Recent Updates

Closing the Midstream Gap in India’s Critical Minerals Strategy
Critical Minerals Jun 11, 2026

Closing the Midstream Gap in India’s Critical Minerals Strategy

India’s critical minerals policy stack is taking shape, but without a stronger midstream sector, strategic autonomy will remain elusive ...

Closing the Skills Gap: India–Latin America in the AI and Green Economy
Developing and Emerging Economies | Cyber and Technology | Artificial Intelligence Jun 06, 2026

Closing the Skills Gap: India–Latin America in the AI and Green Economy

Skills, not resources, will determine whether the AI and green transitions empower the Global South or deepen dependency ...

GenAI's Trust Deficit: Why Frontier Models Struggle Across Institutions
Artificial Intelligence Jun 01, 2026

GenAI's Trust Deficit: Why Frontier Models Struggle Across Institutions

Despite massive investment in AI, overestimation of LLM capabilities and persistent trust deficits continue to impede reliable institutional adoption at scale ...

India’s Urban Measurement Crisis
Urbanisation May 28, 2026

India’s Urban Measurement Crisis

As Indian cities increasingly rely on data-driven governance, fragmented and exclusionary measurement systems are distorting how urban resilience, vulnerability, and public need are understood - and who gets counted in the process ...

The Geopolitics of AI Benchmarks
Artificial Intelligence May 27, 2026

The Geopolitics of AI Benchmarks

AI benchmarks shape frontier model development and attract billions in investment, but may also embed ideological, cultural, and political preferences into technical standards ...

The Unequal Cost of Global Monetary Policy Tightening
Economics and Finance May 16, 2026

The Unequal Cost of Global Monetary Policy Tightening

As rich-world rate hikes tame inflation at home, they drain capital from vulnerable economies abroad, revealing a global system where decisions are national, but consequences are global ...

Coal Gasification in India’s Steel Sector: Balancing Security and Decarbonisation
Energy | Coal May 16, 2026

Coal Gasification in India’s Steel Sector: Balancing Security and Decarbonisation

Coal gasification offers India’s steel sector raw material security, but risks entrenching carbon-intensive production pathways despite decarbonisation ambitions ...

Scaling Blue Bonds for the Global South: Reforming Markets for Ocean Finance
Developing and Emerging Economies May 15, 2026

Scaling Blue Bonds for the Global South: Reforming Markets for Ocean Finance

Blue bonds are gaining momentum, but scaling them across the Global South will require market reforms, risk mitigation, and domestic capital mobilisation to close the gap between ocean finance ambition and investable reality ...

Why Edge AI Matters for India
Artificial Intelligence May 12, 2026

Why Edge AI Matters for India

India’s AI future depends on Edge AI to deliver real-time, localised, and privacy-aware intelligence at scale, but achieving this requires stronger infrastructure, governance, interoperability, and indigenous innovation ...

Blue Finance and the Global South: Bridging the Ocean Investment Gap
Economics and Finance | International Trade and Investment May 06, 2026

Blue Finance and the Global South: Bridging the Ocean Investment Gap

Blue finance is constrained less by instruments than by inequitable access, demanding scaled, inclusive systems centred on Global South leadership ...

AI’s Next Trajectory: The Inference Innovation
Artificial Intelligence May 02, 2026

AI’s Next Trajectory: The Inference Innovation

India’s AI challenge is shifting from building models to sustaining them—making inference efficiency the new driver of scalable deployment ...

The Unaccounted Sink: Integrating Blue Carbon into India’s NDC Architecture
Climate Change Apr 30, 2026

The Unaccounted Sink: Integrating Blue Carbon into India’s NDC Architecture

India’s climate ambition is constrained by unaccounted coastal carbon; integrating blue carbon ecosystems into the NDC is essential to unlock measurable mitigation, coordinated governance, and climate finance ...

The Maritime Insurance Chokepoint: Securing India’s Sea-Borne Trade
Maritime Security | Maritime Infrastructure | Maritime Governance Architecture Apr 23, 2026

The Maritime Insurance Chokepoint: Securing India’s Sea-Borne Trade

India must treat maritime insurance as a strategic instrument and build institutional, sovereign-backed capacity to prevent external risk pricing from disrupting its economy ...

Rethinking Environmental Clearance for Critical Mineral Mining
Critical Minerals Apr 18, 2026

Rethinking Environmental Clearance for Critical Mineral Mining

Fast-tracking clearances for critical minerals may ease supply risks, but without stronger transparency and community safeguards, it risks undermining sustainability and public trust ...

India’s Informal Sector and AI: Jobs, Justice, Policy
Developing and Emerging Economies | Artificial Intelligence Apr 17, 2026

India’s Informal Sector and AI: Jobs, Justice, Policy

India’s informal sector will endure AI disruption, but without proactive policy, it risks deeper precarity, inequality, and exclusion ...

Critical Commercial Infrastructure in Warfare: The New Face of Grey-Zone
Defence and Security Apr 14, 2026

Critical Commercial Infrastructure in Warfare: The New Face of Grey-Zone

Private digital and space infrastructure is reshaping warfare, embedding commercial actors as strategic assets while creating new dependencies, vulnerabilities, and hybrid competition ...

A Strategic Approach Towards AI Sovereignty
Artificial Intelligence Apr 14, 2026

A Strategic Approach Towards AI Sovereignty

India must pursue AI sovereignty—targeting key layers like semiconductors, compute, and models—balancing autonomy with global collaboration ...

Deep Sea Mining and Ocean Commons: Economics, Equity, and the Governance
Economics and Finance | Developing and Emerging Economies Apr 13, 2026

Deep Sea Mining and Ocean Commons: Economics, Equity, and the Governance

DSM could reshape metal markets and geopolitics, but high costs, regulatory uncertainty, and ESG risks limit investment and delay its viability ...

Nigeria–US Military Cooperation and the Challenge of Containing Sahel Instability
International Affairs Apr 04, 2026

Nigeria–US Military Cooperation and the Challenge of Containing Sahel Instability

Deepening Nigeria–US military cooperation may strengthen counterterrorism capacity, but containing Sahel instability ultimately hinges on governance reform, political will, and Abuja’s ability to safeguard its strategic autonomy ...

Grey Waves: India Confronts China’s Hybrid Maritime Strategy
Maritime Security Mar 19, 2026

Grey Waves: India Confronts China’s Hybrid Maritime Strategy

China is reshaping maritime competition through persistent surveillance, dual-use infrastructure, and grey-zone tactics that challenge India’s traditional deterrence posture ...

The Paradox of Russia’s Sphere of Influence in Ukraine
International Affairs Mar 11, 2026

The Paradox of Russia’s Sphere of Influence in Ukraine

Russia’s actions in Ukraine highlight the paradox of spheres of influence, an enduring logic of great-power security that ultimately deepens rivalry, instability, and obstacles to lasting peace ...

Adapting India’s Social Protection Architecture for Climate Resilience
Domestic Politics and Governance | Climate Change Mar 10, 2026

Adapting India’s Social Protection Architecture for Climate Resilience

Without climate-responsive triggers in its welfare programmes, India risks allowing extreme weather to repeatedly erase the gains of poverty reduction ...

Expanding India’s Strategic Calculus: A Playbook for Engaging Distant Adversaries
International Affairs Feb 05, 2026

Expanding India’s Strategic Calculus: A Playbook for Engaging Distant Adversaries

As India’s interests and influence expand, it needs calibrated economic, symbolic, and military playbooks to deter distant adversaries ...

Fishing and Force: China’s Dark Fleets and Maritime Militias
International Affairs Jan 29, 2026

Fishing and Force: China’s Dark Fleets and Maritime Militias

China’s vast distant-water fishing fleets are increasingly blurring the line between commerce and coercion, turning civilian vessels into instruments of grey-zone maritime power ...

Venezuela in Crisis: The Hidden Costs for China’s Oil Giants
International Affairs Jan 28, 2026

Venezuela in Crisis: The Hidden Costs for China’s Oil Giants

Political upheaval in Venezuela is exposing China’s oil giants to rising geopolitical, financial, and operational risks ...

Contributors

Ashish Upreti

Ashish Upreti

Ashish Upreti is a serving Indian Army officer with over 25 years of experience in operations, crisis management and strategic communications. He has represented India at international forums and written articles and opinion pieces for national and international publications. In ...

Read More + Ashish Upreti

Ashish Upreti

Ashish Upreti is a serving Indian Army officer with over 25 years of experience in operations, crisis management and strategic communications. He has represented India at international forums and written articles and opinion pieces for national and international publications. In ...

Read More +