All India Rank 1 in IIT-JEE 2000; BTech in computer science at IIT Kanpur (2004), a PhD at UC San Diego (2009) and NIH research (2010–14).
Back at IIT Kanpur since July 2014, his lab studies how insect brains decide to approach or avoid a smell, such as a human body versus a repellent.
His group built TreadWill, a free automated CBT programme for depression; in a 598-person randomised trial in India, users who finished at least half the modules showed significant drops in depression and anxiety symptoms.
598
participants, India trial
12 of 20
of 2000–19 toppers abroad
Why it matters Talent that stays can serve Indian needs.
Other side This is one career, and the trial benefit is reported for users who completed at least half the modules; others may not see the same. Twelve of twenty toppers abroad is a small group, not a trend.
IIT Kharagpur, Madras and Kanpur are building medical schools, but their directors say they want ‘physician-engineers’, not more doctors.
Kanpur will start with MD, DM and MCh degrees; its 500-bed hospital is due to be inaugurated by the end of this year, with the first patient by March 2027. Madras plans MBBS, MD and PhD; Kharagpur has a hospital and approval for postgraduate courses. None has graduated a doctor yet.
Imports are about 60% of India’s medical-device consumption: roughly ₹1.37 lakh crore (~$8.8bn) in 2024-25, against exports of ₹42,360 crore.
~60%
of devices imported
$8.8bn
device imports, FY25
60
new faculty, Kanpur
Why it matters Hybrid skills aim to cut India’s reliance on imported devices.
Other side Kharagpur’s director says success is a product made in India, validated, deployed at scale and improving outcomes, not papers, patents or start-ups. A teaching hospital and NMC approval are mandatory and take years, so the model will take a while to judge.
A record 16 Indian men joined S&P 500 boards this year, including at Walmart, Southwest Airlines and Western Digital.
Only White men and women added more seats; the share of Indian men among directors has tripled since 2018.
Of 184 Indian men on Fortune 500 and S&P 500 boards, 77% have operating (P&L) backgrounds; about two-thirds have been CEOs.
16
record new S&P 500 seats
3×
share since 2018
Why it matters Boards want operators; many have the CV.
Other side Still a small slice of new seats, and Indian women haven’t kept pace, partly because fewer have been CEOs. A CEO-heavy pipeline can narrow who gets in.
Data-centre builders Nscale and SB Energy, both preparing New York IPO Initial public offering: when a company first sells its shares on a stock exchange., each made $140mn revenue in the last half year, yet hope for valuations of $35bn and $50bn.
The biggest US-listed company with annual revenue under $500mn (excluding biotechs and bitcoin treasuries) is AST SpaceMobile, at $27bn.
Contracts with OpenAI, Anthropic and ByteDance back their pitch, but backlogs depend on data centres being built on time and on budget.
$140mn
half-year revenue, each
~90%
median Spac fall post-merger
Why it matters Valuations are racing far ahead of sales.
Other side Signed contracts with big tenants may yet turn backlog into revenue; the real test is delivery on time and on budget.
Columnist Jonathan Weil argues booms need a steady flow of fresh capital, and can turn to busts once the window to raise new money closes; he says we are not there yet.
His signal to watch: the return of the phrase ‘funding gap’, which entered the lexicon with ‘burn rate’ in 2000 as the dot-com bubble began to deflate.
Early nerves: OpenAI ruled out going public this year, Holtec Nuclear paused its IPO Initial public offering: when a company first sells its shares on a stock exchange. plans and Anthropic pushed its IPO from October to November.
2000
‘funding gap’ enters lexicon
Nov
Anthropic IPO, from Oct
Why it matters Watch the money supply, not the hype.
Other side The delays may be bumps rather than warnings: the companies still appear able to raise private money, and Holtec is already profitable. Because OpenAI’s and Anthropic’s finances aren’t public, outsiders can’t easily read how close any funding gap really is.
Universities are cutting Ph.D. admissions and freezing hiring under financial strain: Chicago paused more than a dozen programmes amid a $160M deficit, and Brown suspended six.
Brown’s faculty committee put the cost of supporting a Ph.D. student at $700,000 to $1M; jobless rates for Ph.D. holders aged 25–34 hit 3%, the highest August reading since 2009 outside the pandemic.
Columnist Allysia Finley argues falling federal subsidies and rising grad-student pay, such as Cornell’s $48,367 stipend for 15-hour weeks, are correcting a glut of doctorates.
$160M
Chicago deficit
3%
Ph.D. jobless, ages 25–34
Why it matters Ph.D. supply is being repriced.
Other side Universities warn the cuts endanger research, and the jobless data is a short snapshot: in California, Ph.D. unemployment (3.9% in June) is still below that of bachelor’s holders (4.7%). Whether fewer Ph.D.s is a correction or a loss depends on which fields shrink.
Meta will tap the European bond market for the first time this autumn, investors say, joining a record hunt for funds.
Investors have provided about $500bn to AI-linked groups this year, per Goldman Sachs; the five Hyperscaler The giant cloud companies (Amazon, Microsoft, Google, Meta, Oracle) that build the biggest data centres. account for about $200bn and are expected to issue over $1tn more in the next few years. SoftBank raised over $11bn in the biggest High-yield bond A bond from a riskier borrower that pays more interest to make up for the higher chance of default. issue ever, to fund an OpenAI investment.
Other borrowers are timing bond sales around the tech giants, and highly rated bonds sometimes trade at discounts to lesser-quality ones. Fed chair Kevin Warsh and Treasury secretary Scott Bessent argue hyperscalers compete with the $31tn Treasury market, where 10-year costs hit their highest since 2007 last week.
$745bn
2026 big-tech capex
$11bn
SoftBank junk record
$1tn+
new debt expected
Why it matters AI’s cash appetite is starting to shape others’ borrowing.
Other side Whether hyperscaler debt is lifting government yields is disputed: HSBC’s Adam Bothamley calls it a stretch, and Morgan Stanley’s Matthew Hornbach sees a far smaller effect than rates and deficits. Morgan Stanley also says euro capacity is untapped. The risk is if AI cash flows disappoint: Apollo’s Torsten Sløk notes the credit case rests on operating cash flow tripling from $600bn to $2tn.