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By:

Prithvi Asthana

20 August 2025 at 5:20:30 pm

The Robot Dog That Barked Too Loudly

A borrowed machine exposed the gulf between technological ambition and institutional care during the AI Impact Summit. India wants to be taken seriously as an artificial-intelligence power. That was the message delivered with customary confidence by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the inauguration of the AI Impact Summit, a gathering impressive on paper: 20 heads of state, 60 ministers and hundreds of global AI executives. The ambition was to announce India’s arrival as a leader in the...

The Robot Dog That Barked Too Loudly

A borrowed machine exposed the gulf between technological ambition and institutional care during the AI Impact Summit. India wants to be taken seriously as an artificial-intelligence power. That was the message delivered with customary confidence by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the inauguration of the AI Impact Summit, a gathering impressive on paper: 20 heads of state, 60 ministers and hundreds of global AI executives. The ambition was to announce India’s arrival as a leader in the technologies of the future. While several significant things have occurred at the summit, a side incident snowballed into a case study in how small failures in form of poor vetting, loose claims and administrative haste can puncture a grand narrative. The controversy broke on the summit’s second day after an interview on DD News. At a stall run by the Noida-based Galgotias University, a faculty member claimed that two eye-catching exhibits, one a four-legged robot dog and a football-playing drone, had been developed “from scratch” at the university’s new AI centre of excellence. The centre, inaugurated earlier this month with partners including Nvidia and Tata Technologies, was described as a Rs. 350-crore investment, the largest AI outlay by any private university in India. Internet users quickly pointed out that the robot dog, branded ‘Orion’, closely resembled the Unitree Go2, a commercially available Chinese product, and that the drone had South Korean origins. Very soon, the indigenous innovation claim touted by Galgotias University collapsed on scrutiny as it was revealed that the dog was indeed a Chines product. The embarrassment escalated because the government had amplified the claim. Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, overseeing the summit, had briefly promoted the robot dog on social media before deleting his post once doubts surfaced. A further twist came when an account called ‘China Pulse’ highlighted the dog’s origins, only for some Indian users to allege that the account itself was a foreign propaganda operation. The argument over who exposed the truth soon eclipsed the truth itself. For Galgotias University, the damage was immediate. Their stall was immediately vacated. A hurried press statement apologised, describing the professor as “ill-informed” and claiming she had been instructed not to speak to the media – a lame explanation that raised more questions than it answered. The episode also revived older doubts about the institution’s credibility, including legal troubles involving members of the founding family in 2014 over alleged forgery and financial defaults. Lost amid the noise was a quieter, more inconvenient fact that India does have a home-grown robot dog. xTerra Robotics, a start-up founded in 2023 at IIT Kanpur, showcased ‘Svan 2,’ India’s first four-legged commercial robot, at the same exhibition. It attracted far less attention than the imported dog that stole the limelight and then bit its handlers. The wider implications go beyond one university or one minister’s deleted tweet. India’s global pitch rests heavily on  Atmanirbhar Bharat  (self-reliance) in manufacturing and technology. Displaying a Chinese robot at a summit meant to trumpet indigenous capability weakens that message, especially at a moment when India is positioning itself as a geopolitical and technological alternative in Asia. The episode also hints at a deeper unease within India’s innovation ecosystem. Too often, incentives reward visibility over verification and announcements over outcomes. Universities, start-ups and even ministries feel pressure to demonstrate instant breakthroughs, even when the slower work of genuine research and development would serve better. This results in a culture in which borrowed hardware and inflated claims slip too easily into official showcases. The fiasco also exposed a basic governance failure. Stalls at a high-profile international summit were allotted without rigorous vetting of claims, leaving the Information Technology Ministry scrambling after the fact. In a world where reputations are made and unmade online in hours, such oversight is costly. None of this negates India’s genuine strengths in software, talent or start-ups. But it underlines a harsher truth: credibility in technology is built not by slogans or spectacle, but by accuracy, verification and institutional discipline. A robot dog may seem trivial. Yet when it barks falsely on a global stage, it can drown out a far bigger message.

Lateral upgrade to ailing annihilation

Updated: Oct 21, 2024

Lateral upgrade to ailing annihilation

Being the first person from the private sector to be appointed as chairperson of Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) as part of the government’s lateral initiative, Madhabi Puri Buch also holds the honour of being the first woman to hold the top post as capital market regulator.

But the laurels that the former private sector banker enjoyed in her earlier stint with ICICI Bank, was marred with allegations that she and her husband were having a stake in offshore entities, which were used to artificially inflate shares of Adani group companies.

Terming the allegation as `character assassination, Buch clarified that all disclosures have already been furnished and the fund in question did not invest in any securities involving the Adani group.

When it rains, it pours. This allegation was subsequently followed by Congress Party allegation that Buch had received salary and post-retirement benefits from ICICI Bank after she quit the private sector bank.

In its clarification to the stock exchanges, ICICI Bank asserted that the payments made to Buch were purely retirement benefits after her exit from the bank and they were neither salary nor employee stock options.

Prior to these allegations, Buch tenure at SEBI was all about bringing in quick reforms on operational issues by changing the format of consultation paper to bring in larger responses digitally. Being data savvy, the rationale of her decisions were democratic based on big data analysis derived from the responses received to the consultation papers.

Further she bifurcated the duties of the SEBI staff between operations and enforcement, which were done by the same persons earlier. Having worked for the private sector in the capital market domain space, Buch had a better understanding of the subject compared to officers from the administrative service in the past that reflected even in her orders as a whole-time director at SEBI before becoming the chairperson. As a whole time director at SEBI, her orders on adjudication issues were more directional to the capital market space, according to experts in the compliance space. She was also quick to revamp the old provisions of the 90s at SEBI.

Being tech and data savvy, Buch enhanced regulatory surveillance and detection of market manipulation, insider trading and fraud while also emphasizing on strengthening corporate governance by introducing stricter rules for independent directors and enhancing disclosures for related-party transactions.

To put in perspective, the annual report of the capital market regulator in the just concluded financial year revealed that the number of investigations related to insider trading jumped to 175 in 2023-24 from 85 in the preceding year while probes related to front running jumped over three times to 83 from 24 in the preceding year.

Transparency in mutual funds by implementing measures to protect retail investors along with tightening norms for initial public offers, particularly in the SME platforms were some of her other positive initiatives including confirmation of denial of any market rumours within 24 hours for the top 100 listed companies which will be extended to top 250 companies from December 1. However increased transparency and compliance with tightening regulations led to increased operational costs for the market participants and hence faced resistance from certain quarters. Born in 1966, Buch completed her primary education in Mumbai and graduated with specialization in Mathematics from Delhi and later obtained a management degree from Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad. In between, she got engaged to Dhawal Buch, a director at a consumer goods multinational at the age of eighteen and got married at the age of 21.

Besides ICICI Bank, Buch also worked as a lecturer at a college in England, worked at Greater Pacific Capital in Singapore and ICICI Securities as its CEO. She also worked as executive director on several private sector companies and as a consultant for New Development Bank (Brics Bank).

What now remains to be seen, is whether Buch, who survived the 26/11 terror attack when she along with her husband, was attending a meeting at Taj, be able to overcome the current ordeal. Keeping fingers crossed for the times to come.

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