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Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.As boos rang out among the audience of University of Central Florida (UCF) graduates, commencement speaker Gloria Caulfield turned to the faculty staff behind her to ask what had happened. Then it dawned on her: She had mentioned artificial intelligence (AI).The real estate executive pressed on. “Only a few years ago,” she said, “AI was not a factor in our lives.” When that statement was greeted with loud cheers, Caulfield said: “We’ve got a bipolar topic here, I see.”For any commencement speaker in 2026, no conversation about the future could be credible without mentioning AI.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.There has been growing awareness about credit cards in India, but the number of users still remains low, with 118.6 million credit cards issued as of end-March, a penetration of only 8.5%. This is because of strict credit appraisal processes that leave a large segment of the population underserved.In such a scenario, customers can opt for a secured or fixed deposit (FD)-backed credit card instead of the ubiquitous unsecured card.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.To grab hold of the glossy dream of overseas education and eventual global employment, Indian parents have willingly liquidated family assets and taken out hefty education loans — all in the hope that earnings in dollars or euros would wipe out the debt.But in 2026, that fundamental equation stands fractured. With the Indian rupee hitting record lows of ₹96 against the US dollar, the financial math of studying abroad demands a hard reset.The equation has changed.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Art has always been Neha Gupta’s quiet escape. She would spend hours sketching and painting, exploring her creativity as a little girl. Over time, she gained interest in a deeper understanding of spaces and buildings.“Architecture felt like art that people could actually live in and interiors were what made those spaces warm, inviting and personal,” says New Delhi-based Gupta, co-founder, principal designer and restaurateur at Beyond Designs.As a student of architecture and design, she first realised that functionality was as crucial as aesthetics.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.When Meta Platforms said in April that it would lay off 10% of its staff, Allen Sun quickly booked a trip to Menlo Park, Calif.It was a prime opportunity. Sun, a Beijing-based headhunter for some of the biggest Chinese tech companies, works to lure China-born talent back home, targeting people at U.S.-based companies such as Meta, Google, Anthropic and Amazon.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.STOCKHOLM, Sweden—This paragon of collectivism is pivoting toward rugged individualism.For decades, Sweden was shorthand for the brand of high-tax, high-spend government that managed people’s lives from cradle to grave through state-run hospitals, schools and care homes.No longer. With little fanfare, this Nordic country of 11 million has embraced capitalism.Today, nearly half of primary healthcare clinics are privately owned, many by private-equity firms.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Ten years ago, only two or three students from a class of 30 would pass the class 10 board exam at this government school. Today, only two or three from a class of 60 do not.The class has grown because the school changed. As the class 10 board results were transformed, parents began moving their children here from other schools—mostly private ones.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Problem-solving captured Sanjay Sudhakaran’s imagination during his student years. It’s what drove him towards pursuing a degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Mumbai, where he could use logic and creativity to build something worthwhile. An important learning that has stayed with him from those days is the importance of perseverance.“Projects rarely worked on the first attempt.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.The University of California, Berkeley had almost 6,500 students on its wait list last year. It ended up admitting none of them.The only thing harder than getting into college, it seems, is getting off the wait list. At some schools, the wait list is far more selective than the college’s overall acceptance rate.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Ted Turner died last week at 87 and the world now feels a little less interesting, a little less imaginative and a little less fun without him in it—but also a lot better off because he was here.After hearing the news of his passing, one moment came to mind that embodied how he moved through the world: a very drunk Turner giving an interview after winning the America’s Cup in 1977. The yachting world was aghast.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Kota-based test preparation company Resonance Eduventures is preparing for a fresh growth phase after completing the bulk of its long-running debt resolution exercise, the top executive of the firm told Mint.Founder Ram Kishan Verma said the company is now betting on a recovery in offline coaching demand, student enrolments and brand rebuilding.“The company is now in a much better position operationally. Most of the work on the settlement side has been completed and we are closing the remaining part as well,” Verma told Mint, in an interview.Mint was the first to report in April that KKR-backed Resonance was nearing an asset reconstruction company (ARC)-led debt resolution that could see lenders take nearly an 80% haircut on principal claims after years of financial stress.India's test preparation market size was valued at $11.60 billion in 2025, growing at a CAGR of 8.7% during the forecast period 2026-2030, according to a report by research firm Technavio.Resonance, which was a sector leader before pandemic, was disrupted by digital hyper funded peers and faced high poaching pushing it into a debt trap.According to Abhijit Shrivastava, co-founder and managing partner at Azalea Capital Partners LLP, over 90% of lenders have already sold their exposure as part of the restructuring exercise.“The ARC involved is ACRE.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.In 1954, conductor Herbert von Karajan and the Philharmonia Orchestra released what was considered a definitive recording of Ludwig van Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. It was meant to capture the grandeur of the Ode to Joy for home listeners.But when Amar Bose, then a brilliant graduate student at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and an obsessive music lover, bought an expensive high-fidelity stereo to listen to it in 1956, he was deeply disappointed.The symphony, which should have felt like a tidal wave of sound, felt more like a trickle.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.For more than a decade, Android tablets have lived in a strange limbo. They were declared dead when phones grew larger, dismissed as pandemic‑era stopgaps, and overshadowed by Apple’s iPad.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Soumya Sankar Bose’s new show We Need to Talk In Whispers at Experimenter, Ballygunge, in Kolkata is inspired by a journal he found on an overnight train journey from Howrah to Koraput. It seemed to be a curious “exploration of thanatology,” as the exhibition notes explain, a repository of “suicide notes” and “memories people hold on to in their final moments”.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.From India and New Zealand formally signing a free trade agreement (FTA) to India once again becoming a net exporter of finished steel, the index of industrial production (IIP) easing to a five-month low in March, freshers facing disruptions in job offers,and gender disparity in India’s boardrooms — here is a compilation of this week's news in numbers.India and New Zealand formally signed a comprehensive free trade agreement (FTA) on Monday after completing the negotiations in just nine months in December 2025, making this one of the fastest trade deals ever concluded. The deal carries a $20 billion investment commitment from Wellington over the next 15 years, commerce minister Piyush Goyal said.The FTA will grant duty-free access to all Indian exports to New Zealand, spanning 100% of tariff lines.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Kongara Ramesh is a man of many obsessions. A self taught homeopath, like scores of practitioners in India, he has treated tens of thousands, free of cost. A school dropout, he is also the creator of a handful of unique varieties of mangoes, India’s most beloved fruit.Ramesh is, what you may call, a seasoned plant breeder.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.One day in March 2026, a senior software developer, Kovanikov, found himself thoroughly offended. He had just received a cold outreach email from the CEO of AI startup, Composio, inviting him to call in. The email was obviously written by an AI assistant, Jarvis.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.The government’s push on entrepreneurship through the Atal Innovation Mission promised to transform Indian colleges into innovation hubs. A decade on, that ambition remains largely unrealized.Since2016, the Centre has established Atal Incubation Centres (AICs) in 60 institutions across the country under the initiative, spearheaded by think tank Niti Aayog.Of these, 38 have incubated 3,067 startups.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.KKR & Co-backed Kota-based test preparation company Resonance Eduventures Ltd. is nearing an asset reconstruction company (ARC)-led debt resolution that may see lenders taking about 80% haircut on principal claims, according to two people aware of the matter.“Only one ARC has bid for the debt and the deal is nearing completion where it will acquire a majority of the debt. Though the final negotiations on the terms of the deal will decide closure timelines,” said the first person cited above.The proposed transaction comes amid stress in India’s once-booming offline coaching sector.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.When Wells Fargo told the fintech Bilt that it would no longer be the lender for its rent-rewards credit card, Bilt scrambled to find another large bank partner. When that failed, Bilt wound up with private-credit funding.In February, Bilt struck a deal to move roughly $1.2 billion of credit-card balances with funding arranged by a group including Blue Owl Capital and Stone Point Capital as well as Goldman Sachs and TD, according to people familiar with the deal.The companies also agreed to fund hundreds of millions of dollars of credit-card balances that Bilt cardholders will incur in the future, the people said.Consumer debt has become one of the hottest categories in private credit, increasingly sought after by funds and investment arms of insurance companies on the hunt for high-yielding investments.Private credit is in focus on Wall Street right now because of the loans that fund managers have made to software and other companies, often as part of private-equity buyouts, that are now running into trouble.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Last spring, Yale University President Maurie McInnis asked a group of faculty to examine why Americans were losing confidence in higher education—and to propose remedies to restore it.Their much-anticipated findings, released Wednesday, call for changes to address everything from perceived political bias among faculty, to opaque admission standards and crushing student debt.“In its report, the committee calls on Yale to reflect on and take responsibility for our role in the erosion of public trust,” McInnis wrote. “I accept this judgment fully.”The report comes as colleges and universities seek to placate a presidential administration that has filed lawsuits, frozen federal research funds and generally made life uncomfortable for institutions accustomed to more autonomy.