Network Capital

What should progress look like in a country being transformed by technology, aspiration and demographic change?In this Network Capital conversation, Kiran Karnik reflects on his new book, Dusk or Dawn? Essays on India and the Emerging Tomorrow.Drawing on a career spanning India's space programme, broadcasting and the technology industry, Karnik brings a long view to urgent questions. His essays examine what artificial intelligence could mean for work and learning, how migration and ageing are changing family life, why cities struggle to meet basic needs, and how status shapes our ambitions. Running through the book is a larger question: how can technological and economic change translate into a better everyday life?About Kiran KarnikKiran Karnik is a former President of NASSCOM and chaired the government-appointed board of Satyam Computer Services following its 2009 accounting fraud. He spent more than two decades at ISRO, working on satellite-based education and communication initiatives, including SITE and the Kheda Communication Project. He was Founder-Director of the Consortium for Educational Communication and later led Discovery Networks in India, launching Discovery Channel and Animal Planet in South Asia. A physics graduate of Bombay University and an alumnus of IIM Ahmedabad, he received the Padma Shri in 2007.Book Link: https://www.amazon.in/Dusk-Dawn-Kiran-Karnik/dp/9363361209

In 2019, Awais Ahmed and Kshitij Khandelwal started Pixxel from their dorm room at BITS Pilani. They named it after the smallest unit of an image, reflecting their goal of giving Earth a digital identity through hyperspectral data. Today Pixxel runs a six-satellite hyperspectral constellation, builds satellites for others, and has raised $195 million, including a $100 million Series C co-led by Temasek and Seraphim, the largest round in Indian space-tech history.In this conversation, the cofounders trace that journey from demo satellites to the Firefly constellation launched in 2025. They describe how they got customers and partners to trust them before they had a product in orbit. They talk about the vendor problems that pushed back their first launch from February 2021, and why they scrapped their original constellation design for a more capable one. They also explain where their edge lies in global hyperspectral imaging and in Indian satellite manufacturing, how the creation of IN-SPACe and new government support changed the game for private space companies in India, and what it will take to produce more than 50 satellites a quarter by late 2028 or early 2029.

Ctrl+Alt+Doubt offers a new way to understand why conspiracy theories grow and persist. Rather than treating them as cognitive errors, psychological pathologies, or products of echo chambers, Rao and Greve analyze conspiracy theories as linguistic constructions—stories built from recognizable semantic patterns. Using tools from distributional semantics, they map the semantic space of conspiracy talk and show how meanings are assembled, recombined, and diffused online.Book Link:https://amzn.eu/d/0bzPaFXC

Dr. Shawna Pandya is a Canadian physician, commercial astronaut, aquanaut, researcher, and international speaker working at the intersection of space medicine, human performance, technology, and extreme environments. She is the first named female Canadian commercial astronaut and is scheduled to fly aboard Virgin Galactic’s Delta-class spacecraft with the International Institute for Astronautical Sciences (IIAS).Dr. Pandya serves as Director of the IIAS Space Medicine Group, Chief Instructor for Operational Space Medicine, Assistant Clinical Professor at the University of Alberta, and Chief of Space Medicine at the Advanced SpaceLife Research Institute. She is also VP of Immersive Medicine at Luxsonic Technologies and a Fellow of the Explorers’ Club.Her field experience spans 12 parabolic-flight campaigns and more than 180 microgravity/reduced-gravity parabolas, two aquanaut missions totaling over 235 hours underwater, suborbital research, centrifuge training, spacecraft emergency egress, sea survival, wilderness medicine, and a command role at the Mars Desert Research Station. Her research has contributed to experiments associated with the International Space Station, Polaris Dawn, and Blue Origin.She previously trained or interned at the European Astronaut Centre and NASA Johnson Space Center and has published work covering commercial spaceflight medicine, human resilience, space technology, and long-duration space exploration.An internationally recognized speaker, Dr. Pandya has presented for organizations and institutions including the Canadian Space Agency, Oxford, Harvard, Yale, Johns Hopkins, World Extreme Medicine, and the Explorers’ Club, as well as major aerospace and medical conferences worldwide.Her recognitions include being named among the Women’s Executive Network Top 100 Most Powerful Women in Canada, the Explorers’ Club 50 Explorers Changing the World, a Canadian Space Agency Space Ambassador, a Karman Pioneer, and a recipient of recognition from the Women’s Space Awards.Dr. Pandya holds degrees in Neuroscience, Space Studies, and Medicine. Beyond medicine and spaceflight, she is an advanced and rescue diver, solo skydiver, pilot-in-training, and black belt in Taekwondo, reflecting a career built around exploration, resilience, science, and pushing the boundaries of human potential.

In his deeply inspiring book, part memoir, part guide; astronaut and cardiologist Dr. Eiman Jahangir invites readers into a journey shaped by war, rejection, loss, and an unshakable belief in possibility. Born in Tehran during the Iran–Iraq War and raised in Nashville, Jahangir grew up gazing at the night sky with two impossible dreams: to become a doctor and to travel to space.After multiple NASA finalist rounds, he faced a choice familiar to anyone who has dared greatly: shrink the dream or redefine the path. In the new era of commercial spaceflight, he chose the latter. On August 29, 2024, he became the first Iranian American man to travel to space, proving that the road to extraordinary achievement is rarely straight.Interwoven throughout his story are eight compelling interviews with modern space pioneers, including current NASA administrator Jared Isaacman; Nicole Stott; Sian Proctor; Kellie Gerardi; Hayley Arceneaux; Eytan Stibbe; Chris Huie; and Drew Gaffney. More than a space memoir, this book offers a hard-earned blueprint for purposeful living. Grab this book: https://www.eimanjahangir.com/book/