Colombo and Mundra ports

Navigating the Intelligent Tide: How AI and Generative AI are Reshaping Maritime Mobility in South Asia

The integration of AI and Generative AI is not a distant aspiration — it is an active investment already reshaping how ports operate, how cargo moves, and how supply chains absorb shocks. For India and its neighbours, the imperative is clear: build the data foundations, governance frameworks, and human capabilities that allow intelligent mobility to reach not just the terminal gate, but every link in the maritime supply chain.

The Splinternet and Fractured Digital World: Will Sovereignty Serve People, or the State, or Whoever Owns the Server?

Companies like Google, Meta, and X constantly shape public opinion and thoughts, and store public data for commercial usage. Amazon, Microsoft, and Google host the cloud infrastructure on which states and businesses depend. These are not ordinary companies anymore; they have access to critical intelligence and data. And now AI companies like Palantir use this data for surveillance, intelligence, monitoring, and on battlefields.

Non-Material ‘Presence’ in the Age of AI: A South Asian Reclamation of the Spirit Against the Machine

While TiME FLiES travels from 18th-century Boston to 20th-century Michigan and 21st-century Provence, its soul remains anchored in South Asian philosophy. It argues that while AI may simulate the "heart and mind," the true "presence" of consciousness—the Turiya—cannot be reduced to code.

Fighting Fire With Fire: How South Asia Can Use AI to Fight Cybercrime

The same generative AI that allows criminals to craft perfect phishing emails in Sinhala (or Hindi, Bangla and Urdu) or clone a Chief Financial Officer's voice from a YouTube clip, can also detect those emails before they reach an inbox and flag that voice as synthetic before a payment is authorised. The technology exists. The question is whether South Asia's institutions will deploy it in time.  

More on AI and Innovation

India, US to co-host Indo-Pacific Business Forum on October 28-29

The United States and India will co-host the fourth annual Indo-Pacific Business Forum (IPBF) October 28- 29 that will bring together leaders in government, industry, media, and non-profits from across the Indo-Pacific, a White House statement said Friday on the occasion of the Quad Summit

India inks USD 2.7 million deal with Airbus to buy 56 military transport aircraft; big boost for Indian aerospace industry

India's Defence Ministry on Friday inked a nearly Rs 20,000-crore (USD 2.7 mn) deal with Airbus Defence and Space, Spain to procure 56 C-295 medium transport aircraft which will replace the ageing Avro-748 planes of the Indian Air Force

After meeting Modi, hi-tech CEOs see India as big investment destination

India has great potential for attracting investments and manufacturing under the various programmes introduced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi as companies try to diversify their global footprints, according to hi-tech CEOs who met him in Washington Thursday

Modi meets with Qualcom CEO to highlight hi-tech opportunities in India

Prime Minister Narendra Modi started his campaign to welcome more investments and enterprise creation in India with a meeting with wireless technology giant Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon in Washington on Thursday

Nepal to sign deal with India's AAI for technical assistance at airports

Nepal will sign a deal with India for technical assistance for testing of surveillance and radar systems installed at its airports

Sri Lanka begins first aerial mapping of petroleum resources: Bell Geospace to conduct exploration survey

Sri Lanka has started for the first time an airborne oil exploration survey in its seawater for potential petroleum resources, Energy Minister Udaya Gammanpila said, adding the data and other information collected from the survey will help oil investors looking to invest in the island’s energy sector

Sri Lanka prized tea industry under threat from Rajapaksa’s organic utopia

Sri Lanka’s world-renowned tea industry--accounting for almost ten percent of its total exports--is staring at a disaster, industry players believe, as they anticipate a failing crop by next month due to the blanket ban President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has put early this year on the use of chemical fertilizers

India, US bilateral trade projected to reach $500 billion by 2025: Indian minister

India's Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari said on Tuesday that the bilateral trade between India and the US has grown from $16 billion to $ 149 billion in the last two decades

Nepal government hikes excise duty on two weekers; festival business likely to be affected

The Nepal government has hiked taxes on two-wheelers automobile in its revised budget presented recently where it proposed an increase in excise duty and road development tax, raising the likelihood of decreased sales in the coming festive seasons

India to help Colombia in vaccine production, space entrepreneurship

India and Colombia have signed a memorandum of understanding on space cooperation and cooperation in biotechnology and pharmaceuticals

India to procure 56 military transport aircraft for $2.6 billion from Airbus Spain

The Indian government has approved a whopping $2.6 billion deal with Airbus Defence and Space S.A. Spain to buy 56 C-295MW transport aircraft, replacing Indian Air Force's aging Avro transport planes inducted some 60 years ago

Nepal’s manufacturing sector returns to near pre-pandemic level

The manufacturing sector in Nepal, earlier ravaged by the pandemic, has now almost returned to near pre-pandemic levels as the result of a boost in demand due to the festive season and the ramped-up vaccination

Apricots from Kargil, once a battleground for India and Pakistan, go global

Fresh apricots from Kargil district in the union territory of Ladakh have for the first time in 35 years found their way to the international market

Moody’s downgrades Maldives rating to Caa1, changes outlook to stable

Despite the significant recovery in the country’s tourism industry, Moody’s downgraded the Maldives’ sovereign rating to Caa1 with a stable outlook from earlier B3, citing the drop in tax revenue collection and other factors

Pakistan asks World Bank to restructure $200 loan

Pakistan has asked the World Bank to finalize its restructuring plan for the $200 million loan which the lender had approved last year for the locust emergency and food security project