Editor’s Note | Sharpening the Signal

FF

Founding Fuel

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

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

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

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

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

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Strategy fails not from lack of information, but from outdated assumptions about what it implies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

The Happiness We Keep Postponing

A reflection on joy, and why the ordinary day may be enough

HC

Haresh Chawla

Investor, Entrepreneur

The Blind Spots of India Inc

Disability inclusion, leadership imagination, and the limits of intent

NJ

SS

Nikunj Kumar Jain & Subhashis Sinha

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

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

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

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

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

Anatomy of a Prompt

On prompting, intent, and the discipline of asking well

AB

DM

Arjo Basu & Debleena Majumdar

Trendspotting 2026: India Cannot App Its Way to Prosperity

Another 50 tech IPOs won’t build a middle class

HC

Haresh Chawla

Investor, Entrepreneur

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Quiet Work of Branding

Five shifts shaping how organisations build clarity, continuity and trust in 2025

IG

Indranil Gupta

Founder Director, BrandNEW Associates

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

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

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

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

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

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

When Stories Move Faster Than Systems

Why AI-accelerated narratives are exposing leadership and capability gaps across organisations

AB

DM

Arjo Basu & Debleena Majumdar

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

The Best of FF Life 2025

11 stories that asked us to slow down, look closer, and feel more deeply

FF

Founding Fuel

The Best Stories of 2025

Ten of our best work through the year—on business, leadership, and geopolitical trends

FF

Founding Fuel

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

When A Leader Stumbles

How an airline’s crisis became an industry’s test. The concluding part of a two part special series

SP

Satish Pradhan

Independent Consultant

The Paradox of Excellence

How IndiGo’s greatest strengths created the conditions for the December 2025 crisis — and what it reveals about the limits of high-performance systems. Part One of a two part special series

SP

Satish Pradhan

Independent Consultant

The Best Business Books of 2025

Ten essential reads on money, leadership, and navigating a changing world

DS

D Shivakumar

Operating Partner, Advent International

The New Perimeter of National Security

Why India’s corporate leaders can no longer separate digital risk from strategic resilience

GR

G Venkat Raman

Professor, Humanities and Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Management, Indore

The Broken Windows of Our Moral Life

How small everyday choices shape cultures, organisations, and the societies we become

KA

Kavi Arasu

Leadership and Talent Development Professional

Toxic Greed: How a $12.5 Billion Crisis Exposed a Global Corporate Failure

When innovation icons turn into liability machines, it’s not chemistry that fails—it’s governance, incentives, and courage

DD

Devangshu Dutta

Founder, Third Eyesight

India’s Labour Codes: The Shift from Protecting Jobs to Formalising Work

The Codes rewrite the architecture of wages, flexibility, digital compliance, gig work and industrial relations. But the real transformation depends on how states implement them—and how leaders rebuild trust, dignity and fairness inside workplaces

VK

VP

SP

Vineet Kaul, Vivek Patwardhan & Satish Pradhan

Who Gets to Decide What Happens at the End of Your Life?

Living wills remain on the fringes, but they are forcing India to confront family power, cultural taboo, and the realities of end-of-life care—signalling a profound shift in how the country thinks about dignity and medical decision-making

SB

Sveta Basraon

Editor and Head of Operations, Founding Fuel

The One Leadership Skill We Forgot to Teach

In an age of noise, overload and drifting meetings, facilitation is no longer a “tool”, it’s a core leadership discipline

KA

Kavi Arasu

Leadership and Talent Development Professional

Who Will Win the MAGA Crown?

Three competing visions inside the MAGA movement—over AI, immigration and national sovereignty—may determine America’s technological doctrine for the next decade

SW

Sundeep Waslekar

President, Strategic Foresight Group