Interpreting India

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 did the Safe and Trusted AI Working Group actually deliver, and what are the Trusted AI Commons? and the AI governance guidance note designed to do? Was the India AI Impact Summit really less focused on safety, or did the conversation simply evolve when it moved to the Global South? How quickly is the frontier risk landscape changing, and are the frameworks we are building keeping pace? What does the growing concentration of the most capable AI models in the hands of two countries mean for a country like India?

In this episode of Interpreting India, host Dinakar Peri is joined by Air Marshal (Retd.) Diptendu Choudhury, former Commandant of the National Defence College. Together, they unpack the evolution of India’s multilayered air defense network, tracing their journey from limited radar coverage in the 1960s to today’s multilayered, integrated network capable of projecting power into adversarial airspace. The discussion highlights how offensive and defensive air power work in tandem, lessons from Operation Sindoor, the growing challenges posed by drones, missiles, and cost-effectiveness, and the future direction of India’s strategy in the face of China–Pakistan cooperation.

In this episode of Interpreting India, host Nidhi Singh is joined by Sayash Kapoor, co-author of AI Snake Oil, to unpack the myths, misconceptions, and exaggerated expectations around artificial intelligence. Kapoor challenges the dominant narratives of both utopian and dystopian AI futures and advocates instead for a more grounded perspective, viewing AI as a “normal technology,” akin to electricity or the internet, whose impact will unfold gradually over decades. Through a wide-ranging conversation, the episode examines the limitations of benchmark-based evaluation, the dangers of speculative AI policy, and the need for domain experts in shaping meaningful governance frameworks.

In this episode of Interpreting India, host Saheb Singh Chadha is joined by Aadil Brar, reporter at TaiwanPlus News and contributor to "Views from Taipei", to examine China’s evolving strategy across its contested borders. What connects China’s actions across these frontiers? How is it creating a new military normal around Taiwan? And has its assertiveness resulted in negative consequences for itself? This is the third and final episode in our special Interpreting China series, based on Views from Taipei, a collection of essays by young Indian scholars on China. Aadil’s essay, "From Land Border to the High Seas: Beijing Signaling at India, Taiwan, and the Philippines," provides the foundation for this wide-ranging conversation.

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 discussed. Amit Kumar is a contributor to the Views From Taipei compendium published by Carnegie India in May 2025. He is the author of the essay titled The Pulls and Pushes Within the Chinese Economy.

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.