But even by the usual standards, artificial intelligence has had a turbulent run. Is AI a society-renewing hero or a jobs-destroying villain? As always, the truth is not so categorical. At more than 1,000 pages, Thomas Piketty's doorstop sequel to his previous opus, Capital in the Twenty-First Century, does not disappoint. But whether it will fundamentally change the global debate about inequality is an open question. As a general-purpose technology, AI will be what we make of it, with its ultimate impact determined by the governance frameworks we build.

What is good for the country might not work for a city and what is good for a city might not work for a small community. Successful cities or communities are usually built via a bottom-up approach, called localism. The archaeological evidence at Harappa, Mohenjodaro and other such sites are a testimony to this. Be it the sanitation or the street connectivity, the planning looks way ahead of its time. However, today, the people of the modern cities struggle to commute, breathe and carry out their routine.