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Edits | January, 2026
2025 has been a year of wars. There have been continuing wars, and wars which have emerged in regions that could not have imagined either a new war or have laboured to keep the ongoing war well-funded. War chests deplete very quickly. What the world has seen is that most of the wars of the 21st century have been fought by mindsets on foreign soil. Be it Ukraine, Gaza, Sudan, Pakistan and now Thailand, or so many others which are going on, some of them unreported. This continues well into 2026, with little or no change, and likely much beyond it. Until each regime understands that they have to individually guard their own country with the resources available to them—hence, in hindsight, they will either not go to war or resolve the conflict with the aggressor. The biggest problem today is that conflict resolution is sidelined in light of the interests of foreign lands. Not that this is a new ‘art of war’—it has always been there—but now at a proportion much larger than ever before.
Consumerism has consumed the entire world. This is not to say that the world is better off with spirituality or non-consumerism. The advent of social media and the propagation of uncurated content, by millions of pieces per hour, has given rise to a class of masses with a mindset that they want what only 0.01 per cent or a fraction of individuals on the planet can attain. This has led to incandescent rights-recalling and the pursuit of individuals far beyond their capabilities. Hence, most people are going to age earlier than expected, and not as biologically programmed. One train of thought asks—why challenge it—since it may be a part of human evolution; but at the same time, it may be a wrong path of evolution. As the population on the planet continues to grow to a threshold which is nearing its limit, all the resources that were and are built face a challenge, especially in Asian countries. Hence, there is a need to subdue this consumerism intelligently at a personal level, rather than just getting swayed and continuously looking at the reels and stories that social media is throwing at us. There is no denial or dodge from such rhetoric, since it is now in such great volume that it is almost unimaginable to keep away.
The advent, propagation, and installation of AI systems all over the world will work only for the intelligent few and not for the masses. For individuals to use AI, a large amount of intelligence is definitely needed. First, because the AI installed is still in its infancy, and second, it serves, at the moment,only the human users. The only difference is that an intelligent person using AI may be able to replace a lot of non-intelligent desk jobs and non-motivated executives. When essays are being written claiming that people will be able to build companies by using AI with a very small staff, all of that is unrealistic. Companies need boots on the ground to fight challenges and build. A General simply cannot fight a war in his war room with another General; hence, all that hullabaloo that AI will be able to create enterprises out of thin air, with one man typing things out on an AI system, is not going to happen. So, the large workforce is going to remain intact and keep working as it does now.
Information-driven systems may help education, research, and an individual’s intelligence much more than replacing people who actually run factories and systems on the ground. As we move into the next year, there will be a soft launch of quantum computers, cheaper power, maybe fusion reactors at a test stage, and new gadgets other than cell phones, all coming together to form a completely new world—and a new world order. Most of the janata will simply watch it happen, since many of these advanced products and systems have gone into the hands of a few intelligent, well-connected, and well-funded individuals all over the world. There is nothing wrong with it, but at the same time, for common people, it is important to recognize that such a situation exists. All that they see on social media is not going to come true for them, by any stretch of the imagination.
Education systems have been the worst hit in 2025. Firstly, because of wars, there is a community of people that did not receive education, and there is also a large community of people who have gotten educated but have been distracted by misinformation that has guided their education years. Higher education, which is propagated by established professors, seems to be looking old, since much of that content is available online for anybody to consume.
With the advent of AI, and for students who are a tad bit more intelligent, the professor loses significant authority. This is a very big change that has happened over the last four to five years, and an unimaginable one for education. Thinkers and researchers, though they may have grown hugely in numbers, do not find a place in regular media channels—that being social media—because of their non-glamorous approach. Again, there is nothing wrong with it, since thinkers and researchers need to think hard about how to evidence their impact on humankind. The maths remains the same, and they have to toil to make themselves heard.
Going forward, 2026 has to be viewed in conjunction with the next three to four years, when new technology will start hitting users, men will go to Mars and the Moon again, and technology will amaze with what it can do. On that note, wishing all the readers of Delhi Press magazines a very Happy New Year 2026.
CA Divesh Nath
Editor
Woman’s Era
LinkedIn: Divesh Nath