Daily Briefing: India’s fifth-gen fighter push

On that note, let’s get to the rest of today’s edition. 👇

🚨 Big Story

India is on the cusp of joining an elite list of countries with fifth-generation fighters such as the US (F-22 and F-35), China (J-20), and Russia (Su-57). The Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft (AMCA) project aims to develop India’s homegrown fifth-generation stealth fighter, a single-seat, twin-engine jet with advanced stealth coatings and internal weapons bays.

In an exclusive report by The Indian Express, TATA Advanced Systems Ltd as a standalone contender, a consortium of Larsen & Toubro and Bharat Electronics Ltd, and a Bharat Forge-BEML Ltd-Data Patterns consortium have been shortlisted by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) to design and develop prototypes of the proposed AMCA project. The project marks India’s push to modernise its Air Force, including upgrades to weapons and equipment.

⚡Only in Express

Shuttle Shift: With sweeping changes reshaping international badminton, former player and Chief National Coach Pullela Gopichand has had to navigate the churn more closely than most. In an exclusive interview with The Indian Express, he reflects on the proposed new scoring system and the shifting formats of the sport, explaining why he is not opposed to the move, partly because it could have been far worse.

📰 From the Front Page

Airport Anxiety: Amid speculation that Goa’s Dabolim airport could be turned into an exclusive naval facility, political parties across the state have struck rare unity, warning that any move to end civilian operations would hurt Goa’s interests. The concern is rooted in numbers. Dabolim handled about 63 lakh domestic and 2 lakh international passengers last year, underscoring its continued importance. The speculation intensified after Goa Transport Minister and Dabolim MLA Mauvin Godinho said a private airport operator was “lobbying” to convert it into a full-fledged naval base. Although the Chief Minister’s Office has clarified that no consent has been given to discontinue civilian services, apprehensions remain. 

🎧 For more on this, tune in to today’s ‘3 Things’ podcast episode.

📌 Must Read

India Focus: On the sidelines of the AI Impact Summit 2026, Alex Haskell, general counsel and head of global affairs at ElevenLabs, spoke to indianexpress.com, explaining how the world’s fourth-largest economy is helping shape the future of generative voice AI. India, he suggested, was never an afterthought. It has become more than just a growth market for ElevenLabs; it is increasingly a testing ground for voice AI technology that feeds into the company’s global strategy. Haskell added that the founders’ own experience of growing up in Poland without access to information in their native language shaped this vision. “They don’t want that to be the case anymore,” he said, noting that this conviction made India a natural place for the company to focus on and expand into from its early days.

Trade talks: An Indian trade delegation is headed to Washington next week to finalise the legal text of the first tranche of the India-US trade agreement. This comes at a time when the US has already rolled back the additional 25% penal tariffs imposed on India over its purchase of Russian oil, and the reciprocal tariffs are expected to be reduced from 25% to 18% soon. Yet, the trade data tells a mixed story. In January, India’s overall goods exports remained flat, but shipments to the US fell 22% to $6.5 billion, even as imports from the US rose 23% to $4.4 billion. Amid concerns that Bangladesh-style market access for Indian garment exports could hurt cotton farmers, an official said adequate protection has been provided to sensitive sectors. As negotiations move into the final stretch, the question is: can this visit reset trade flows and steady the balance in India’s favour?

⏳ And Finally…

Buried Secrets: A multi-country forensic investigation has sought to establish how and when more than 280 bodies were buried in a well in Ajnala, Amritsar. The remains were found in 2014 after a book in a London museum described the execution of 282 “rebel Indian soldiers” in 1857 and their burial in a well later covered by a religious structure. When the structure was relocated, skeletons were discovered beneath it, triggering a debate over whether they were victims of the 1857 uprising or the 1947 Partition violence. But which chapter of history do these remains truly belong to? Read. 

That’s all for today, folks! Until tomorrow, 

Anupama Yadav