-
Facts vs Fiction: Operation Safed Sagar! From Kargil’s GPS Denial to Ukraine’s Starlink Veto
From the mountains of Kargil to the battlefields of Ukraine, two conflicts separated by more than two decades reveal how dependence on foreign-controlled technology can become a strategic vulnerability. Military cinema has a way of holding up a mirror to a nation’s history. The Netflix web series Operation Safed Sagar dramatizes the Indian Air Force’s…
-
Can India Really Regulate Starlink? The Lessons from Ukraine
The Russia–Ukraine war has starkly exposed the strategic vulnerabilities that emerge when modern nations rely on private, foreign-controlled satellite constellations for critical national security and military communications. While commercial Low-Earth Orbit (LEO) networks like Starlink proved indispensable in keeping Ukrainian defense forces and civilian infrastructure connected following the systematic destruction of legacy terrestrial communications, the…
-
Starlink, OneWeb or Jio? Are we asking the right questions?
The debate over satellite internet in India should not be just about Elon Musk, Mukesh Ambani, spectrum auctions, or national security. It should be about building an Indian satellite communications industry. As a firmware engineer working on satellite hardware and digital processing architectures with one of the leading aerospace companies, I look at these networks…
-
Starlink, Elon Musk and the Indian Market: What Is He Really Fighting For?
Elon Musk is trying to bully his way into the Indian market. Now, as he accuses powerful Indian business interests of obstructing Starlink’s entry, he has found an immediate ally in Rahul Gandhi. Musk has publicly insinuated that Mukesh Ambani, chairman of Reliance Industries, wields undue influence over the Indian government. Gandhi, who has long…
-
What is the true cost of Film Piracy?
When we think of film piracy, we usually picture a victim with a very fat wallet. A Bollywood blockbuster drops on a Friday. By midnight, a grainy, camcorded version hits a torrent site and an HD print in just a few days. Millions of people watch it on their phones for free. The studio’s opening…
-
Why Space Gen: Chandrayaan Gets ISRO Wrong — The Problem with Hero Worship in Indian Sci-Fi
The recently released TVF series Space Gen: Chandrayaan should have been a landmark moment for Indian prestige television.It had the budget.It had the backing of JioHotstar.And it had one of the most compelling true stories of the decade: India’s resurrection from the heartbreak of 2019 to the precision landing of 2023. Yet, five episodes in,…
-
Propaganda vs Reality: PL-15E, Rafale, and How China–Pakistan’s Airpower Narrative Collapsed
When Missiles Miss—and Narratives Explode Modern wars are not decided only by bombs and runways. They are decided by perception, credibility, and evidence. The India–Pakistan aerial engagements during Operation Sindoor proved this decisively. The Chinese-made PL-15E beyond-visual-range (BVR) missile, fired by the Pakistan Air Force, was meant to challenge India’s Rafale–Meteor combination and project China’s…
-
AI Isn’t a Bubble. I Watched It Do the Work of Four Engineers in My Living Room
Every few weeks, a new headline lands in the same inbox. “AI will cause mass layoffs.” “AI is the next dot-com bubble.” “AI is overhyped.” “AI is the end of white-collar work.” Pick one, and there’s a hot take to match it. I want to offer a different perspective — one that I think gets…
