New Delhi, Feb. 26 -- The recent Artificial Intelligence (AI) Summit in New Delhi has brought home the remarkable pace at which AI is changing the way we live and work. The jury is still out on whether an AI-led society would be utopian or dystopian. Meanwhile, we need to reset our thinking on many issues.

Around this time last year, in my presidential address to the Indian Econometric Society [Journal of Quantitative Economics, 2025, 23:319-331 bit.ly/4s4McEJ], I had discussed India's growth paradox: namely, that though India has been the fastest growing major economy in the world for quite some time, the number of unemployed in the country has also been growing almost as fast.

To address this employment challenge, I had outlined a str...