Daily Briefing: People, Planet, and Progress

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

🚨 Big Story

India is moving from being part of the Artificial Intelligence conversation to trying to shape it. The AI Impact Summit 2026, beginning February 16 in New Delhi, marks the first time the global gathering comes to the Global South. While previous summits wrestled with catastrophic risks and regulatory frameworks, India’s pitch is somewhat different. India is centring the theme around “People, Planet, and Progress,” as articulated by Electronics and IT Secretary S Krishnan. The emphasis is on real-world AI solutions that address on-ground challenges, reflecting India’s ambition to be both an AI power and a voice for the Global South.

At the centre of this shift is the rise of AI-driven prediction markets. Once seen as niche betting platforms, they now act as real-time forecasting tools, allowing participants to trade on political and economic outcomes. Prices reflect collective expectations, turning geopolitics into measurable probabilities. Powered by AI, these markets move fast and can influence behaviour. If conflict, regime change or policy shifts are priced in, investors react and governments recalibrate. Forecasts risk becoming self-fulfilling. 

If AI-driven prediction markets can shape investor behaviour and government decisions, do they merely forecast geopolitical events, or do they begin to influence and even create them? C Raja Mohan explains.

⚡Only in Express

Delhi Garbage Crisis: Delhi produces roughly 11,000 tonnes of solid waste every day, but its existing facilities can process only about 8,000 tonnes. The shortfall results in waste piling up at dhalaos, which were meant to function as temporary garbage collection points. Instead, many have effectively turned into dump yards rather than transit sites.

In an exclusive report, Drishti Jain highlights that this growing gap between waste generation and processing capacity lies at the heart of the problem. Rapid population growth, particularly in unauthorised colonies, has pushed waste volumes beyond what many of these sites were designed to handle, leading to faster deterioration and frequent spill-overs. Despite official targets and legal orders, gaps in segregation, infrastructure constraints, administrative delays, and the sheer volume of waste have ensured that Delhi’s infamous garbage points continue to persist.

📰 From the Front Page

Bail Bond Standoff: Four days after landing in Mali for work, 42-year-old Nitin Gulhane was detained in Bamako. A project manager with New Delhi-based Aar Ess Exim Pvt Ltd (AEEPL), he had travelled to oversee electrification work in 22 villages in Djenne. His arrest on February 25 last year followed a financial dispute between his employer and local utility Energy du Mali over bank guarantees. Though Gulhane secured bail five months ago, his release depends on a bond of around Rs 3 crore, which has not been paid. His wife, Priyanka Gulhane, says the company assured Indian officials it would act, but the payment remains pending. Since then, she has approached AEEPL’s Noida office, the Ministry of External Affairs, the Indian mission in Mali, and Union Minister Nitin Gadkari, seeking intervention. Meanwhile, Gulhane’s health has deteriorated in Kenieroba Prison, and back home, the family faces mounting emotional and financial strain, with the company reportedly paying only half his salary. Read

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

Ashram revamp resistance: On a sprawling 55-acre campus being reshaped under the Rs 1,200 crore Sabarmati Ashram Redevelopment Project, the rhythm of restoration is hard to miss. Workers move between rows of cottages, repairing terracotta-tiled roofs and smoothing over freshly plastered walls, as the past is carefully curated for the future. Yet, in the north-west corner of the premises, one cottage resists the makeover. Its walls are marked by water stains. Lime plaster has peeled away, exposing tired bricks beneath. Roof tiles lie cracked and uneven. Clothes flutter from a line strung across the courtyard, and a scooter rests outside the entrance — quiet evidence that this is not a relic awaiting revival, but a home still lived in.

This is where the family of the late Mohanbhai Rathod continues to stay. Read.

📌 Must Read

Fertiliser control: There is perhaps no sector in India as tightly regulated as fertilisers. The maximum retail price of urea has been fixed at Rs 266.5 for a 45-kg bag — virtually unchanged since November 2012. Even di-ammonium phosphate (DAP), officially classified as “decontrolled”, operates under strict conditions. The pattern extends to other so-called decontrolled fertilisers too. Their prices must conform to subsidy rates notified by the Centre, be regularly reported to the Department of Fertilisers, and ensure that no “unreasonable” profits are made — any excess can be recovered from subsidy payments. In effect, while decontrol exists in name, pricing power remains firmly in the government’s hands. Read.

Weakening secularism: Addressing a conference on development and democracy in Kerala, Nobel laureate Amartya Sen admitted that his long-held faith in the “invulnerability of secularism” in India has weakened over time, even though he sees the principle holding firm in Kerala, a state known for its plural ethos. In a candid and reflective address to scholars and policymakers, Sen recalled the optimism about Indian secularism that shaped his early years. He acknowledged that recent developments beyond Kerala have tempered that confidence, prompting him to reassess assumptions he once believed were unshakeable. Read.

⏳ And Finally…

Idea Exchange: Ahead of the AI Impact Summit 2026, Abhishek Singh, CEO, IndiaAI Mission, spoke at At The Indian Express Idea Exchange, on democratising artificial intelligence for the Global South and preparing India’s workforce for an AI-driven future. He emphasised that the real value from AI will come in building agentic AI, integrating AI agents with legacy IT systems and what can be called AI transformation services. Read. 

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

Anupama Yadav