Writing
Op-eds, essays and working papers on artificial intelligence, digital public infrastructure and Indian society.
Recent writing
- The DPI Doctrine: India's Quiet Bid to Govern the Global South's Digital FutureAadhaar, UPI and DigiLocker are now exported as a model as well as used at home. The piece asks what India is offering other countries when it offers its digital public infrastructure, and what it gains in return.The Financial Express
- We Are Not Behind in the AI Race. We Are Not Even in It.India has built systems other countries want to copy, but it does not yet build frontier models. The essay separates adoption from ownership and argues that the gap should be stated plainly before it can be closed.The Financial Express
- Rule-Maker, Not Rule-TakerWhy India should take part in writing the international rules for AI rather than adopt rules written elsewhere, and what an accountable industry position would look like.
- Systems over SlogansChange lasts when institutions behave differently and people who were overlooked gain leverage. Campaigns that trend and fade rarely achieve either.
- Deployment over Frontier: A Framework for India's AI AdoptionA measurement framework that scores AI progress by how far it is integrated into public services and productivity, rather than by model scale.Nuclear Edge
- Adaptive Governance for AutomationHow to design governance that can be revised as quickly as the technologies it covers.Bharat Governance Council
- Reading a Billion ConsumersIndian consumers do not behave as one market. Behaviour divides along language, income and digital access, and strategy that averages these differences tends to fail.Trade press
All writing
- 4 Jul 2026
The DPI Doctrine: India's Quiet Bid to Govern the Global South's Digital Future
Op-ed, The Financial Express
Aadhaar, UPI and DigiLocker are now exported as a model as well as used at home. The piece asks what India is offering other countries when it offers its digital public infrastructure, and what it gains in return.
- 2026
We Are Not Behind in the AI Race. We Are Not Even in It.
Op-ed, The Financial Express
India has built systems other countries want to copy, but it does not yet build frontier models. The essay separates adoption from ownership and argues that the gap should be stated plainly before it can be closed.
- 2026
Systems over Slogans
Essay
Change lasts when institutions behave differently and people who were overlooked gain leverage. Campaigns that trend and fade rarely achieve either.
- 2026
Deployment over Frontier: A Framework for India's AI Adoption
Working paper, Nuclear Edge
A measurement framework that scores AI progress by how far it is integrated into public services and productivity, rather than by model scale.
- 2026
Adaptive Governance for Automation
In progress, Bharat Governance Council
How to design governance that can be revised as quickly as the technologies it covers.
- 2025
Rule-Maker, Not Rule-Taker
Op-ed
Why India should take part in writing the international rules for AI rather than adopt rules written elsewhere, and what an accountable industry position would look like.
- 2025
Reading a Billion Consumers
Op-ed, Trade press
Indian consumers do not behave as one market. Behaviour divides along language, income and digital access, and strategy that averages these differences tends to fail.
- 2025
Why Industry Should Help Shape Regulation
Essay
The case for domestic industry taking part in technology regulation early, in the open, and on the record.
- 2025
Artificial Intelligence and the Cost of Conformity
Essay
On deference to language models, and how feedback loops between users and systems can narrow the range of what people think and say.
- 2025
Achieved Worth over Inherited Worth
Essay
Education is one of the few levers that changes a person’s position rather than easing it. The essay sets out why that matters in a society still organised by birth.
- 2025
Class, Capital and the Indian Traveller
Essay
Inherited advantage, and how it shows up in the language of taste. A reading through Bourdieu.
- 2025
A Real Book Should Hurt
Essay
On reading fewer books, more slowly, and choosing the ones that disagree with you.
Read - 2025
Consumer Heterogeneity Across India's Digital Tiers
Working paper, Working paper
A segmentation of Indian consumers by digital literacy and access, with implications for product and policy design.
Approach
The writing treats a new technology as something that enters existing institutions, markets and habits, and asks what changes when it does: who gains leverage, which rules stop working, and what the public is asked to trust.
Much of it is about India specifically. Consumers here do not behave as one market, the state builds infrastructure that private firms run on, and policy borrowed from elsewhere often fits badly.