Editor’s Note | Sharpening the Signal
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Founding Fuel
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Oscar 2026: A Study in Extremes
Chaos, craft and the return of the auteur
RR
Ronaan Roy
Former Deputy General Manager, Mahindra
Oscar Predictions 2026: Who Will Win—and Why
My annual curtain-raiser: the likely winners, the dark horses, and the one film you should actually watch.
RR
Ronaan Roy
Former Deputy General Manager, Mahindra
How Iran Is Turning the Global Economy Into a Battlefield
As the conflict with the United States and Israel intensifies, Iran’s new leadership is signalling a prolonged confrontation—one that combines conventional warfare with pressure on global energy flows and supply chains.
VK
Vivek Y. Kelkar
Researcher, Analyst & Columnist on Geo-economics, Geopolitics and Sustainability
·&
Beyond the Headlines: The Human Complexity of the Middle East
Books, films and cultural works that help us see the Middle East beyond the noise of geopolitics
FF
Founding Fuel
·Strategic Affairs & Geopolitics
The US–Israel War on Iran: The Risks to India’s Strategic Hedging
Energy dependence, remittance flows and trade corridors reveal how deeply India’s economy is tied to stability in West Asia. Part II of a two-part series.
VK
Vivek Y. Kelkar
Researcher, Analyst & Columnist on Geo-economics, Geopolitics and Sustainability
·Strategic Affairs & Geopolitics
The US–Israel War on Iran: Energy, Power and Regional Disruption
Energy chokepoints, proxy escalation and great-power recalibration are reshaping the Gulf and unsettling the global order. Part I of a two-part series.
VK
Vivek Y. Kelkar
Researcher, Analyst & Columnist on Geo-economics, Geopolitics and Sustainability
·investing
Your Life Is Already Long India. Your Portfolio Shouldn’t Be
Why global diversification is less about chasing returns and more about protecting your financial future from a single-country risk
AR
Abhishek Raghunath
Head of Content, Neil Patel Digital India
·Global Trade and Geoeconomics
Tariffs Are the Noise. Realignment Is the Signal
Even if Trump’s tariffs disappear, the forces reshaping global trade—geopolitics, security concerns and reconfigured regional blocs—are here to stay
VK
Vivek Y. Kelkar
Researcher, Analyst & Columnist on Geo-economics, Geopolitics and Sustainability
·Corporate Strategy
When Data Is Right but Decisions Go Wrong
Strategy fails not from lack of information, but from outdated assumptions about what it implies
AB
DM
Arjo Basu & Debleena Majumdar
·Happiness, Meaning & Purpose
The Happiness We Keep Postponing
A reflection on joy, and why the ordinary day may be enough
HC
Haresh Chawla
Investor, Entrepreneur
·Leadership Practice and Development
The Blind Spots of India Inc
Disability inclusion, leadership imagination, and the limits of intent
NJ
SS
Nikunj Kumar Jain & Subhashis Sinha
·The Geopolitics of AI
India’s AI Moment
As major powers turn artificial intelligence towards science and national security, India must widen its AI vision beyond inclusion and productivity
PS
Pankaj Saran
Convenor, NatStrat
·Work from Anywhere and Future of Work
Redesigning Work—or Retreating to Control
Why the real risk in the return-to-office debate isn’t resistance, but the quiet erosion of judgement and capability
KA
Kavi Arasu
Leadership and Talent Development Professional
·The Geopolitics of AI
India’s AI Gambit: The Choices That Will Define Power
Speed is not strategy. The real battle is over sovereignty, science and state capacity
FF
Founding Fuel
·Global Trade and Geoeconomics
India’s Trade Deals and the New Meaning of Strategic Autonomy
What India’s agreements with the US and EU reveal about power, policy space, and calibrated accommodation
VK
Vivek Y. Kelkar
Researcher, Analyst & Columnist on Geo-economics, Geopolitics and Sustainability
·Development & State Capacity
India Is Asking the Wrong Question About AI
Why India’s AI moment will be decided less by models—and more by how intelligence is applied, governed, and trusted
HC
Haresh Chawla
Investor, Entrepreneur
·AI, Leadership & Decision Making
Anatomy of a Prompt
On prompting, intent, and the discipline of asking well
AB
DM
Arjo Basu & Debleena Majumdar
·Development & State Capacity
Trendspotting 2026: India Cannot App Its Way to Prosperity
Another 50 tech IPOs won’t build a middle class
HC
Haresh Chawla
Investor, Entrepreneur
·Development & State Capacity
Between Jugaad and Destiny: India’s Missing Medium Term
Why a civilisation that thinks in eternity still struggles to plan in decades
AC
Ajay Chacko
Director, Keya Foods International
·Continuous & Immersive Learning
Relearning the Craft of Teaching
An eight-week teaching programme unsettles long-held assumptions about rigour, expertise, and what it truly means to help students learn
UN
Uma Narain
Former Founding Dean, School of Liberal Arts, NMIMS University
·Strategic Affairs & Geopolitics
America’s Iran Trap Is Closing
Carrier strike groups, nuclear deadlines and a brittle regime in Tehran are converging on a moment where Washington may discover that every move—strike, sabotage or restraint—ends in escalation
VK
Vivek Y. Kelkar
Researcher, Analyst & Columnist on Geo-economics, Geopolitics and Sustainability
·Leadership Practice and Development
When AI Raises the Average, Who Protects the Breakthrough?
Artificial intelligence is superb at optimisation. But transformation still comes from the deviations leaders choose to back.
AB
DM
Arjo Basu & Debleena Majumdar
·Corporate Strategy
A Merger Is Not an Idea
Why the Omnicom - Interpublic deal reveals a deeper failure of imagination in advertising
SS
Shekar Swamy
MD & Group CEO, R K SWAMY Ltd
·Arts & Culture
The Light and the Lotus
What the return of the Piprahwa relics asks of us—about restraint, remembrance, and how we practice attention today
JB
Jay Vikram Bakshi
Board Adviser, Entrepreneurial Mentor
·Global Trade and Geoeconomics
Trade Is the New Geopolitics—and India Must Learn to Play It
Why India’s future power will be shaped less by diplomacy and more by trade architecture
VK
Vivek Y. Kelkar
Researcher, Analyst & Columnist on Geo-economics, Geopolitics and Sustainability
·Family Business & Inter-generational transitions
Inside Chennai’s Enduring Enterprises
A field report on family ownership, continuity, and the craft of building for the long term
UB
Upamanyu Bhattacharya
Professor of Retail, S P Jain Institute of Management & Research
·Travel & Journeys
A Journey Back to Myself
Armed with a diary and pen, I set out on a solo two-and-a-half-month ‘journalling adventure’ through Malaysia and Indonesia. Every little self-musing helped me remember my old self and awaken a new one
PB
Piya Bose
Founder, Girls On The Go & Cave of Plato
·Organisational Culture, Transformation and Change
The Quiet Work of Branding
Five shifts shaping how organisations build clarity, continuity and trust in 2025
IG
Indranil Gupta
Founder Director, BrandNEW Associates
·Strategic Affairs & Geopolitics
Iran at the Brink: Five Scenarios That Could Reshape the Region
Economic collapse, political revolt and great-power rivalry converge in Iran’s most dangerous moment in decades.
VK
Vivek Y. Kelkar
Researcher, Analyst & Columnist on Geo-economics, Geopolitics and Sustainability
·Digital transformation
When We Stopped Taking Things Apart
How abstraction, AI, and frictionless systems may be reshaping confidence, cognition, and first-principles thinking
AC
Ajay Chacko
Director, Keya Foods International
·Development & State Capacity
Rivers, Bronzes and the Architecture of Ambition
What the Chola trail reveals about power, systems, memory, and coffee
VB
Vijay Bhat
Founder-Director, Roots & Wings Consulting Services
·Climate & Environmental Sustainability
The Ecology of Engagement: What Madhav Gadgil Taught Us to See
From sacred groves to the Western Ghats, Gadgil’s work rebuilt the bridge between science and lived experience.
FF
Founding Fuel
·Strategic Affairs & Geopolitics
A World Without Endgames
What prolonged global conflicts mean for Europe, China—and India’s narrowing strategic space.
VK
Vivek Y. Kelkar
Researcher, Analyst & Columnist on Geo-economics, Geopolitics and Sustainability
·Development & State Capacity
Test cricket’s second innings
With the right positioning, Test cricket can become a premium cultural product — and a powerful tourism engine. The BCCI is uniquely placed to lead that shift.
SB
Shravan Bhat
Journalist, Power Finance & Risk
·Organisational Culture, Transformation and Change
When Stories Move Faster Than Systems
Why AI-accelerated narratives are exposing leadership and capability gaps across organisations
AB
DM
Arjo Basu & Debleena Majumdar
·AI Ethics & Governance
Revolution Inside AI
As the world fixates on large language models, a quieter shift toward world models, scientific AI and safety is reshaping global power
SW
Sundeep Waslekar
President, Strategic Foresight Group
·Travel & Journeys
The Best of FF Life 2025
11 stories that asked us to slow down, look closer, and feel more deeply
FF
Founding Fuel
·Corporate Strategy
The Best Stories of 2025
Ten of our best work through the year—on business, leadership, and geopolitical trends
FF
Founding Fuel
·Strategic Affairs & Geopolitics
The Year the World Learned to Live Without America
How Trump’s tariffs, Europe’s capitulation, China’s counter-moves and India’s narrowing room for manoeuvre reshaped the global order.
DN
Dinesh Narayanan
Independent journalist, Author of The RSS and The Making of The Deep Nation