Inside Kerala’s meme-fuelled poll battle
By Vinson Kurian (with inputs from Chitra Narayanan)
Kerala’s election season now comes with two certainties: monsoon-like political thundershowers and a full-blown digital downpour on social media. What we are witnessing is less a campaign and more a daily “war of wits,” where the three political fronts trade punches in real time, armed not with microphones but memes.
SWIFT MESSAGING
Each day’s political headlines are swiftly converted into tit-for-tat messaging. When allegations surfaced about the Left Front’s supposed understanding with the NDA, the CPI(M) fired back with a neat one-liner: “We have a deal only with the people”. Cue a crisply packaged explainer reel on the LDF government’s decade-long report card. Not to be outdone, BJP handles pushed viral content suggesting the CPI(M) and the Congress were “two sides of the same coin”.
CM IN DIGITAL SOUP
And then there was Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan snapping at someone who tried to raise a question midway through his campaign speech: “Go home and ask your folks”. The Congress cyber team didn’t let that pass; within hours, it shot back: “Better sit at home and pontificate”. In Kerala’s digital battlefield, wit travels faster than wi-fi.
Behind such rapid-fire exchanges are highly organised digital war-rooms as the new nerve centres of political strategy. Leading the charge in sheer scale is the BJP-led NDA, with an army of nearly 10,000 digital foot soldiers operating across roughly 50,000 WhatsApp groups. A dedicated team functions out of the State election committee office for Rajeev Chandrasekhar (BJP State President and candidate from Nemom) and an additional war room in Thrikkakara. At the core is a 100-member state-level team led by Anoop Antony, General Secretary, which dissects, debates, and despatches content sourced from multiple agencies, often involving social media influencers. One creative digital video from the right-wing party shows a man washing a red cloth that slowly fades to become saffron-hued.
LEFT NOT LEFT BEHIND
The CPI(M)-led LDF is no laggard either. Its social media machinery has been in motion well ahead of the election buzz, using a steady stream of polished ads and curated interviews highlighting government achievements. The effort is steered by a seasoned media professional with a clear left-of-centre orientation, hosting panel-style discussions with senior party leaders.
The Left is also promoting “Brand Pinarayi” in a big way, with outsized billboards featuring the CM’s smiling visage appearing on busy streets. These personality-driven campaigns even prompted Leader of the Opposition V. Satheesan to quip that voters will be so tired of seeing Vijayan’s face that they will not vote for him. The Left has also roped in external professionals to amplify its PR content. Meanwhile, its portal, irundakalam.org, serves as a repository of “dark age” stories from the previous UDF regime, proving that even archives can be weaponised.
CONGRESS PLAYBOOK
The Congress-led UDF operates with a different playbook consisting of two parallel streams: a quick-response team for instant rebuttals and an AI-driven unit focusing on video content and fact-checking. These outputs are funnelled through the pages of party leaders and affiliated organisations. Headed by Ernakulam MP Hibi Eden, the team also works to simplify and broadcast policy promises, including the guarantees articulated by Rahul Gandhi, for voters who prefer content in "reel" format.
MERCHANDISE MESSAGING
A popular new medium for messaging in Kerala is apparel. Across the state, parties are distributing mundu and shirts emblazoned with symbols like the hand, the hammer-and-sickle with a star, and the lotus.
COUNT ON KERALA
Even as political parties slug it out, the State Election Commission, Kerala, has joined the social media blitz. Through agencies like Bridging Dots and Stark Communications, it has flooded the internet with campaigns such as Vote Chat (a chatbot), Vote Knock (door-to-door campaigns), and Vote Vandi (mobile campaigns), urging citizens to be sure to ink their preferences.
Sensex at 40: What really drives long-term wealth?
By P Saravanan and Manas Mayur
Markets are often narrated through headlines. In one phase, liquidity becomes the defining explanation. In another, it is reform momentum, geopolitical uncertainty, interest rates, or foreign flows. Bull runs are celebrated as a triumph of confidence; weak phases are blamed on anxiety and indecision.
Yet, when one steps back and looks at the Sensex over the last 40 years, a quieter and more durable truth becomes evident. Markets, over the long run, are driven less by stories and more by arithmetic.
That arithmetic is uncomplicated. Equity returns over time broadly reflect earnings growth (Sensex basket of companies), with changes in valuation adding or subtracting from returns only temporarily. Put simply, investors ultimately earn what corporate India delivers in profits. Excitement, pessimism, and market mood may influence prices in the short term, but over a decade or more, earnings do the heavy lifting.
This is an unfashionable conclusion in an era increasingly drawn to index milestones, target levels, and dramatic market calls. But it is the most useful lesson that the Sensex offers as it completes four decades of existence.
EARNINGS DO THE HEAVY LIFTING
A long view of market history shows that over most rolling 10-year periods, Sensex returns have broadly tracked earnings growth. On average, both have stayed in the vicinity of 10-11 per cent. There have been periods when returns have moved well above this band, but those episodes were typically driven by a combination of strong earnings growth and a sharp expansion in valuation multiples. They were exceptions, not the rule.
The years from the late 1990s to 2008 remain the most striking example. That period combined rapid profit growth with a powerful re-rating of the market. Earnings growth moved into the mid-teens, while price-to-earnings multiples expanded significantly. The result was a phase of unusually strong equity returns that still shapes investor memory today. But that memory can also be misleading. Exceptional periods tend to become the standard against which normal market behaviour is judged, and that often distorts expectations.
MYTH OF EXTRAORDINARY RETURNS
The post-global financial crisis period offers a useful counterpoint. Market returns in many of those years were far more restrained and largely mirrored earnings growth, with little help from re-rating. This underlines a critical point: valuation expansion can amplify returns for a while, but it rarely sustains wealth creation on its own. Unless earnings keep growing, markets eventually run out of momentum. This is why investors often misread long phases of subdued market performance. Range-bound or moderate-return periods are frequently seen as signs of stagnation or disappointment.
In reality, they are often phases of adjustment, when earnings continue to rise but valuations remain stable or contract. Such stretches are not signs of market failure. They are part of the natural process through which markets reconnect prices with fundamentals.
REALISTIC READING
This has direct relevance for the present market environment. India’s equity market today appears to be in an earnings-led phase rather than a valuation-led one. Earnings growth remains reasonably healthy, but valuations are already demanding, and the interest-rate backdrop does not offer the kind of broad support that typically fuels a dramatic re-rating.
Under such conditions, expecting returns to remain broadly aligned with earnings growth may be more realistic than hoping for another prolonged phase of outsized gains. That is not a pessimistic view. It is a disciplined one.
The problem with equity investing is rarely that long-term returns are inadequate. The problem is that investors often expect them to be spectacular all the time.
THE ENDURING LESSON
The larger lesson from 40 years of the Sensex is therefore both simple and humbling. Corporate earnings grow over time. Market returns, over long periods, broadly follow that growth. Valuation cycles can create temporary bursts of exuberance or phases of disappointment, but they do not rewrite the long-term equation.
The arithmetic of markets may not be dramatic. But it has proved more reliable than the stories told around them.
Saravanan is Professor of Finance, IIM Tiruchirappalli; and Manas is Associate Professor of Finance, Goa Institute of Management, Goa.
War crisis: Global cloud majors look to India as data centre hub
By Vallari Sanzgiri, Mumbai
India is set to benefit from the war in West Asia and may emerge as a regional hub for cloud infrastructure, as the crisis has triggered a surge in demand for data centre capacity in the country from global hyperscalers and Gulf-based clients.
Global cloud majors, including Google Cloud, Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft Azure, are seeking larger co-location deals with Indian data centres, industry sources said. As per one source, AWS is talking to five co-location providers like CtrlS, Sify, NTT, CapitaLand and even Airtel’s Nxtra to build data centres to host public cloud regions.
SPIKE IN DEMAND
Demand for data centre capacity has spiked in the last three-four weeks, ranging between 200 and 500 MW, Sunil Gupta, Co-Founder, Managing Director and CEO of cloud infrastructure provider Yotta Data Services, told businessline.
Those from West Asia are in a particular rush to close the contracts. These are huge inquiries even at a charge of $60 per kilowatt, he said. “Since data centres cannot be opened and closed on an ad-hoc basis like offices, these contracts have long-term implications. In the midst of the global chaos, there is a golden opportunity for India to become a regional hub for data centres,” said Gupta.
Overall, India stands to benefit from a structural reallocation of global cloud and data infrastructure demand, particularly as a secondary hub for the West Asia and Asia corridor, said Neha Singh, Co-Founder, Tracxn. “In the near term, hyperscalers are likely evaluating India as a contingency location for regional workloads, particularly as disruptions in Gulf-based infrastructure raise operational risks”.
STRATEGIC LEVERAGE
Companies also have an option of migrating workloads to data centres in Europe or the US. Ultimately, where these workloads shift is a factor of cost and India has a clear advantage in pricing, as per RackBank.
“Building a 100 MW AI facility in India is roughly $5-6 million compared to a place like Singapore and APAC, where it is around $12-14 million," said Narendra Sen, Founder & CEO, RackBank. "India gives double capacity at the same cost. For a hyperscaler, it’s enough money to build an entirely second facility for free".
GPU DEMAND
Apart from data centres, Indian cloud infrastructure providers have received huge requests for GPUs. Gupta said US-based GPU providers had contracted all of Yotta’s GPU capacity, with contracts ranging from $16 million for a year to $1.3 billion for four years.
These orders from international players are for global requirements, and not India. While Gupta said that Yotta is commissioning an additional 30,000 B300/B200 GPUs over the next four months for India requirements, there has been no noticeable concern regarding GPU shortage.
Major ports register 7 per cent cargo growth in FY26
By Our Bureau, Mumbai
Major government-administered ports in India handled 915 million tonnes of cargo in FY26, registering a 7.06 per cent growth over the previous year. The tonnage growth was the result of capacity expansion and efficiency gains, the Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways said on Sunday.
Deendayal Port Authority in Kandla overtook Paradip port to become the top performer, handling 160.11 million tonnes in the last fiscal. Increased volumes of fertilizers, liquid cargo, and containers contributed to the growth at Kandla.
The Paradip Port Authority handled 156.45 million tonnes in the last fiscal, taking the second position. Paradip port stated that despite challenging market conditions, such as declining exports of iron ore, it saw a 4.1 per cent growth in volume and continued to lead among all ports on the Eastern Coast.
The Jawaharlal Nehru Port Authority, India’s largest container port, stood third as it handled 102.1 million tonnes.
KEY PORTS
Other key ports, including Visakhapatnam, Mumbai, Chennai, and New Mangalore, also registered a strong performance, contributing to the cargo throughput.
“The record cargo handling of over 915 million tonnes by our major ports is a testament to the government’s unwavering commitment to strengthening India’s maritime sector,” Union Minister of Ports, Shipping and Waterways Sarbananda Sonowal said.
“The sustained growth in cargo handling has been driven by capacity augmentation and modernisation of port infrastructure, strengthened multimodal connectivity and seamless hinterland linkages, adoption of digital and smart port initiatives, increased handling of key commodities including coal, crude oil, containers and fertilizers, as well as improved turnaround time and ease of doing business across ports,” the Ministry said.
How medical myths go viral at deadly speed
By Ramakanta Panda (By Invitation)
A landmark 2018 study by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, published in Science, found that falsehoods on the microblogging site Twitter (now X) spread significantly faster, deeper and more broadly than the truth. Analysing data from 2006–17, researchers reported that false news was 70 per cent more likely to be retweeted and reached people up to six times faster than truthful stories. False health claims do not merely compete with science, they also outpace it.
VULNERABILITY IN INDIA
India is particularly vulnerable, given the gaps in health literacy. Patients frequently come to me clutching their chest, demanding immediate surgery because a WhatsApp forward has convinced them their symptoms are fatal. In nearly 60 per cent of such cases, the symptoms improve with appropriate medical management.
CASE OF TUBERCULOSIS AND CANCER
Consider tuberculosis: India carries the world’s largest burden of the disease, with an estimated 2.8 million incident cases annually. Studies tracking patients across multiple states have documented substantial delays in care-seeking and diagnosis as many patients initially seek care from informal providers or follow social media advice. It is estimated that tuberculosis costs India nearly $24 billion annually in lost productivity and healthcare expenses.
Cancer presents a similarly troubling picture. Misinformation thrives because social media algorithms reward engagement, and “miracle cures” generate disproportionate attention. Indian oncologists routinely report patients presenting at advanced stages after pursuing unproven remedies. A study published in JAMA Oncology found that those relying on unproven treatments had significantly worse survival outcomes. During the Covid-19 pandemic, several products labelled as “evidence-based cures” were aggressively promoted despite a lack of rigorous clinical validation.
QUICK DEBUNKING
While India’s scale presents unique challenges, countries like Finland offer instructive models. Finland’s education system integrates media literacy across all levels, teaching students how misinformation is constructed. India can replicate this using its vast network of ASHA workers, anganwadi centres, and government schools.
A second intervention is “prebunking” — exposing individuals to weakened forms of misinformation in advance to build psychological resistance, much like vaccination. We must treat health communication with the same rigour we apply to drug approvals, surgical protocols, and infection control. In the age of al-
The author is a renowned cardiac surgeon.
Dubai curbs on Indian carriers under scrutiny: Dubai curbs on Indian carriers under scrutiny as Gulf conflict hits operations
By Rohit Vaid, New Delhi
The disparity in air traffic access between India and Dubai is coming under scrutiny at a time when airlines on both sides are operating under exceptional conditions due to the ongoing Gulf conflict, sources told businessline.
Accordingly, the issue was recently flagged by the Federation of Indian Airlines (FIA) in a communication to the Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA), seeking a review of capacity deployment in the current environment. In the communication, FIA told MoCA that Dubai International Airport (DXB) authorities had mandated flight cancellations for the Northern Summer 2026 season between April 20 and May 31, restricting foreign carriers to only one rotation per day.
DIFFERENT RULES
However, UAE-based carriers, such as Emirates and FlyDubai, have resumed operations to India at pre-disruption levels and are not subject to similar restrictions, resulting in what industry stakeholders described as an uneven playing field.
Separately, industry sources told businessline that Emirates and FlyDubai together operate around 35 daily flights between Dubai and multiple Indian cities, while Indian carriers continue to have limited ability to scale up services on these routes, despite sustained demand on the corridor. In its communication, the FIA noted that the continuation of such restrictions is already leading to anti-competitive market conditions, operational inefficiencies, substantial revenue losses, and passenger inconvenience.
EXTENDED FLIGHTS
Speaking to businessline, industry stakeholders said with portions of airspace restricted, Indian carriers flying to Europe and the US are being forced to take longer routes, resulting in higher fuel burn and extended flight durations, in almost all cases adding hours to flight time. These operational challenges, coupled with higher fuel consumption, are further straining airline economics at a time when cost pressures remain elevated.
“The imbalance becomes more visible in situations like this. Indian carriers are dealing with longer routes and higher operating costs, while also having limited room to expand capacity where demand exists,” an airline executive said.
According to industry stakeholders, the current situation reflects how capacity and access are being managed during a period of disruption, with airlines seeking a more balanced approach under existing bilateral arrangements.
Consequently, the industry body urged the government to engage with Dubai to remove the restrictions and allow Indian carriers to restore operations to pre-disruption levels. It suggested that reciprocal measures could be considered, including restricting the operations of Dubai carriers in line with the cumulative seat capacity deployed by Indian airlines on the route.
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