Indian Express on the revdi culture: “It has now become a race to the bottom between the BJP state units, regional parties and the Congress. The Sixteenth Finance Commission estimates large-group unconditional cash transfers by states were estimated to be Rs 1.96 lakh crore in 2025-26, which is approximately $20 billion. The bulk of this went to women in Maharashtra, Karnataka and West Bengal. But revdi culture is also a political economy fallout. State failure on health, education and skilling has led parties and governments to conceive and implement schemes that offer some social safety, be it minimum income through job guarantees or cash in the hands of women, or an allowance to those who are literate but jobless.” Shankkar Aiyar: “When in doubt, turn left. The old trick to exit from a maze is now the go-to hack of the political right. From Washington to London to Lucknow, parties that built their identity on conservatism, free markets and small government are the ones expanding the State’s role and writing out cheques. They call the payouts dividends, income support, enterprise capital—anything but welfare.”
Joseph Stiglitz: “There are good reasons for today’s AI anxiety. Managing the AI transition is going to be extremely difficult. But at least we should know that if we manage things right, AI could usher in a new era of societal wellbeing. The superabundance economy could provide for all in ways that were never possible before. Whether we have the ability to navigate through the narrow corridor of policies needed, and whether our politics will allow it, is another matter.”
McKinsey: “AI’s trajectory will not be determined by the technology alone. Models will improve, costs will fall, and new uses will emerge. But what follows will depend on how capabilities interact with physical resources, institutions, organizations, markets, and people—all moving at different speeds. A constraint in one part of the system can slow progress elsewhere; removing it can reveal another. And as AI spreads, the changes it produces will feed back into the system itself. That is why the whole system matters. The task is not to predict a single AI future, but to understand how the pieces interact, where mismatches may emerge, and how the choices people make can alter what happens next.” More: “The biggest technology breakthroughs rarely deliver on their full potential. Value flows only when organizations redesign their operating models to capture the new technology’s promise.”
FT on moonshot capitalism: “The AI boom is fuelling a resurgence in ambitious “moonshot” bets, as early SpaceX backers’ huge returns and falling valuations for traditional software companies force tech investors to embrace riskier and more capital-intensive dealmaking. Ideas once considered outlandish, from nuclear fusion to melding humans with machines, are gaining attention from venture capital firms that even a few years ago would never have touched start-ups in such sectors.”
