India, March 18 -- During intra-day trading yesterday, the Nifty IT index plunged more than 700 points initially, before it recovered a bit. It was still in red towards the end of the session. Yet, a few optimists hang around, as they claim that generative artificial intelligence (AI) does not pose an existential threat to the Indian software firms. Despite this duel between those with extreme views, there seems to be no reversal in an ongoing downward trend, which began much before the Iran war, and crucial announcements by the largest chip-maker, Nvidia, which was recent, and a leading AI player, Anthropic, some time ago.

To put it in perspective, over the past six months, the Nifty IT is down by a massive more than 7,500 points, or al...