Gnani.ai, Stellarview and Eka.care are among the many stalls that have found their way into the halls of the Bharat Mandapam, where India AI Impact Expo 2026 is currently being held. When Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited these stalls on Monday, he listened closely to the founders, and asked them questions. Later, he shared his experience over a post on X. Describing the summit as “a powerful convergence of ideas, innovation and intent,” Modi wrote, it reaffirmed India’s push to build artificial intelligence “responsibly, inclusively and at scale”. The Indian Express visited some of the stalls that had held the PM’s attention – some focused on how machines speak and listen, others on how they see.
With that, let’s move on to the top stories from today’s edition:
- India-France elevate ties
- Aussie rules ‘Footy’ in India
- Tarique Rahman sworn in as Bangladesh PM
🚨 Big Story
India and France elevated their bilateral ties Tuesday to a Special Global Strategic Partnership following talks between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and French President Emmanuel Macron in Mumbai. Their meeting resulted in 21 significant outcomes in defence, critical minerals, tech and innovation, startups, advanced materials, health and skilling. As Modi underlined that “this partnership will provide stability and progress” in “this era of unpredictable global dynamics,” Macron said that India and France will continue to cooperate to combat terrorism.
Meanwhile, the 6th India-France Annual Defence Dialogue, held in Bengaluru on Tuesday, witnessed a strong push for enhancing indigenous content — up to 50 per cent — in the Rafale fighter aircraft to be manufactured in India, and for setting up Maintenance Repair Overhaul (MRO) facilities in India for different varieties of French aero engines. The Defence Ministers of both the nations discussed a range of bilateral security and defence issues, including priority areas for co-development and co-production of military equipment, according to a statement by the Ministry of Defence. The dialogue is a structured ministerial-level bilateral meeting to review and guide defence and security cooperation.
In our Opinion section today, C Raja Mohan delves into how the French President has carved out a “distinctive place” for Paris in Delhi’s strategic calculus as he visits India for the fourth time since 2017. He writes: “The Macron moment, therefore, is not merely about personal and bilateral warmth. It reflects a broader shift in Delhi’s geopolitical imagination — towards a more differentiated understanding of the West. It is also about the emergence of a wider network of alliances and partnerships that cut across the traditional divides of East-West and North-South.”
⚡ Only in Express
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Talent scouts from Australia arrived in Jharkhand’s tribal districts sometime in 2004-5, and flung a strange-looking, oblong ball at anyone who seemed interested. And then, just like that, a new sport was born. Called ‘Footy,’ the sport has also drawn into its orbit players from some of the most dire areas — from the urban slums of Mumbai to migrant labour colonies in Rajasthan, from nondescript villages in Andhra Pradesh to the border belts of West Bengal and the struggling shanty villages of Bihar. Over 250 men and around 50 women from 11 states participated in the recently concluded Ranchi Nationals, where the Jharkhand Crows teams took all the three titles — Senior Men’s, Senior Women’s and Junior’s. Here’s how Australia’s wildest sport is carving its space in India.
📰 From the Front Page
PM invites: About 18 months after the overthrow of the government of Sheikh Hasina, Tarique Rahman, chief of the centre-right Bangladesh Nationalist Party, was sworn in on Tuesday as the new Prime Minister of Bangladesh. The last time the BNP was in power, from 2001 to 2006, Rahman’s mother, Khaleda Zia, was the PM. Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla was among the dignitaries who attended the swearing-in ceremony held in the South Plaza of the parliament building in Dhaka. Representing India, Birla shared about his “constructive meeting” with Rahman. He said he handed over a personal letter from Prime Minister Narendra Modi conveying his wishes to Rahman and inviting him to “visit India at the earliest convenience”.
Expressing concerns about India’s latest social media rules, which prescribe strict content-takedown timelines, social media giant Meta said Tuesday that the norms might be “challenging” to comply with from an operational standpoint. Rob Sherman, Meta vice president, policy and deputy chief privacy officer, said the government had not consulted with the industry before notifying the rules. Last week, the IT Ministry notified amendments to the IT Rules, 2021, and one of the changes implemented was that social media platforms must now remove problematic content within 2-3 hours as opposed to the earlier timeline of 24-36 hours.
Soon after a viral video of Head Constable, Ashok Kumar Saini, sitting with the body of his 26-year-old son, Akash, on the road, claiming he had died of drugs, and that getting them was “like ordering from Zomato,” in their neighbourhood Guru Nanakpura in Amritsar, the police put out a video of the father “retracting” his claims. However, the facts speak for themselves. Shamsher Singh Sandhu, a leader of the ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), shares the “helplessness”. He says he has himself admitted around 22 addicts to drug rehab centres in the last one-and-a-half years. However, his efforts seem to have been defeated by “easy availability of drugs.”
📌 Must Read
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Amid concerns over former prime minister and World Cup-winning captain Imran Khan’s physical condition, 14 former cricket captains spanning six decades of the game, including Sunil Gavaskar and Greg Chappell, have set aside old rivalries and signed a joint appeal demanding that Pakistan’s government treat him with basic dignity, provide urgent medical care and guarantee fair access to courts. Khan has been held in detention since August 2023 on a slew of charges that his supporters maintain are politically motivated, and is currently serving two separate sentences of 17 years and 14 years. The letter invoked cricket’s long history as a bridge between nations.
In our Opinion columns today, Ujwal Thakar and Adityan Vishwanath ponder upon one of the biggest challenges amid India’s push for artificial intelligence, that is, leadership. They assert that this key moment requires India to identify leadership, empower it with genuine authority. They write: “Transformations like that require people who turn ambition into architecture. Who convert political will into platforms. India found such leadership once. In the AI era, we need to find it again.”
As global AI leaders convene in New Delhi for the AI Impact Summit, it is difficult to ignore their web of interconnected companies and common mentors. The world’s most consequential artificial intelligence research is being conducted by a strikingly small circle of scientists who studied mostly under the same mentors, taught in the same rooms and kept recruiting from each other’s labs. What’s striking is that the key 5-6 figures are working under the same three institutions: Stanford University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of Toronto. Know more about the architects of AI.
⏳ And Finally…
‘Opening Act’: Abhishek Sharma has pampered the audience into hoping he’d ferry the first ball deep into the stands. “It’s the burden of expectations he has imposed on himself,” Sandip G writes. Even during an optional nets session, they expect his willow to shower sixes. And that’s probably why just a brief fallow spell in the ongoing ICC T20 World Cup has been magnified into a crisis. “The onslaught of sixes is why they flock to watch him; the carnage of sixes is the reason Abhishek has swiftly become the pin-up boy of India’s radical batting ethos in the format. It’s the reason his recent string of low scores has alarmed some of them.”
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🎧 Lastly, don’t forget to tune in to today’s episode of our 3 Things podcast, where we talk about Nikhil Gupta, an Indian national who pleaded guilty in US court last week in the assassination plot against Gurpatwant Pannun. We also share what grading of Union Secretaries on a 100-mark scale could mean for bureaucratic accountability, as well as discuss how young men arrested in firing outside Rohit Shetty’s residence were influenced by social media accounts.
That’s all for today. Have a wonderful day!
Until next time,
Ariba
Business As Usual by E P Unny
