Aston Martin Lagonda is the British luxury car maker. Despite its strong brand heritage and high-performance vehicles, it has struggled with low valuations — roughly pounds 650 million or $841 million.

There were capital infusions from investors, and still Aston is burdened with debt. It has restructured itself repeatedly. It has gone bankrupt seven times in its 112 years history. It has burned cash since its IPO in 2018. There is mismatch between supply and demand, and this has led to a surfeit inventory of vehicles at dealerships. It sold 6000 vehicles last year (2024) and had pre-tax losses of pounds 296 million.

There were launch delays for new models. Production has been impaired by shortages. Its sports utility vehicle DBX has not been received with warmth.

It has slashed its car sales forecast by 1000 units. The US market too may deal a tariff blow on the company.

It cannot raise the prices of its models as easily as Ferrari. Its CEO Adrian Halmark, a former Bentley executive, is well-respected. He strikes the right notes. He has to deliver a supercar model with good value on schedule. It all depends on the demand for the new model.

Aston is selling its minority stake in Formula One team that bears its name.

In automobile industry, you get valuation on achieving high margins and sales growth quarter after quarter. Aston’s market capitalisation is barely 1 per cent of rival Ferrari. Aston Martin has to show the required discipline.

In mid-2024, OpenAI introduced a multi-modal GPT-4-o which can generate text, images and audio. It is an improvement over the previous system such as DALL-E3. It handles more complex requests with great accuracy. The prompts are translated into art and the model is capable of mimicking distinct art styles with great fidelity.

Over the concluding week of March 2024 and early April 2024, the model mimics the signature animation style by studio Ghibli, Inc. — a Japanese studio based in Koganei, Tokyo. Users have been tinkering with the model to test its capabilities. They realized that the AI tool has the ability to recreate Studio Ghibli’s hand-drawn art style. The internet is flooded with Ghibli-style user selfies. Ordinary objects such as cell phones, pictures of people with their pets, the fall of twin towers in 2001 — all these appear on internet. Even Sam Altman’s profile picture was converted on OpenAI into a Ghibli version.

The OpenAI model experienced outrages due to massive surge in traffic with users trying to create Ghibli-esque images.

There has been a huge debate on creativity, consent and artistic integrity. Perhaps, OpenAI model has been unfairly trained upon the copyrighted material and devalues the creative product of artists. It is all done without permission.

Besides this, sensitive subjects are reduced to cozy art.

AI models trained on private photos without consent can be misused. These can reveal metadata, location details and others sensitive information.

OpenAI’s new image creation tool converted images into the style of the Japanese animation studio, and suddenly the family photos were rendered into Ghibli style. Of course, GPT-4-o can render images into other styles but there was demand for Ghibli and soon everything was Ghiblified. It was a cozy world. It made mundane magical.

There is juxtaposition of dreamlike Ghibli world and real-life horrors, say JFK assassination. Sam Ataman, OpenAI CEO, changed his profile picture to a cartoon version. The White House tweeted a picture of Ghibli President Donald Trump slapping handcuffs on a fentanyl dealer. There is some backlash from artists — people use the tool rather than a human artist.

AI art can be used for good or evil. The White House tweet was tasteless. However, it can also entertain many. Even Studio Ghibli released a full 3-D animated movie in 2020, directed by Miyazaki’s son Goro. Computer animation expands our ability to turn vision into reality. Studios such as Pixar have imbued soul into computer animation.

There are grey areas. Art style cannot be copyrighted. Japanese laws around AI scraping are highly permissive. The whole episode is free advertising for the Studio. In any case, the tech is not going back in the box. It has implications for artists and animators. Creative works are too not uniquely protected.

Technological change stirs us. The world is full of uncertainty that makes us look at Ghibli. It is a simple and comforting world.

OpenAI has introduced a ChatGPT version that produces AI-generated art. It is called GPT-4-o model. Across the world, AI has been used to adapt images to the peculiar style developed by Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki. There are many who see this as an assault on the creative process.

Miyazaki was born in Tokyo in 1941. He took to Manga, distinct comic style of Japanese comics and graphic novels. After graduation, he started his career as an animator in 1963.

He is associated with long-running comic series in the 1970s before co-founding studio Ghibli in 1985. Miyazaki directed many films produced by the Studio.

Studio Ghibli developed a distinctive aesthetics — vivid details, rich colours, daily objects, dreamlike characters. These are hand-painted drawings and are made without any digital assistance. These sketches represent the labour of a human illustrator, using a tool like a pencil.

Miyazaki never admired AI-generated art.

Studio Ghibli’s stories are a mix of mundane and fantasy. The characters are complex. They oscillate between the good and evil. The recurring themes is pacifism, since Miyazaki was born in a post-World War ll Japan.

Another common theme is environmentalism. He is concerned about nature being destroyed. His stories tell about the relationship between humans and nature.

Miyazaki is known for his treatment of female characters. Many stories tell us about coming-of-age stories of the girls. While doing so, there is no sexualization or fluff. His female protagonists are strong-willed.

Spirited Away (2001) won the Academy Award for Best Animated feature. Another Miyazaki film The Boy and The Heron (2023) too won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature.

Radio broadcasting for international audiences is done by host countries for countries around the world. The idea is to provide news and the country’s perspective in different languages.

The US broadcast was overseen by the United States Agency for Global Media (USAGM). It managed Voice of America (VoA), Radio Free Europe, Radio Liberty and Radio Free Asia.

Earlier in March 2025, the White House issued an executive order effectively closing the USAGM.

VoA was setup in 1942 to broadcast American views and counter Nazi propaganda during World War ll (1939-45). It was the voice of American freedom and democracy in Asia, Africa and Latin America. It had bureaus in countries around the world. The estimated audience was 354 million people. It was distributed by satellite, cable, FM and MW. It had a network of 3500 affiliate stations.

Radio Free Europe (RFE) and Radio Liberty (RL) were founded during the cold war in 1949 and 1951 respectively to reach American viewpoint to listeners in the Soviet Union and its satellite states. Since mid-1990s, RFE/RL has been based in Prague and broadcasts to almost two dozen countries in Eastern Europe, Central Asia and the Middle East.

RFA started Mandarin language service in 1996. It is a crucial source of news and has an audience of around 60 million.

VoA and RFA had annual budgets of $267.5 million and $63 million respectively.

The staff has been put on unpaid leave.

RFE is looking to Europe as a possible source of funding.

Lab-grown diamonds are sustainable and affordable alternatives to natural diamonds. The lab-grown diamond space in India is still at a very nascent stage. Still, this product category requires development and must create awareness. There is no nationwide leader in the lab-grown diamonds. Jewelbox is a two and half year-old startup in this space and is one of the early entrants. It is headquartered in Kolkata. It intends to set up a chain of stores in the Tier 1 cities. Still, its 40 per cent revenue is generated online.

Lab-grown diamonds fascinate aspirational middle-class who find natural diamonds prohibitively costly. The other startups are Mumbai-based Limelight, Fiona Diamonds, Wonder Diamonds, True Carat Diamonds, Aukera Jewellery. There are almost 37 such startups.

Natural diamond prices are benchmarked to Rapport price list. Lab-grown diamonds follow cost-plus pricing model. The prices these days are falling as there is an over-supply. If productions costs are further reduced due to advancing technology, prices are likely to fall further.

These units must scale up to maintain healthy order value. There is a need for branding in this space.

iPhone survives in the market by making promises it could keep. These days audience expects iPhone to incorporate AI into iPhone’s design. However, these promises have not been kept. The so-called Apple intelligence is too primitive. It is trying to achieve a technological feat by introducing Vision Pro. Siri is to be upgraded by 2026. Some conversational features are likely to arrive by 2027. By that time, Amazon’s Alexa could catch up. The company must return to its roots — call for ground-breaking applications by depending on developers. Apple’s forte is to focus on hardware in an operating system that supports innovative ideas. Apple may be thinking in terms of its own AI, but it could think of opening its devices to others acting as a watchdog. If it fails to adapt to the new AI moment, the consequences could be Nokia-sized.

AI washing is a term to pass on basic rule-based system with no actual machine learning capabilities as AI. This is done to attract funding from venture capitalists (VCs). A startup can claim it is using AI for automation, though in reality it is not so. A chatbot can have no natural language processing (NLP) capabilities and may use manually programmed responses. These are exaggerated AI claims. They rebrand traditional software as AI-powered, without actual machine learning models or AI implementation. It is only pitching AI to create an illusion of advanced capabilities.

This issue prevails across various sectors — flow automation, data analytics which use simple IF-THEN rules or statistical methods. A marketing tool could claim to use AI, though in fact it uses predictive analytics applying pre-set formulae to detect trends, with no real-time learning.

Fintech startups claim they use AI powered bots to predict stock movements. Their systems may rely on basic statistical models or pre-defined rules. The rule could be buying when the prices fall by 10 per cent.

In the visual field, a startup could claim to use AI for image recognition or video enhancement. However, it may be using manual processes or traditional software. A video editing tool could be using pre-set filters rather than AI for automatic colour correction.

The scrutiny must be done by AI/ML experts. The experts could be drawn from elite institutions or by dedicated AI committees. The code base could be evaluated.

Product categories such as paan masala, mouth fresheners and alcohol spend a large chunk of their advertising budget during the IPL since it is the peak summer season. However, the Union Health Ministry has banned all forms of tobacco and alcohol advertising, including surrogate advertising. The directive is clear and flouting it will be difficult. There will be much more scrutiny. Tobacco and alcohol constitute 20-25 per cent of IPL advertising in volumes and value. JioStar is eyeing Rs.5000 crore in ad revenues from the IPL. The move will ensure more ethical advertising this year (2025). It may disrupt IPL revenue.

Though there were government directives in the past, there was weak enforcement. There should be stronger penalties for violations, mandatory undertakings from advertisers and tighter monitoring of advertising.

The beer brands active in summer are likely to feel heat. However, brands from segments like BFSI, e-commerce, q-commerce and auto will mitigate the impacts of the absence of tobacco and liquor brands.

The industry will have to define what constitutes surrogate advertising. Was King Fisher airlines a surrogate or logical business extension? There should be self-regulation. The impacted categories will have to innovate with experiential marketing and other avenues.

India’s advertising industry is worth Rs.1.2 lac crore. Ahead of IPL season 2025, the Competition Commission of India (CCI) has raided several media agencies to investigate collusion between the top broadcasters and tech companies with member agencies of AAAI contravening the anti-trust rules under the Competition Act, 2022.

The collusion manipulates advertising rates and discounts and may even tinker with advertising inventory. Accordingly, some players dominate the digital advertising platforms (digital advertising constitutes 60 percent of total advertising spending in India).

The trigger to investigation was a routine GST enquiry at one of the top five ad Agencies in India which provided evidence of cartelization.

There were searches at the top media agencies, as well as the Indian Broadcasting and Digital Foundation (IBDF). Group M was targeted, which is owned by the WPP, UK. Even otherwise ad market is in turmoil following the merger of Walt Disney and Reliance India which controls 40 per cent of the TV and streaming ad market.

Price control and fixing ad rates are illegal. These inflate costs artificially. Small advertisers are adversely affected — they are out of the playing field. Consumers are prevented from taking informed decisions. There are kickbacks to the agencies in the form of commission.

If proven, it means large advertisers are overcharged due to manipulation. The media agencies will face financial penalties — a part of their annual turnover.

The IPL viewership in 2024 is 620 million. There were more than 100 advertisers in IPL 2024. The IPL 2025 ad spends are estimated to be between Rs.6000 crore — Rs.7000 crore. Many fence sitter advertisers could back out.