- Arvind's Newsletter
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- Arvind's Newsletter
1.AI171: Human Error, Design Flaw, or Something Else? Indrajit Gupta in Founding Fuel
India’s AAIB released its 15-page preliminary report on the tragic Air India 787 Dreamliner crash
Crash summary
Fuel switches on both engines moved from “RUN” to “CUTOFF” 3 seconds after liftoff, starving the engines of fuel.
Pilots turned them back on after 10 seconds—but it was too late. The aircraft couldn’t climb and crashed into a medical hostel.
Cockpit confusion
Cockpit voice reorder (CVR) audio captured one pilot asking, “Why did you cut off the fuel?”
The other pilot denied it.
The switches require manual lifting of an interlock latch, making accidental movement unlikely.
The big question: Why did the switches move?
This is now the heart of the investigation. These switches aren’t easy to move by mistake. So what happened?
2.Air India Crash Report Raises More Questions, CEO Says in Memo: Bloomberg
India’s initial findings into the crash of an Air India aircraft last month raise more questions, according to the airline’s CEO, who defended the fitness of the cockpit crew and the company’s track record of inspecting its fleet.
A preliminary report filed by the country’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau last week showed that two fuel switches in the cockpit that were moved to a cut-off position caused the Boeing Co. 787 to crash 32 seconds after takeoff.
“Unsurprisingly, it provided both greater clarity and opened additional questions,” Air India CEO Campbell Wilson wrote to employees in an internal memo reviewed by Bloomberg News.
Meanwhile, Aviation regulator, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), on Monday directed all Indian airlines to inspect the fuel switches on Boeing aircraft, including the 787 and 737 models. The aim is to identify any issues with the locking mechanism of these switches.
The DGCA issued the order after learning that several Indian and international airlines had already started carrying out their own checks of the fuel switches. According to a Reuters report, the Air India Group began inspecting the fuel switches on its Boeing 787 and 737 aircraft over the weekend. So far, no faults have been detected.
3.Global EV majors Tesla, VinFast, Kia set for India face-off on Tuesday: Business Standard
This Tuesday, India’s electric vehicle (EV) landscape is set to witness some big-ticket moves. Three multinational EV majors — Tesla, VinFast, and Kia — will unveil their products, announce pricing, and open pre-bookings.
While American major Tesla will showcase its Model Y, Vietnamese rival VinFast will drive in the VF6 and VF7, and South Korea’s Kia will offer its much-anticipated Carens Clavis EV.
The rising interest from global majors comes as EV penetration in the passenger car segment jumped to 4.4 per cent in June 2025, up from around 2.5 per cent year-on-year, driven by government subsidies, according to the Federation of Automobile Dealers Associations (FADA).
Elon Musk-led Tesla will open its first showroom or experience centre in Mumbai on Tuesday. This comes amid advanced-stage talks between India and the US for a trade pact. Market speculation suggests that duties on auto imports to India could be cut, a move that may benefit Tesla, which plans to import completely built units (CBUs) from the US.
4.Temasek hits $50 billion milestone in India—eyes bigger, more concentrated bets: Mint
Temasek Holdings will make concentrated and larger bets in India, a top executive said as the Singapore state investor hit a record $50 billion assets under management with its portfolio in India. India now accounts for 8% of its global portfolio.
The firm is likely to maintain its pace of deploying capital this year, averaging around $3 billion, said Ravi Lambah, head, strategic initiatives and head, India, for Temasek, in an interview with Mint.
Last year, Temasek invested more than $1 billion for a 10% stake in Agarwal family-backed Haldiram Food International Pvt. Ltd, and around $2 billion for a majority control of Pai-family operated Manipal Health Enterprises.
5.BITS Pilani to set up ‘AI+’ campus, invest ₹1,219 cr on infra upgrade
BITS Pilani on Sunday announced an expansion of its academic and digital infrastructure, unveiling plans for a new AI+ campus in Amaravati, a ₹1,219 crore investment to upgrade facilities across its existing campuses and the formal launch of BITS Pilani Digital, the institute’s dedicated online education platform.
The AI+ campus, coming up on 35 acres in Amaravati, will be developed in two phases with an outlay of ₹1,000 crore over five years. The first phase will support 3,000 students, while the second will scale capacity to over 7,000. Programs will include undergraduate twinning courses, cotutelle doctoral degrees with international institutions, and master’s degrees in AI/ML, innovation, and strategy.
6.US President Donald Trump will reportedly today unveil a plan to arm Ukraine, a sharp pivot after months of trying to draw Russia to the negotiating table: New York Times and others
The effort — described by a top Republican as “aggressive “— will include the transfer of offensive weapons, Axios said.
Trump earlier told reporters that Washington would send Kyiv Patriot Interceptors, paid for by the EU. The US leader has turned against his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in recent weeks.
Trump spoke positively of Putin in his first term, and sought a rapprochement with Russia in the initial months of his second. That has since shifted. Putin “talks nice and then he bombs everybody in the evening,”Trump said.
In latest news, Trump threatens Russia with 100% “ secondary” tariffs if it doesn’t come up with a peace deal with Ukraine in 50 days.
7.Google Is Said to Pay $2.4 Billion for Windsurf Assets, Talent: Bloomberg
Google’s got this one. The Alphabet subsidiary will pay $2.4 billion for top talent and licensing rights from Windsurf following the collapse of the AI coding startup’s agreement to be bought by rival OpenAI, people familiar said.
Windsurf had previously agreed to be purchased by the ChatGPT maker for $3 billion, but the deal unraveled in part because of tensions with Microsoft.
Windsurf’s CEO and co-founder will join Google DeepMind along with several top employees. Tech giants buying stakes in rivals attracts the attention of antitrust regulators, but hiring decisions so not, The New York Times reported. Google’s huge outlay is comparable to a soccer team paying a transfer fee to acquire a top player’s contract. Meta, too, has been on a hiring spree recently, sometimes offering compensation packages of up to $100 million for top talent, as it tries to make up ground in the AI race.
8.Singapore and London, two of the world’s most congested airspaces, are testing artificial intelligence air traffic control systems.
Air traffic controllers are notoriously overworked, having to monitor thousands of flights a day and frequently forced to rely on decades-old technology. The aviation industry is exploring the use of AI — which does not get tired and can pay attention to several inputs at once — to monitor aircraft.
However, using AI would raise legal and ethical quastions, such as who is responsible for accidents, Scientific American reported. ATCs are under particular scrutiny after January’s crash in the US capital between an airliner and a military helicopter, which killed 67: Experts believe human error played a role.
9.A bionic knee integrated into tissue can restore natural movement: MIT News
MIT researchers have developed a new bionic knee that can help people with above-the-knee amputations walk faster, climb stairs, and avoid obstacles more easily than they could with a traditional prosthesis.
Unlike prostheses in which the residual limb sits within a socket, the new system is directly integrated with the user’s muscle and bone tissue. This enables greater stability and gives the user much more control over the movement of the prosthesis.
Participants in a small clinical study also reported that the limb felt more like a part of their own body, compared to people who had more traditional above-the-knee amputations.
10.Singapore is the most expensive city in the world for spending on luxury goods for the third year running, while London edged out Hong Kong to take the second spot.
They were followed by Monaco and Zurich, while Shanghai — which topped the list in 2022 — dropped two spots to sixth, according to an annual report by Swiss wealth manager Julius Baer.
