THE TOP GLOBAL TRENDS & THREATS IN THE NEW YEAR

N 1898, Mark Twain wrote about the telectroscope in his short story 'From the London Times of 1904'.

- SHANKKAR AIYAR

The telectroscope was a limitless-distance telephone that would make the "daily doings of the globe" visible and audible to everyone. Essentially, Twain imagined the smart phone and social media a century before their arrival.Not all predictions land well. In the past 100 years, trends have been spotted and missed. In 2000, writers at Popular Mechanics predicted man will holiday on the moon-a possibility per Elon Musk; Darryl Zanuck said folks would tire of watching TV; scientists predicted a new ice age in the 1970s and said pollution would obliterate the sun. Those in Delhi may testify it is happening and others may state it's only a matter of time.

So, what does 2026 hold for the world-and specifically for India? The primary facet of 2026 is not the sudden shock, but Milton Friedman's long and variable lag. Risk-benefit analysis calls for the usual caveats. In geopolitics, as in pathology, risks are present even if symptoms are yet to show up. In economics and technology, it is useful to remember the warning on the passenger-side mirror of cars-like objects, trends and threats are closer than they appear.

Here are a few trends and threats hovering at the gates of 2026-from geopolitics and economics to tech and markets.