Amitendu

Interesting Read: Dr. @Amitendu1 & @Kanika_Kaur_'s report titled "India's Foundational AI & LLM Ambitions" for @ISASNus Link to the ISAS Scan: isas.nus.edu.sg/papers/indias-… #India #EmergingTech #AI #LLM #TechTrends #NewDelhi #NewWorldOrder @NUSingapore #WeekendRead #LongWeekend

He could speak 8 languages and they said he could recite all 37 of Shakespeare's plays from memory. An award winning playwright & stage artist and one of Satyajit Ray's favourite actors. Also one of India's finest comic actors in films like Golmaal, and Hirak Rajar Deshe. The irony is that the marvellous comic roles in Golmaal and other films, what most people outside remember him for, is what he regarded as the least important "I have developed a technique of shutting my mind off, switching it off, rather. I will not be able to tell you even the names of the films I have acted in or even the name of the character I have just finished shooting.” He was also a brilliant writer & regular theatre reviewer. “Mr.Dutt as Othello was rather a pitiable sight, with his voice gone, his breathing laboured and his bulk enormous.” This was Utpal Dutt reviewing his own stage performance using the pseudonym Iago. He also loved classical art and there is this wonderful story told by his daughter. "When we went to Italy, it meant we would have to spend at least one day on viewing each sculpture. We had hired the services of a guide. But, we found that Baba knew more about the place than the guide. The next day, the guide asked us if we would be ready to go on our own." A true renaissance man and a principled one, not scared to go to prison for his views. Utpal Dutt was truly one of our greats. 97th birth anniversary today.

📢 New South Asia Scan India’s ambitions in foundational AI & large language models are taking shape amid intensifying global competition. 🧠 How can India balance strategic autonomy with practical constraints? @Amitendu1 and @Kanika_Kaur_ argue for a hybrid, tiered approach that leverages partnerships, open-source collaboration, and gradual capability building. Read more: isas.nus.edu.sg/papers/indias-… #AI #India #SouthAsia #LLMs #TechPolicy

Seven dogs stolen from their owners have gone viral after escaping from an illegal transport truck and making their way home. They traveled around 17 km together, led by a corgi across highways and fields, now safely back with their respective owners..🐶🐾🥺❤️

Students who took notes by hand scored ~28% higher on conceptual questions than laptop note-takers. Writing forces your brain to process and compress ideas instead of copying them.

Always shocked by how snobbish sales people at so called designer stores in Delhi malls are . At @dior at Promenade Vasant Kunj, the salesman was obnoxious & rude. At nearby @ScentidoIndia they were aggressive & patronising. What makes Indians who work for foreign brands feel so superior to ordinary people? It disgraces the brands themselves & suggests that this is how they feel about Indians.

With insurance cover scarce in the international markets, GOI mulls domestic alternatives, my piece @bsindia #IranWar‌ business-standard.com/economy/news/g…

India will pay some cost, but those would be absorbed in the budget. Pakistan & Bangladesd, however, face existential crisis. Huge oil shock that could spiral into political and social costs. "The Strait of Hormuz is facing a blockade. These countries will be most impacted" #IranvsUSA #IranIsraelConflict

Purchased 30 odd iPad’s for sales team . To make it easy for their usage while on customer calls, got the GPS Model. Wanted SIM’s on corporate connection to enable the iPads & contacted Airtel. The amount of KYC documents & Bureaucratic hurdles we’ve faced just to take connections in company’s name is unbelievable. We had to give every user’s Aadhar card details even when the connection was under company’s name. Took 7 days of hassle to complete all paperwork just to bloody get physical SIM’s & now each sim has to be inserted in mobile nos registered on their Aadhar to activate & convert it into E-SIM & then register them on IPad’s. Pathetic the way simple thing like getting corporate SIM’s or opening a current account or forex inward/outward remittances for buying/selling goods or service abroad involves shit load of paperwork’s that one just stops even trying to run a company in this country. You ask Banks they point at RBI You ask Telecom operators they point at Rules made by Telecom ministry You ask customs or GST officials they point at Finance ministry BIS is mandatory but the process is so cumbersome that it takes 1yr to submit design documents to get it approved & when questioned why such complex rules , it’s pointed at Ministry of Heavy Industry Every possible hurdle is placed in front of a manufacturer to not succeed unless you have loads of cash lying to bribe your way up to get approvals. Very depressing state of affairs really.

I've been wanting to write this for a while: an article on the key characteristics of the Chinese health system, as a patient. It's something that I - perhaps unfortunately - have come to have a lot of experience with in my eight years in China. I've been to the doctor as a patient dozens of times. My wife delivered our first daughter in a Chinese hospital, and had cancer surgery in Shanghai. My younger daughter - who once completely severed her thumb in an unfortunate accident in rural Gansu - had emergency surgery in a small clinic there (her thumb is fine now!). We spent the entire covid episode in China. And, to this day, I still go back to China every year to do my routine health tests or the occasional procedure (like a thyroid biopsy in Harbin last year). In other words, when it comes to the Chinese health system, I've seen a lot. What's fascinating about the Chinese health system, and that's true in general about many things in China, is that it never inherited Western dogma about how things were supposed to work, it's completely unconstrained by what everyone else has decided is "normal". And, as a result, you end up with things that would simply sound impossible to any Western patient: a consultation with the head cardiologist of one of Shanghai's best hospitals for less than $10, blood test results in under 30 minutes, and a system where you can walk in, see three specialists and walk out with a diagnosis and your medicine - all before noon. As I argue in the article that's all enabled by 3 characteristics that sound super unorthodox: 1) extremely short consultation times, less than 5 minutes 2) no GP gatekeepers (you go straight to see specialists) 3) systematic testing for every patient, even if you just have a cold Each one sounds wrong. And in fact when I describe them to doctor friends in the West they immediately explain to me why that can't possibly work, and how their own system is far superior. Except that it does work, I checked the numbers (on top of my personal experience): the Chinese system handles close to 10 billion total outpatient visits a year (nhc.gov.cn/cms-search/dow…), or about 7 visits per person per year on average, and the average wait time is only about 18 minutes (gov.cn/yaowen/shipin/…). Contrast this with France, my country, where people already go to the doctor A LOT, but still less than in China: only 5.5 visits per person per year (evaluation.securite-sociale.fr/home/maladie/M…). And the French system can't even handle this lower volume: when you can see a specialist straight away in China - you don't even need to make an appointment in advance - you need to wait months to see one in France (50 days on average for a cardiologist, for instance: drees.solidarites-sante.gouv.fr/sites/default/…). I've personally managed to see 3 specialists AND do all related tests AND get the test results AND get diagnoses AND buy the medicine to cure me - all in the space of a morning at a hospital in Shanghai. That would have undoubtedly taken me a whole year in the French system. My purpose here is not to argue that the West should replicate the Chinese health system wholesale, but to ask an honest question: what if some of the things we take for granted about healthcare aren't nearly as inevitable as we think? Is it completely unthinkable that we've developed some dogmas that are costing us - in money, in time, and occasionally in lives? That's the whole point of my article: describing a health system built from first principles by people who never assumed we in the West knew better - up to you to decide if they have a point. Enjoy the read here: open.substack.com/pub/arnaudbert…

Map of Vegetarians in India. Work of India in Pixels.

Indian builders baulk at an at least ten-year risk-return rate. If govt can't provide these thinly capitalised engineering firms the EPC comfort, they want someone else to provide the same EPC terms. India is working to lure private capital back into highway construction, a decade after investors retreated over concerns about revenue risks and bureaucratic delays. bloomberg.com/news/articles/…

The single biggest hurdle, in India, to solving pollution woes, metabolic (health) problems, commute issues, and many more -- seemingly unrelated but related ones -- is absence of walkable pavements. The lowest hanging fruit is this if our policymakers understand.

Episode 310: India's Budget 2026 Analysis Iqbal Sevea, Vinod Rai & Amitendu Palit unpack India’s 2026 Budget, covering growth, inflation, semiconductors, manufacturing, MSMEs, and energy security. isas.podbean.com/e/episode-310-…

Please have a look at my teaser video 4 my policy brief for @MLInstitute on Foreign interference in #Canada The paper is here: macdonaldlaurier.ca/canada-under-p… youtu.be/jlU3Zc7Gook?si… @CDAInstitute @EASCentre @ISDP_Sweden @JIIA_eng @ycapsjapan @RIPS_admin @abcnews @Amitendu1 @kenmoriyasu

South Asia Chat kicks off 2026 with a deep dive into India’s economic outlook. Host @IqbalSevea speaks to @Amitendu1 on tariffs, trade deals, and the road ahead for 2026. podbean.com/ew/pb-fc43p-1a…

Apart from parents, the one person who made get closer to Lord Guruvayoorappan and Ayyappan K J Yesudas. Today is his birthday of one and only Yesudas (Full name - Kattassery Joseph Yesudas) Usually on his birthday, he prays at Shri Mookambika temple (in Karnataka ).

Citizens are demanding action from governments on clear priorities such as #aravallihills #pollution #cybercrime All actionable items, not nebulous angst. A nice note of priorities to wake up to on a New Year

Never expected any Indian Journalist to give it back to someone as powerful as Kailash Vijayvargiya, Amit Shah's man. Seeing this video of an Indian Journalist questioning and holding power accountable brings hope. @Anurag_Dwary ✊

Dedicated to every racist individual in the World