What to Read in Indian Express Editorial( Topic and Syllabus wise)

EDITORIAL 1: Reforming the steel frame

Context

On Independence Day last week, Prime Minister Narendra Modi focused a lot on areas in frontier technology and insisted on making the country atmanirbhar (self-reliant) in these areas. He talked about semiconductors, nuclear energy, clean energy, critical minerals, oil exploration, EVs, even jet engines.

Focus on self-reliance

• The Prime Minister promised citizens that the country will shed dependency in the next two decades.
• He explained self-reliance as not confined merely to imports and exports, or to rupees, pounds, and dollars, but linked to our capability, calling upon countrymen to preserve, maintain, and enhance our capability, it is imperative to be self-reliant.
• Technology has become the mainstay of most activities for the common person in the country.
• India has become the world’s largest per capita data consumer (32 GB),overtaking China (29 GB) and the USA (22 GB).
• However, most of this digitisation came from low-tech and mid-tech areas of basic computing and social media.
• In high-tech areas, India has registered some advancements in the last two decades, with cities like Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Pune, Gurugram, and others emerging as hubs of such technologies.
• Yet, several high-tech areas remain heavily import-dependent. Meanwhile, as we race ahead in mid-tech and high-tech areas, the world has moved on to the next level of deep-tech, Web 4.0, for instance.
• PM Modi wants the country to focus on areas such as artificial intelligence, quantum computing, robotics, blockchain technologies, genetics and bioengineering, aerospace and defence, space and outer space and crypto and other digital currencies.

Fundamental challenges

• There are some fundamental challenges that the country needs to address to achieve atmanirbharta in deep-tech.
• A day after his Independence Day address, PM Modi called a high-level meeting of his senior cabinet colleagues and others to discuss “next-generation reforms”.
• Next-generation reforms are crucial. But what is more crucial is for the government to look at the pending basic reforms in three important sectors — the bureaucracy, regulatory bodies, and the judiciary.
• Incidentally, these three institutions continue to dominate governance in our country. Not that the individuals who work in these institutions — bureaucrats and judicial officers — are incompetent.
• Many of them have proved to be outstanding and won laurels for the nation. But the challenge is with the systems we inherited from the British colonisers.
• The Westminster bureaucracy we adopted without change after Independence was created by colonial administrators to perpetuate British rule in India.
• Nearly every civil servant came from London till the first two decades of the 20th century. To increase the demand for them, the Public Service Commission was created in 1926 to train Indians for bureaucratic positions.
• But the Indian Civil Service’s design, the “steel  frame”, continued to ensure that Indians remained subservient to an unelected and unaccountable institutional framework.
• Incidentally, 2026 marks the centenary of this British vintage institution. There cannot be a better occasion to overhaul the UPSC.

Several attempts made

• There have been several attempts at administrative reforms in the past.
• The Veerappa Moily Committee, appointed during the UPA government in 2005, was the last.
• Its important suggestions include introducing “direct appointment of specialists with domain expertise for high-ranking government positions” and “establishing a code of ethics for public officials and a mechanism for accountability”.However, not much has happened in that direction.
• Prime Minister Modi’s efforts to encourage the lateral entry of experts, too, have met with limited success in cracking the “steel frame”.
• Earlier this year, the government formed a Deregulation Commission to identify and eliminate redundant compliance obligations in various sectors.

The models

• Two countries that lead the world today, China and the US, have different bureaucratic models.
• But one common feature between them is the supremacy of the political leadership.
• Even in the UK, from where we inherited the Westminster model, a major debate erupted a few years ago over the steel frame’s efficacy.

Conclusion

There can be a debate over the merits of these suggestions. But for Viksit Bharat to become a reality, an undeniable imperative for India is to shed its colonial bureaucratic model and replace it with a more accountable and responsive institutional arrangement.

 

EDITORIAL 2: Enabler, not disruptor

Context

Behind the headlines of layoffs, attributed partly to the deployment of artificial intelligence (AI), there is a more fundamental question: How will India shape the trajectory of AI in ways that its impact on jobs, productivity, and economy is inclusive?

The Data

• Estimates from the ServiceNow–Pearson AI Skills Research 2025 report indicate that agentic AI could reshape over 10.35 million jobs and create 3 million new tech roles in India by 2030,placing the country ahead of Singapore and Australia in AI transformation.
• A 2025 ILO study highlights that, as new tasks emerge in AI deployment, jobs are likely to evolve rather than disappear.

Challenges

• This optimism must be tempered with a clear-eyed view of India’s structural challenges. The farm sector, which employs the most people in India, has limited exposure to AI.
• Labour-intensive sectors, especially services, which contributed 55 per cent to GDP and 31 per cent to employment in FY24, could, however, be impacted.
• Compounding this is the slow pace of skilling and low adoption of evolving competencies, especially among informal workers.
• Economist and Nobel Laureate Daron Acemoglu has argued that AI’s impact is not destiny but a choice.
• The central dilemma lies between two distinct AI pathways — automation and augmentation.
• Automation entails using AI to replace human workers, boosting efficiency but risking job losses. Augmentation involves using AI to complement human effort, enhancing productivity while preserving or expanding employment.
• India must avoid the automation trap and prioritise three interlinked pillars — skilling workers, reducing inequality through inclusive, non-extractive infrastructure, and fostering entrepreneurship through support for innovation.

AI in sectors

• These shifts are underway in some sectors. Tata Steel uses AI co-pilots to support engineers rather than displacing workers.
• Infosys has launched large-scale reskilling efforts. Siemens is deploying generative AI to enhance productivity and worker well-being.
• These examples point to a path where AI acts as a charioteer (saarthi) and not a destroyer (vinashak).
• To scale such models, a focus on lifelong learning is essential. Digital and AI-related competencies should be embedded across schools, universities, industrial training institutes, and vocational centres.
• Strengthening academia-industry-government partnerships is equally vital.Flagship programmes such as the Atal Innovation Mission, Startup India, Future Skills PRIME, Youth for Unnati, and Vikas with AI must be scaled up.
• Emerging evidence  shows that generative AI tools can help narrow skill gaps, particularly for workers with low skills, by serving as collaborative tools.
• With AI transforming both low- and high-skill jobs, success increasingly hinges on developing the cognitive and social-emotional skills that machines cannot replicate.

To do’s for India

• To realise AI’s augmenting potential, India must ensure markets remain open and competitive.
• As highlighted in the ICRIER AI Markets and Competition report, the growing dominance of vertically integrated firms risks replicating platform-era distortions.
• Infrastructure lock-in, bundling of services, self-preferencing and proprietary standards could restrict smaller players from participating in the AI economy.
• If unchecked, these structures will place critical decisions about AI deployment in the hands of a few firms.
• Employers, driven by cost efficiencies, may default to automation-first approaches. AI infrastructure providers, be they foundational models, storage, or computing, may shape AI’s trajectory.
• The policy challenge, therefore, is not merely enabling AI access but also ensuring that AI ecosystems remain contestable and worker-supportive.
• This will require competitive access to cloud and edge computing, open APIs, and interoperable systems, and supporting indigenous development of Small Language Models, domain-optimised AI models or domain-specific agents, and vernacular tools to democratise AI innovation.
• Computing, storage, and access to datasets should be treated as public goods. India’s digital public infrastructure model should be anchored in shared infrastructure, open standards, and interoperability to make sure that innovators are not locked out.
• Public investment in incubators, accelerators, and mentorship should not be limited to scaling a few unicorns but to building an ecosystem of sustainable enterprises.
• When empowered with the right digital tools, computing access, and tailored skilling, MSMEs can become powerful engines of employment-rich growth.

Way forward

• AI may displace some jobs. But with the right policy choices, institutional support, and infrastructure, it can become a driver for inclusive growth.