N747
Happy 14th Birthday! I was just let go from my company and had my last day of work this week. While optimising costs for the future, I was reevaluating my subscriptions and letting go of the ones I couldn't afford to keep. One thing I wasn't sorry for was the 3-year subscription I took for NL and TNM last year. Please continue the fantastic work. One recommendation: Since I use NL Hafta and Charcha as my key sources of news (can't justify spending more than 3 hours every week), please don't assume we know everything about a topic. I regularly hear words like “Everyone knows what happened in Galwan, Pulwama, etc.” No, we don't, or we know the opposite opinion. So, please, the hosts take some effort to describe the situation, refresh the memory when using such words.
Dheeraj DK
Hello Everyone,
Congratulations!
Regarding the Official Secrets Act, has Mr Modi also signed this oath? If so, by revealing our cloud cover strategy regarding war with Pakistan, did he not reveal our major strategy on national TV? Has anyone filed a PIL in the Supreme Court against him? Or does SC believe he was lying on TV?
Also, why don't you plan to partner with Caravan to interview their authors on major stories like Savarnocracy in Uttarakhand, which is so urgent given the current churn state it is going through?
Thanks.
Pushkar
Hi,
I often see press conferences being held by Pawan Khera and Rahul Gandhi. And recently by Hardeep Puri. Do you get invited to these press conferences? If not, why?
During Hardeep's conference, the questions were inaudible. Based on his answers, I think many of the questions were easy and not probing.
If NL were there, what questions would you have asked him?
Recently, I also saw the South Central podcast and noticed that they keep alternating between the NL and The News Minute logos in their videos. NL podcasts can also do the same.
Thanks a lot. Keep up the good work.
Lavanya
Hi all, curious to hear your thoughts on the proposed under-16 social media ban. I live in the UK, and I'm frustrated by the moral panic around the use of social media among young people (I blame Jonathan Haidt's book, which makes the simple mistake of treating correlation as causation). While social media has its harms, I'm against banning young people from platforms; it essentially lets social media companies off the hook and pushes audiences to use unregulated platforms, which are much more dangerous. In these conversations, we forget about the positive value of the internet and social media. I learned about politics through Twitter (back in the late 2010s) and evolved my position on important issues. Even funnier is the government proposing a ban when they've flooded social media with vile content and introduced legislation that curtails freedom of speech. Curious to hear your thoughts in maybe a longer discussion? Taylor Lorenz, formerly of the NYT, is a good voice on this topic.
Sameedh Sharma
Dear NL Team,
In reference to Hafta 577, I agree with the broad points made about the transformative potential – and risks – of AI. However, I feel the discussion was somewhat incomplete.
My main concern regarding the AI Summit was its limited focus on financing. Regardless of whether AI is deployed to address pressing structural challenges or, say, to produce a fan-made Hera Pheri 3, the binding constraint is capital. In China, large-scale AI investment is backed by the state. In the United States, it is propelled by deep and risk-tolerant capital markets. In India, however, we have neither a government with sufficiently deep fiscal space nor capital markets that are liquid and patient enough to absorb this scale of risk.
Without sustained, credible financing mechanisms, such summits risk resembling earlier investment events in which MoUs are signed but rarely translate into long-term outcomes. We can continue to speak of innovation, but most AI firms and start-ups will struggle to survive beyond a few years without access to stable, long-horizon capital.
Congratulations on turning 14! I’ll keep subscribing till one of us turns 100 (whichever comes first!).
Best,
Sameedh
Amrita
Dear Hafta team,
In AI, a comparison often made is with the Industrial Revolution. Not sure I agree entirely, but somewhat: A Novara Media podcast noted that during the Industrial Revolution, people physically shrank and society struggled for about 20 years before adapting and benefiting. For India, that period created massive technological disparity, enabling colonisation. So when Manisha suggests focusing on small problems and becoming like China, that only works in a world of static, non-imperialist actors. First, China doesn’t think small: it undertakes massive projects. Second, following that path could risk repeating one of the worst phases of our history by allowing disparities to grow. The point is not to win in AI, but prosper from it: China didn’t become a manufacturing hub by being industrially superior; it just did something in mass. India's technologically savvy youth can surely find ways to scale the available tech for development.
Cheers,
Amrita
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