Data centres
Experts warn that the artificial intelligence (AI) data centres are leading to “a global economic crisis”. The massive global rush to build artificial intelligence infrastructure is hiding a deep financial crisis that could soon spiral into an economic disaster. According to industry insiders, the core economic math behind the AI data centre boom is fundamentally broken. Tech companies are pouring billions into high performance semiconductor chips and massive physical facilities, treating them as the ‘shovels’ of the AI gold rush. However, unlike traditional long term infrastructure, these highly specialised components degrade and become obsolete at an alarming pace. Rapid technological advancements and the sheer intensity of high power workloads mean that data centre hardware has an impossibly short lifespan, forcing operators into a continuous, hyper expensive cycle of replacement long before they can recover their initial investments. This rapid depreciation creates an immense financial gulf that the current market cannot bridge. To break even on current and projected capital expenditures through 2026, the AI sector would need to generate approximately $1 trillion in revenue, a figure that vastly dwarfs any actual income the technology currently produces. When tech giants scale up these operations despite flawed economics, they are not solving the underlying financial problem; rather, they are inflating a bubble that threatens the broader economy. If the anticipated AI revenue fails to materialise, these multi-billion dollar facilities risk becoming heavily stranded assets, a systemic crisis that could drag down utilities and investors alike.
Vinay Dwivedi, Benaulim
Hockey debacle
The World Cup hockey humiliation should alert the Indian team management and Hockey India. It is not about the seventh or eighth place, but more about how Harmanpreet Singh’s team crumbled under pressure. As a former player said, the team’s midfield appeared “missing” throughout the tournament. Make no mistake, this Indian hockey team has metamorphosed into world beaters under coach Craig Fulton. After the successive bronze medals at the Olympics in Tokyo and Paris, Indian hockey was on a high. Though Fulton’s men lifted the Asia Cup hockey at home, the eighth position in the FIH Pro-League was sobering. The coach’s disinclination to infuse fresh blood into the team has been decried by past greats. Over reliance on Harmanpreet has been questioned. However, the lacklustre showing at the World Cup should act as a learning curve for the Indians, especially keeping in mind the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, and securing a berth there should be uppermost in the minds of the players.
Ganapathi Bhat, Akola
Death penalty
In India, death penalty remains rare even after a court verdict, with capital sentence convicts having their sentences changed to life imprisonment in majority of the cases. In such a situation, the judge who ordered the videographic survey of the Gyanvapi mosque complex in Varanasi in 2022 is now making headlines for another reason – sentencing 22 individuals to death in just over four months. Since taking charge of a fast-track court in Uttar Pradesh’s Muzaffarnagar district, additional district and sessions judge Ravi Kumar Diwakar has handed down death penalty to 22 convicts. Along with 13 earlier death sentences during his Bareilly posting, he has given capital punishment to 35 convicts in total, all involved in long-pending, severe offences dating from 1999 to 2020, including highway robbery, dacoity, kidnapping and murder of a lawyer and the targeted killing of an on-duty home guard. Amid Justice Diwakar’s string of verdicts, a major administrative development occurred on August 18, 2026, when 97 pending serious criminal cases were officially recalled from his bench and transferred to District and Sessions Judge Virendra Kumar Singh. Regardless, the accused and the victims’ families are fully aware that these 22 death sentences are not immediately executable. This is because a death penalty issued by a Sessions Court must be sent to the High Court (here, the Allahabad High Court) for mandatory confirmation. The High Court holds full authority to thoroughly reassess the evidence, uphold the convictions or modify them to life imprisonment.
Bidyut Chatterjee, Faridabad
Food-fuel balance
Pushing the E20 ethanol target has depleted domestic sugar reserves to a nine-year low, sparking inflation and necessitating duty-free imports. Diverting vital food crops for fuel creates artificial scarcity, squeezing household budgets across the country. The government must dynamically align ethanol blending targets with real-time crop yields rather than pursuing rigid quotas. When agricultural output falls short, food security must take precedence. We must also accelerate the transition toward second-generation ethanol derived from agricultural waste rather than primary sugarcane juice. Sacrificing basic food stability for green energy targets is unsustainable; India needs a policy recalibration that safeguards both, farm livelihoods and consumer interest.
Dr Vijaykumar H K, Raichur
