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Date: 21st May, 2026
Just Reels Or Real Deals: What Came Out Of PM Modi’s Europe Trip?
The Fact: Prime Minister Narendra Modi concluded his high-stakes, six-day, five-nation tour spanning the UAE, Netherlands, Sweden, Norway, and Italy on May 20th. The last leg of his tour saw him in Rome, meeting with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. This tour came against a backdrop of energy and supply-chain anxieties triggered by the ongoing US-Iran war.
The Context: Beneath the handshakes, photo-ops, and awkward moments with the press, India signed several notable deals. In the UAE, seven significant outcomes were announced. This included a Strategic Defence Partnership, a long-term LPG supply agreement, and a landmark deal allowing the UAE to store 30 million barrels of crude oil in India's Strategic Petroleum Reserves. A $5 billion Emirati development investment commitment was also secured. In Europe, Tata Electronics inked a deal with Dutch tech giant ASML to build a semiconductor plant in western India. Sweden and India, meanwhile, agreed to target doubling bilateral trade and investment within five years. In Norway, PM Modi upgraded ties to a "Green Strategic Partnership", and finally in Rome, Modi and Meloni declared a special strategic partnership that covers defence, maritime security, counter-terrorism, AI, and space.
The Peek Insight: With this tour, India is methodically aiming to assemble the architecture of a self-reliant, globally integrated economy. New Delhi is seeking tangible gains in technology access, energy resilience, investment flows, and strategic influence. The ASML semiconductor deal will bring India closer to chip manufacturing independence, whereas the ADNOC petroleum agreement will likely insulate Indian consumers from Gulf shock. Further, the India-EU FTA momentum is expected to become operational by early 2027. It will open a $136 billion trade corridor wider. On terrorism, a joint India-Italy framework will target the financing of terror networks and coordination at the FATF. The Global Counter Terrorism Forum adds a security layer that extends well beyond bilateral optics. In the end, the tour does look successful on paper, even though it was marred by several unprecedented controversies. Yet, the real success could only be achieved when all these strategic partnerships are translated well on the ground at a time when India’s heavy dependence on energy imports has left the economy in a precarious situation.
Image Courtesy: X/@GirogiaMeloni
Hiss-terical Racism: Venemous Cartoons, Colonial Minds
Image Courtesy: Aftenposten
The Fact: Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten published a cartoon depicting PM Narendra Modi as a snake charmer during his visit to Norway. The article describes Modi as “a clever and slightly annoying man,” and shows him playing a flute to a petrol pump nozzle which has been shaped like a snake. This racist cartoon comes amidst the controversy of PM Modi avoiding a Norway-based journalist during his tour in Oslo.
The Context: The “snake charmer India” stereotype has a long colonial history. This image was symbolised in a painting called The Snake Charmer by French artist Jean-Léon Gérôme, which shows a naked boy holding a python. For decades, the West has portrayed India through the stereotypically view of snake charmers, fakirs, cows, overcrowding, beggars, and unhygienic conditions. Such portrayals reinforced the idea that Western societies are comparatively more modern and rational, and Indians are backward or uncivilised. This idea was used by the British to morally justify the wrongs they committed as a coloniser. That's why this has led to even many critics of PM Modi condemning the cartoon. And this is not the first time that such racist portrayals have been shared by the West. Back in 2014, The New York Times faced backlash for a cartoon mocking India’s Mars mission through an image that showed a turban-wearing rural man with a cow.
The Peek Insight: Political satire is indeed a core part of free speech, something that India has recently been criticized for. But how is it ethical to reproduce racial or civilisational stereotypes in the name of political commentary? This cartoon did not solely target PM Modi. It reduced India to a stereotype historically associated with exoticism and inferiority. The incident also exposes a contradiction. On one hand, a Norwegian journalist is sharply questioning the Indian authority over minority rights, and on the other, they reinforce the worst racial stereotypes.
‘Placed’ Under Pressure: IITs See Fewer Jobs But Fatter Paychecks
Image Courtesy: Times Now
The Fact: IIT Bombay's recently released placement data reports that around 70% of students were placed in the academic year 2024-25. This is a noticeable decline from last year's placement rate, which stood at 75%. While placement saw a decline, the institute reports that the average salary offered in these placements has reached over ₹26 lakh per annum. This indicates that fewer students are getting placed, yet the package for those who secure a job remains strong. Still, IITs across the nations have been seeing a downward placement trend.
The Context: Back in 2021-22, IIT Bombay's placement rate stood at 88.7%. It dropped to 82.16% in the next academic year, and then further to 75% in 2023-24. A similar trend is seen in other IITs too. In IIT Delhi, the placement rate stood at 61% for the academic session 2024-25 as reported by Economic Times. ET further states that the number of unplaced students in IIT Delhi has doubled from 350 in 2022 to 700 in the current placement year. And this is coming at a time when India is expanding its higher education ecosystem. Over the last two decades, there has been a boost in IITs from just 7 to 23 overall. A broader analysis of these 23 IITs shows that placement rates have fallen from above 90% in 2021-22 to around 80% in 2023-24. On the other hand, the country is seeing a large number of graduates. As per a report released by Azim Premji University, the country produces about five million graduates every year. But the data also highlights a grim reality. Graduates form the largest share of unemployed youth. In 2023, 67% of unemployed youth were graduates.
The Peek Insight: Placement drives across IITs continue to attract more than 300 to 400 companies every year. In several campuses, their participation has actually increased. Yet placement rates continue to hover around just 70% in these institutes. This reflects a much larger employment crisis unfolding in India. In fact, a 2024 Bloomberg report noted that young Indians are now more likely to be unemployed if they are graduates. Part of the problem is a growing skill mismatch between what is being taught in universities and what the recruiters currently need. At the same time, companies are hiring more selectively due to AI-led automation and economic uncertainty caused by geopolitical tensions. Moreover, just securing a job no longer guarantees long-term stability. The recent wave of mass layoffs at companies like Amazon and Meta shows how unpredictable the global tech job market has become. Which is why the larger challenge before India is not simply building more institutions that produce millions of graduates. The real challenge is to create an economy that can generate enough high-quality, stable jobs to absorb them.
The Cruel 4 AM Notification That Ended Thousands Of Meta Careers
Image Courtesy: The Hindu
The Fact: Meta has begun one of Silicon Valley’s largest workforce reductions in recent years. Hours after employees across Singapore, the US, and the UK were asked to work remotely, they were sent their layoff notices. Singapore-based employees reportedly received termination emails at around 4 AM local time. The company has reportedly reduced nearly 8,000 jobs, which is roughly around 10% of its global workforce. They also eliminated close to 6,000 unfilled positions.
The Context: An internal memo reviewed by Bloomberg outlined a broader restructuring effort inside Meta following the layoffs. The memo, issued by Chief People Officer Janelle Gale, stated that nearly 7,000 employees will be reassigned to newly created artificial intelligence-focused teams. The restructuring also reduced several managerial layers across the company. Combined with the layoffs and role changes, the overhaul affected nearly 20% of Meta’s workforce. The company simultaneously increased its 2026 capital expenditure forecast to as much as $145 billion. Finance chief Susan Li reportedly said the company had “consistently underestimated” its computing requirements. Meta was not alone in implementing large-scale restructuring measures this year. Microsoft, Cisco, Amazon, Oracle, and Disney also carried out significant workforce reductions. Nearly 1,10,000 technology sector employees reportedly lost their jobs across 137 companies in 2026.
The Peek Insight: One Meta employee, hired two months ago, told reporters they lay awake fighting the urge to check their phone at 4 AM. That image is the real story. The WFH order, perhaps, was a carefully choreographed corporate move, but it lacked the ethical notion. The "godfather of AI," Geoffrey Hinton, warned this year that AI will soon perform tasks needing a month of engineering labour, leaving "very few people needed for software engineering." The dream sold to an entire generation is being renegotiated.
Reels On The Riviera: When The Algorithm Outscreens Art At Cannes
The Fact: The 79th Cannes Film Festival is currently taking place in the French Riviera. The event is one of the world's most prestigious film festivals and is known for screening some of the finest works in cinema from across the world. From India, Amma Ariyan and Shadows of the Moonless Night are two regional-language films selected from thousands of global submissions. Yet, the festival's attention has been dominated mostly by social media influencers.
The Context: Several Indian influencers, including Rida Tharana and Sufi Motiwala, made their red-carpet debuts this year. While Cannes has historically been celebrated as a platform to honour cinematic excellence, the festival has recently evolved into a global marketing ecosystem. Brands like Brut have been sponsoring these influencers to attend the festival in exchange for online visibility. For instance, Rida Tharana has over 1.6 million followers on Instagram, while Sufi Motiwala has over 400,000. Their presence on the red carpet provides a commercial and viral element to the French film festival.
The Peek Insight: Today, Cannes is being increasingly consumed online through the lens of who wore what and who walked the red carpet. This was something that was always meant to be secondary to the films themselves. Influencers have now become the face of the festival on the internet. And ironically, filmmakers are slowly disappearing behind that algorithm. In this process, conversations around cinema itself have unfortunately faded into the background. For India, Shadows of the Moonless Night, which is a 24-minute short film directed by Mehar Malhotra from the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII), is the only Indian film competing in the La Cinef section against international entries. Yet, very few people would know about it. And that is precisely what frustrates many critics. The real Cannes happens inside the theatres of the film festival, which has now been reduced to little more than a fashion spectacle.
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