The Missing Pieces in India’s AI Puzzle: Talent, Data, and R&D

More from Interpreting India

1. 

   S4 · E24 · 15 May 2025 · 45 min

   Interpreting China: The Economy and its Impact on Foreign Policy

   In this episode of Interpreting India, host Saheb Singh Chadha is joined by Amit Kumar, staff research analyst at the Takshashila Institution, to explore the structural imbalances in China’s economy and what they mean for the world. The conversation delves into three major dilemmas facing the Chinese economy—fiscal stimulus, property sector instability, and domestic consumption rebalancing. Together, they examine how these economic dynamics impact China’s foreign policy, foreign economic relations and China’s outreach to countries like India. India–China economic relations are also…

2. 

   S4 · E23 · 30 Apr 2025 · 48 min

   Securing Space: Opportunities for U.S.-India Cooperation in a New Strategic Frontier

   In this episode of Interpreting India, host Tejas Bharadwaj speaks with Victoria Samson, chief director for space security and stability at the Secure World Foundation, about emerging challenges and opportunities in space security. As countries ramp up efforts to protect space-based assets from cyber threats, anti-satellite weapons, and other risks, the episode explores the strategic, technological, and diplomatic dimensions of space cooperation. How do bilateral and multilateral initiatives advance shared security goals in an increasingly contested space environment? Beyond the progress of…

3. 

   S4 · E22 · 27 Mar 2025 · 45 min

   India's Defence Industry: The State of Play

   In this episode of Interpreting India, Lt Gen P. R. Shankar (Retd.) joins host Saheb Singh Chadha to unpack the state of India’s defense industry. While India has made gains in modernizing its military and expanding domestic defense production, challenges persist, for example, in research and development, and procurement. Gen. Shankar also provided recommendations that would allow India to reduce its imports, diversify dependence, and export indigenous systems.

4. 

   S5 · E50 · 27 Aug 2026 · 45 min

   Subsea Cables, AI Infrastructure, and Africa's Connectivity Gap

   In this episode of Interpreting India, Charukeshi Bhatt speaks with Jane Munga, fellow with the Africa Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, on the subsea cable landscape in Africa. With the continent now home to around 77 submarine cables and one of the fastest growing AI infrastructure markets in the world, the conversation moves beyond the headline investment numbers to ask harder questions: who benefits, who governs, and what does resilience actually look like when the cables go down? This episode explores: • Africa is seeing a surge in AI and cable infrastructure…

5. 

   S5 · E49 · 13 Aug 2026 · 50 min

   India, Australia, and the Critical Minerals Opportunity

   In this episode of Interpreting India, Shruti Mittal, research analyst at Carnegie India, speaks with Professor Mohan Yellishetty of Monash University on the India-Australia critical minerals partnership, what it has delivered so far, and where the two countries can build the most meaningful cooperation over the next decade. This episode explores: • How have India and Australia's mineral positions evolved individually over the last few years, and where do their trajectories stand today when viewed together? • Beyond the standard supply-demand complementarity, what do genuine areas of…

6. 

   S5 · E48 · 10 Jul 2026 · 34 min

   Chokepoints, Economic Warfare and India's Strategic Options

   In this episode of Interpreting India, Konark Bhandari, speaks with Edward Fishman, author of Chokepoints: American Power in the Age of Economic Warfare, on economic statecraft, how the U.S. built its playbook for economic warfare over time, and what the lessons are for India as it looks to build its own economic resilience. This episode explores: • What makes something a genuine choke point, and is there a playbook that other countries can actually replicate? • Why were China's rare earth export controls and Iran's leverage over the Strait of Hormuz among the most consequential acts of…

7. 

   S5 · E47 · 2 Jul 2026 · 33 min

   India's AI Ambitions and the Road to Viksit Bharat | AI Summit Special

   In this episode of Interpreting India, Nidhi Singh, speaks with Debjani Ghosh, Distinguished Fellow at NITI Aayog and Chief Architect of the NITI Frontier Tech Hub. With nearly three decades across Intel, NASSCOM, and now NITI Aayog, Debjani brings a perspective that is both deeply practical and genuinely optimistic. She co-chaired the working group on AI for Economic Growth and Social Good at the India AI Impact Summit, and in this conversation she reflects on what the summit delivered, what India's AI journey needs to get right, and why the human being has to stay at the center of all of it.

8. 

   S5 · E46 · 19 Jun 2026 · 40 min

   Did India's AI Summit Get Safety Right? AI Summit Special

   In this episode of Interpreting India, Nidhi Singh, Associate Fellow at Carnegie India, speaks with Professor Balaraman Ravindran, Head of the Department of Data Science and AI at IIT Madras, and Co-Chair of the Safe and Trusted AI Working Group at the India AI Impact Summit. Since the summit, Professor Ravindran has also been appointed to the UN's Independent International Scientific Panel on AI. There is a narrative that has taken hold since the summit, that India moved away from safety and left frontier risks behind. This conversation sets the record straight. This episode explores: What…

9. 

   S5 · E45 · 4 Jun 2026 · 46 min

   Subsea Cables, Trusted Networks, and India's Strategic Opportunity

   In this episode of Interpreting India, Charukeshi Bhatt speaks with Pooja Bhatt, associate professor, Jindal School of International Affairs, O.P. Jindal University, on a piece of infrastructure that is easy to overlook and very difficult to protect: subsea cables. Stretching over 1.5 million kilometres across ocean floors and carrying nearly 99% of global data traffic, these cables underpin everything from financial systems and cloud infrastructure to the everyday digital services that billions of people rely on. For India, a fast-growing digital economy with expanding data center…

10. 

    S5 · E44 · 26 May 2026 · 45 min

    AI Literacy and the Future of Work in India

    In this episode of Interpreting India, Adarsh Ranjan, research analyst at Carnegie India, speaks with Jaspreet Bindra, founder of AI&Beyond and Tech Whisperer Limited, UK, and author of 'Winning with AI: Your Guide to AI Literacy.' Jaspreet brings a practitioner's perspective to questions that often get lost in the noise around AI: not just what is changing, but whether people, organizations, and policymakers are actually prepared for it. This episode explores: Is India's enthusiasm for AI actually translating into adoption on the ground, and which sectors are seeing real change? Is AI…

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