Oct 29: The AI Red Queen Race, India Aims For The Stars

Five tourists from Gujarat thought they’d pulled off the perfect “restroom break” dine-and-dash at a Rajasthan restaurant, ducking out on a ₹10,900 bill with the classic routine, only to be brought to a standstill by… traffic. The owner and a waiter chased them to the Gujarat border where traffic locked up and the police got in the mix. The group were arrested and the money settled via an online transfer done by a friend. We can already picture the friend eternally asking, bhai paise kab dega mere?

Now, let’s get into the Dispatch! 🚀

Today’s reading time is 6 mins.

The Indian stock market was volatile on Tuesday, with the Sensex dropping over 550 points intraday before closing marginally in the red. The marginal loss was mainly due to profit booking on account of monthly expiry and weak global cues.

In the world of artificial intelligence, standing still is not an option. Technology is evolving faster than we can regulate it—and that’s precisely the problem. Every time lawmakers think they’ve caught up, AI sprints another mile ahead. The race to make AI safer is turning into what experts call a “Red Queen problem”. The Red Queen problem, borrowed from Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking Glass, perfectly describes this AI moment. In the story, the Red Queen tells Alice that in her world, “it takes all the running you can do to stay in the same place.”

The Regulation Lag: That’s what governments are experiencing today. Governments everywhere are scrambling to contain the unintended consequences of AI from deepfakes to algorithmic bias to rogue chatbots. India has proposed draft rules to tackle deepfakes—a step in the right direction—but the pace of regulation is still sluggish compared to the warp speed at which AI tools are mutating and multiplying. The United States, for instance, continues to take a relatively hands-off approach to AI oversight, trusting the market to self-correct. That might work for innovation, but it’s a risky bet when AI can be misused to manipulate elections or manufacture false realities. India, on the other hand, doesn’t have the luxury of waiting and watching. The scale of its challenge requires faster action.

Running Smarter, Not Slower: To keep up, India and other nations will need regulatory agility, laws that evolve, not ossify. That means continuous monitoring, flexible legal frameworks, and global collaboration to share oversight mechanisms. AI safety can’t be a one-time rulebook; it must be a living, learning process.

India Aims For The Stars: India is dreaming big again and this time it’s aiming for the stars. After Chandrayaan and Aditya, ISRO has now turned its gaze toward an audacious new goal: building India’s very own space station, orbiting roughly 300 kilometers above Earth. The plan marks a defining moment in India’s transition from a satellite-launching nation to a full-fledged space power with a permanent presence in orbit.

From Launchpads To Living Quarters: For decades, ISRO has mastered the art of sending satellites and probes into space. A space station, however, changes the game entirely. It means creating a livable environment in orbit, complete with oxygen, energy systems, waste management, and research modules. It’s not just about sending astronauts, it’s about letting them stay. The proposed station, though still in early stages, is expected to serve as a platform for long-duration experiments, space medicine, microgravity research, and even preparation for deeper space missions—perhaps landing on Mars in the future.

Astronomical Challenges: Building a space home is a massive leap from launching rockets. The engineering challenges alone are staggering, from radiation shielding and docking mechanisms to life-support systems that must work flawlessly hundreds of Kilometers away from Earth, not to mention the cost. While ISRO has built its global reputation on doing more with less, constructing and maintaining a space station will demand sustained funding and perhaps international collaboration. Timing will be crucial too. Global competition in low-Earth orbit is heating up fast, with China’s Tiangong station already operational and private players like SpaceX eyeing similar habitats.

The Sky Is No Longer The Limit: Yet, if there’s one thing India’s space story has shown, it’s perseverance. ISRO isn’t rushing in; it’s building step by step, starting with the upcoming Gaganyaan mission, India’s first human spaceflight, which will lay the foundation for this orbital home.

OpenAI Makes ChatGPT Go Free In India: The AI giant is making ChatGPT Go free for all Indian users starting November 4, aiming to deepen its hold in the country, its fastest-growing market. The offer includes higher message limits, image generation and uploads, and longer “memory” features.

Airtel Africa Reports Sharp H1 Profit Rise: The telecom operator posted a net profit of US $376 million for the half‐year ended September 30, up from just US $79 million a year earlier. Revenue rose about 24.5% in constant-currency terms, showing the company’s recent focus on digital and financial-services expansion in Africa is paying off.

Dream11 Goes Global, Enters 11 Countries: The fantasy-sports major has rolled out operations in 11 markets such as the United States, United Kingdom, Australia and UAE, a bold move away from its India-centric model. The expansion comes after India’s recent online-gaming regulation disrupted Dream11’s paid-contest model, prompting a pivot to free-to-play formats and advertising support.

Thermo Fisher Expands Bengaluru R&D Hub: Thermo Fisher has doubled down on India’s innovation potential by expanding its Bengaluru centre. The company is investing ₹160 crore to expand its 37,000 sq ft R&D “Centre of Excellence” focused on antibody design, development and manufacturing. Over 100 high-skilled jobs will be created, and the facility will include advanced automation and analytical platforms, firming up Karnataka’s biotech credentials.

MoU With Russia’s UAC For SJ-100 Aircraft: In a landmark move for India’s civil aviation, HAL inked a memorandum of understanding with Russia’s United Aircraft Corporation (UAC) to manufacture the SJ-100 commuter aircraft domestically. The deal gives HAL rights to produce the twin-engine, narrow-body jet for the Indian market and marks the first time a full passenger aircraft will be manufactured in India since the Avro HS-748 era.

India’s Tech Deals Surge In Q3: India’s technology industry hit a turning point in Q3 2025, with US$1.48 billion worth of deals recorded—a 33 % jump quarter-on-quarter. Crucially, the number of high-value deals (over US$50 million) quadrupled, indicating investors are favouring quality over volume in the AI, SaaS and enterprise automation sectors.

Kirin Holdings and lender Anicut Capital have taken possession of pledged shares in BTB (Better Than Before), operator of The Beer Cafe, effectively wresting control from B9 Beverages amid plunging sales and severe liquidity stress.

The Who, Why, What: Filings show the new capital structure leaves nothing for B9’s stake in BTB, though founder Ankur Jain insists BTB remains a wholly owned subsidiary and says the company has challenged lender actions in court. An interim Delhi High Court order on October 17 restricts Anicut from selling or creating third‑party interests in BTB shares. BTB runs 42 pubs and contributed roughly 35% of B9’s consolidated FY25 revenue, making it a core on‑premise asset. Kirin, already B9’s largest shareholder and a lender via external commercial borrowings, joins Anicut as joint shareholder of BTB, reaffirming support for current management under founder‑CEO Rahul Singh.

Financial backdrop: B9 Beverages reported FY24 revenue of ₹638 crore and a net loss of ₹748 crore, with liabilities exceeding assets by ₹619.6 crore, negative cash flow of ~₹84 crore, and sales volume down to 6–7 million cases from 9 million in FY23. Key shareholders: Kirin 20.1%, Peak XV 14.6%, Jain family 17.8%.

What’s Next: Legal outcomes will determine governance over BTB, but investor-led ring‑fencing signals a priority to protect cash‑generative hospitality assets while B9 seeks stability and fresh funding.

Inside Google’s Nuclear Revival: As artificial intelligence drives a massive spike in electricity demand, Google is turning to nuclear power. The tech giant has partnered with NextEra Energy to revive the long-shuttered Duane Arnold Energy Center in Iowa, aiming to bring it back online by 2029. Once operational, the plant will supply clean, steady power to Google’s data centers, which are at the heart of its rapidly expanding AI infrastructure.

Powering AI’s Energy Hunger: Training and running AI systems requires staggering amounts of electricity, far more than traditional data storage or processing. Google’s AI operations alone are projected to consume several gigawatts of additional capacity in the coming years. While renewables like solar and wind remain part of Google’s sustainability goals, they struggle with intermittency. Nuclear, on the other hand, offers round-the-clock, carbon-free baseload energy, making it a natural fit for data centers that can’t afford downtime.

A New Chapter In Tech’s Energy Strategy: Google’s move indicates a broader trend: tech companies are no longer just consumers of energy, they are becoming active players in shaping how it’s generated.

Fed’s $6 Trillion Balance Sheet: The Fed’s balance sheet hovering around the $6 trillion mark is being called “about right” by analysts, given the scale of modern financial markets. Far from over-reach, the level reflects entrenched fiscal commitments, ample reserves regimes, and market expectations.

Amazon Plans Biggest Corporate Layoffs: Amazon is preparing to axe up to 14,000 corporate roles starting this week, as part of its largest job-cut wave since 2022. The move affects nearly 10% of its corporate workforce and comes alongside rising investment in AI and automation. This pivot signals a broader shift in tech playing field: where rapid pandemic hiring is giving way to streamlining for future scale.

Musk’s Grokipedia Challenges Wikipedia: Elon Musk has launched Grokipedia, an AI-powered encyclopedia aimed at competing with the volunteer-edited Wikipedia and promising “the truth, the whole truth.” But critics say the content is heavily derived from Wikipedia, and that Grokipedia may serve ideological aims rather than open knowledge. With nearly 900,000 articles at launch, the experiment opens a new front in how knowledge is curated in the AI era.

OpenAI Flags Mental Health Risks Among ChatGPT Users: New data from OpenAI reveals that every week over 1 million users engage in conversations with ChatGPT indicating suicidal planning or intent. About 0.15% of weekly users show explicit markers of mental-health crises, while around 0.07% may display signs of mania or psychosis. In response, the company says its updated model (GPT-5) is better equipped to spot distress and redirect users to real-world help.

Foxconn Boosts AI Push: Taiwan-based electronics giant Foxconn has approved an investment of up to $1.37 billion (NT$42 billion) between December 2025 and December 2026 to build an AI compute cluster and supercomputing centre. The funds aim to expand its cloud-compute platform and accelerate development across its three smart-technology platforms, signalling a major pivot from device manufacturing.

Lukoil To Offload Global Assets Amid U.S. Sanctions: Under pressure from newly imposed U.S. sanctions targeting Russia’s energy sector, Lukoil has announced plans to divest its international holdings. The sanctions bar U.S. firms from dealing with the oil major and raise the risk of secondary penalties for foreign banks.

HDFC Bank Acts Amid Credit Suisse Bond Probe: India’s largest private lender has put two senior executives on “gardening leave” as it investigates alleged mis-selling of Credit Suisse’s high-risk AT1 bonds to clients. The bonds, which were wiped out after Credit Suisse’s merger with UBS in 2023, are at the heart of investor complaints. HDFC Bank says no evidence of mis-selling has been found yet, but the move signals heightened regulatory and reputational risk.

Delhi Tests Cloud Seeding To Tackle Smog: Officials in the capital (covering areas like Burari and Karol Bagh) carried out the first cloud-seeding trial, releasing flares from aircraft to trigger artificial rain and tackle Delhi’s persistent winter pollution. They describe the experiment as a success and expect rainfall within hours, although experts caution the fix is not guaranteed.

HorrorCon 2025 Brings Chills To NCR: The second edition of the event brought horror fans, cosplayers and immersive experiences to the NSIC Grounds in Delhi-NCR, just ahead of Halloween. Highlights included themed installations, costume parades and panels on India’s rising horror content scene, making it a full-on festival for “spook nerds.” The gathering showcases how genre-culture events are thriving in India’s urban spaces. 

THAT’S ALL FOR TODAY!

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