, entertainment, payments, mobility, and even healthcare. But something fundamental is shifting. Artificial Intelligence (AI), once seen as a futuristic add-on, has become the engine that is redefining what apps are, how they work, and what users expect from them. The question is no longer “Is AI changing apps?” The real question is: “Are apps evolving into something entirely new because of AI?” From Static Utility to Living Systems Traditionally, apps were reactive tools — you opened one, performed a task, and closed it. AI has transformed them into living systems that learn, adapt, and evolve. Streaming apps now understand moods, creating playlists not just from history but from the time of day, weather, or even your recent activity levels. E-commerce platforms don’t just “recommend”; they predict, nudging you with products before you even know you need them. Fintech apps spot fraudulent b...

Agriculture has always been more than an economic sector for India, it is the backbone of our society, a source of livelihood for over 40% of our population, and the foundation of our food security. Yet for decades, Indian agriculture has faced a paradox: we produce abundantly, but farmers often struggle with incomes, market access, and sustainability. The recently announced Dhan-Dhaanya Krishi Yojana seeks to break this cycle, not through piecemeal subsidies, but by treating agriculture as a system that must be modernised end-to-end. Beyond Input Subsidies: A Holistic Approach The scheme signals a shift from fragmented interventions to a comprehensive framework. Instead of focusing narrowly on seeds, fertilizers, or credit, it aims to address the entire chain, from soil health to storage, from irrigation to international markets. This approach is crucial, because farmers’ prosperity does not depend on one factor alone, but on the interplay of productivity, resilience, value-addition, ...

When we talk of India’s growth story today, it’s not possible to ignore the excitement in emerging tech, artificial intelligence, semiconductors, space technology, clean energy, and defence technology are no longer specialist domains. They’re center stage in the boardrooms and policy plans. But despite all the optimistic rhetoric, I believe two things are needed if we are to see this ecosystem become a source of global competitiveness: strategic patience and serious big business commitment. The Pace vs. Patience Paradox In a quarterly performance and immediate market response world, “patience” is a term that sounds like a luxury. But establishing deep tech capability does not amount to a sprint; it’s a 10–15 year marathon that tests our capacity to continue pumping money and believing. Take semiconductors, India has offered over $10 billion in incentives to produce chips. But Taiwan’s TSMC took over three decades to reach its dominance in the current times. So did SpaceX, now valued at...