Vilas Dhar: The Indian-American Shaping the Global Debate on AI, Power and Public Good As governments and technology companies compete to define artificial intelligence, Vilas Dhar is arguing that the bigger contest is about who gets to shape the rules. From philanthropy and civil society…
Shantanu Narayen’s Adobe Legacy: Can Anil Chakravarthy Lead the Company Into the Agentic AI Era? After 18 years as Adobe CEO, Indian-origin technology leader Shantanu Narayen will become executive chair on December 1, 2026, handing the CEO role to fellow Indian-origin executive Anil Chakravarthy. The…
From Tamil Nadu to Punjab: Five Indian Restaurants Making New York Taste More Like India New York has never been short of Indian restaurants. What has changed is the kind of Indian food the city is being asked to take seriously. For years, the international image of Indian food was often reduced to a familiar collection of dishes: butter chicken, naan, chicken tikka, biryani and perhaps a curry whose exact regional identity was not particularly important. New York is helping change that conversation. Today, Indian restaurants in the city are increasingly presenting regional cooking, family traditions and lesser-known dishes rather than treating “Indian cuisine” as one giant category. That makes New York particularly interesting for Indian travellers, students, expatriates and food lovers. And if someone asks, “Where should I eat Indian food in New York?”, there is no single correct answer. But these five restaurants provide a fascinating introduction to the city’s contemporary Indian dining scene. 1. Semma — South India gets the spotlight 4.2•South Indian restaurant•Closed Website•Directions 60 Greenwich Avenue, West Village If your idea of Indian food begins and ends with butter chicken, Semma may be the restaurant that politely asks you to reconsider your education. Semma specialises
How Indian Directors Are Taking Their Own Stories to the World in 2026 There was a time when Indian cinema’s international identity was often reduced to a few familiar ingredients: Bollywood songs, elaborate weddings, colourful costumes and the occasional art-house film that festival audiences discovered almost by accident. In 2026, that picture looks considerably different. Indian filmmakers are increasingly arriving at the world’s major film festivals not simply as representatives of a large film industry, but as individual cinematic voices. The most visible example is Payal Kapadia, who became president of the jury for the 65th Cannes Critics’ Week in 2026. Critics’ Week runs alongside the main Cannes Film Festival and is particularly focused on emerging filmmakers. Kapadia’s appointment followed her historic 2024 Grand Prix win for All We Imagine as Light. That progression is worth noticing. First, a filmmaker’s film is selected. Then it competes. Then it wins. And eventually, the filmmaker returns to help decide which new voices deserve attention. Cinema has a funny way of turning yesterday’s newcomer into tomorrow’s gatekeeper. Payal Kapadia’s Cannes journey is bigger than one award Kapadia’s story did not begin with the Grand Prix. Her film All We Imagine as Light was
How Spices, Diversity and the Indian Diaspora Took a Cuisine Global Ask someone in London, New York, Melbourne, Dubai or Singapore what they know about Indian food and there is a good chance the answer will arrive surprisingly quickly. Curry. Naan. Biryani. Samosa. Perhaps paneer. But that is where the interesting part begins. Because Indian food is not really one cuisine. It is a remarkably large collection of regional culinary traditions shaped by geography, agriculture, religion, trade, migration and centuries of cultural exchange. And somehow, this extraordinarily complicated food system has managed to become extraordinarily portable. That is one reason Indian food has become a global phenomenon. It did not conquer the world with one dish. It arrived with thousands. The first secret: Indian food knows how to build flavour Salt and pepper can certainly make food delicious. Indian cooking looked at that arrangement and apparently decided that two ingredients were not enough. Cumin, coriander, turmeric, cardamom, cloves, cinnamon, black pepper, mustard seeds, fenugreek, chilli, ginger and garlic are among the many ingredients used across India’s culinary traditions. But the important point is not simply the number of spices. It is how they are combined and prepared. Spices may be
From New York to 900+ Centres: How ISKCON Took Krishna Consciousness Around the World In 1965, a 70-year-old Indian spiritual teacher arrived in New York carrying little more than books, a message and a determination to introduce the teachings of Krishna to people who knew very little about them. Six decades later, the organisation he founded has a presence that stretches across continents. The International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), popularly known as the Hare Krishna movement, marks its 60th anniversary in 2026. Its official website currently lists 900+ centres worldwide, alongside thousands of festivals and more than 110 vegetarian restaurants associated with its global activities. That makes ISKCON’s story one of the more remarkable examples of an Indian spiritual tradition developing a sustained international presence. And the story begins in an unlikely place. From a small New York storefront to a worldwide movement When A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada arrived in New York in 1965, the city was hardly an obvious launchpad for a movement rooted in Vaishnava devotional traditions. Yet New York became the starting point. ISKCON was formally established in 1966, and its early activities centred on chanting, devotional practice, spiritual discussion and the distribution of Srila Prabhupada’s
India’s Defence Export Moment: Can “Made in India” Become a Global Security Brand? India’s defence exports reached a record ₹38,424 crore in FY2025–26 and now span more than 80 countries. The next challenge is considerably harder: turning rapid export growth into durable global credibility, indigenous…
Tarang Shakti 2026: Why India’s Multinational Air Exercise Is About More Than Aircraft When fighter aircraft from different countries share the sky, the spectacle is easy to understand. The harder work happens before take-off: agreeing on procedures, coordinating communications, planning missions and ensuring that different…
India’s Multi-Alignment: How New Delhi Tries to Have Friends Without Choosing a Camp In international politics, friendship is complicated. It becomes even more complicated when your friends do not particularly like one another. India has spent much of the 21st century learning to operate precisely in that uncomfortable space. New Delhi buys defence equipment and energy from Russia, deepens technology and strategic cooperation with the United States, maintains an unusually close defence relationship with France, works extensively with Israel, negotiates with Europe, and participates in the Quad alongside the US, Japan and Australia. There is an obvious question. How does India manage all of this without becoming dependent on one major power? The answer increasingly lies in what analysts call multi-alignment, underpinned by the older Indian foreign-policy concept of strategic autonomy. It is not neutrality. It is not isolation. And it certainly isn’t having five best friends who all promise not to talk about each other at dinner. It is the attempt to preserve freedom of choice. Strategic autonomy is the principle India’s strategic autonomy has historical roots in the Non-Aligned Movement, but today’s environment is very different. During the Cold War, non-alignment was largely associated with refusing to formally
The Ocean Beside India Is Also the Highway Beneath Its Economy Why the Indian Ocean is central to India’s security, energy and global ambitions Look at a map of India. The country’s geography appears almost to point southwards into the sea. The Arabian Sea lies to the west. The Bay of Bengal stretches to the east. The Indian Ocean opens directly below the peninsula. That shape is not merely a geographical curiosity. It is a strategic advantage. And increasingly, it is also a strategic responsibility. India sits beside one of the world’s most important maritime theatres, connecting the energy-producing Middle East and Africa with the manufacturing and consuming economies of Asia. The Indian Ocean region is estimated to carry around two-thirds of the world’s oil shipments and more than one-third of global bulk cargo traffic. For India, therefore, the ocean is not “somewhere outside the coastline.” It is part of the country’s economic infrastructure. India’s coastline is an economic asset India has more than 7,500 kilometres of coastline, and its dependence on maritime routes extends across energy, trade, fishing, tourism and commercial shipping. Carnegie’s analysis describes India as the resident naval power in the Indian Ocean and notes that the