10 global shifts that will shape where India wins and where it struggles in 2026

Ruchir SharmaTNN
Jan 11, 2026 | 17:57 IST
Image: AI

AI mania could wane and drag down the economies of the two superpowers, but will that be good news for India? Where will the money go next? Will migrants follow? Read on to get a sense of the opportunities and challenges ahead

At the start of last year, all the world wanted to talk about was the rise of Donald Trump and the notion that the only nation worth investing in was the US. It ended with rival markets outrunning the US by wide margins, generating returns twice as high and making America look much less ‘exceptional’. The US did not collapse, of course, because its economy and markets were held up by money rushing into artificial intelligence, which became a bigger story than Trump. The question now is what’s next for AI, and what will that mean for the world? Here are my top 10 trends for 2026:

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