Children With Their Innovation Learning Via their Phone

(A pic taken at Prayagraj January 2025)

"How can a man die better

Than facing fearful odds,

For the ashes of his fathers,

And the temples of his Gods?"

A couplet from "Horatius), a poem in "Lays of Ancent Rome" (1842) by Thomas Babington Macaulay.

The above is inscribed on the Rezang La War Memorial erected on the Chushul Plains, at an altitude of over 4,500 metres right on the Indo-China Line of Actual Control, in remembering the 120 Indian soldiers who stood against 5000 China Peoples liberation Army.

“In India's modern military history, only a few battles rival the raw courage shown by Indian soldiers at Rezang La, a mountain pass in eastern Ladakh. In the battle in November 1962, just 120 soldiers of Charlie Company of the 13 Kumaon Regiment of the Indian Army stood in temperatures of up to -40 degrees Celsius, blocking the path of an invading 5,000 force of the PLA”- (August 8, 2025, India Today Online)

Their defiance stalled the advance, though only 10 survived to recount the heroism. That battle symbolized an India defined by grit and sacrifice. Six decades on, the nation’s trajectory has shifted. Today, India increasingly wields soft power, through technology, innovation, and diplomacy. This transformation appears less a calculated strategy than a natural evolution, reflecting how India seeks influence in the world without diminishing the memory of its martial past.

The unease Donald Trump, and segments of the American right, may feel about the rise of Indian executives in corporate America is revealing. It is not merely a question of immigration or economics but it speaks to a deeper anxiety about shifting centres of influence. Right-wing populism has historically associated such transitions with the erosion of national identity and the destabilization of traditional hierarchies. For a political figure often accused of authoritarian leanings, the growing visibility of Indian leaders in the commanding heights of U.S. business represents not just competition but a perceived loss of control over the symbolic levers of power.

This anxiety becomes clearer when set against the historical backdrop of how power has operated. Rarely has true authority been exercised in the open. In medieval Europe, the Vatican shaped political order from behind the curtain of religion. Later, financial elites, industrial magnates, and media conglomerates became the shadow brokers of influence. Today, that mantle appears to be shifting again, towards global technology corporations, financial platforms, and transnational professional networks. What distinguishes the present moment is the outsized role played by Indian talent in this transformation.

The list of Indian-born or Indian-origin CEOs at America’s most powerful firms, the likes of Satya Nadella at Microsoft, Sundar Pichai at Alphabet, Arvind Krishna at IBM, and many others, just illustrates more than individual success stories. It reflects the structural realignment of global talent flows, where the Indian diaspora has become a pivotal node in the knowledge economy. Their leadership represents both the globalization of corporate America and the erosion of old boundaries that once defined who could or should wield influence at the top.

For established power bases, this moment is profoundly unsettling. Unlike the past, where influence could be traced to clear institutions or domestic elites, today’s digital and transnational order is fluid. Authority is dispersed across networks that do not map neatly onto national borders. The traditional walls that elites once leaned on for security are slippery, unstable, and constantly shifting. Betting on a “right horse”, be it a nation, an industry, or a leader, has never been more uncertain.

This explains the disquiet in populist and nationalist circles. India’s rise in corporate America does not simply represent success for a diaspora community but it underscores the broader disintegration of familiar power structures. In a digital, globalized era, the very architecture of power is being rewritten, and those who once claimed ownership of it are struggling to keep their footing.

The uncertainty is not merely economic or political but structural, signalling a transition in how power is organized and exercised in the 21st century. For established powers, this may well be the most disorienting period in recent history, one where the old playbook of control no longer guarantees outcomes.

Cheers.

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