Danish Ismail/Reuters Courtesy: Danish Ismail/Reuters
15 June 2021

Linking demonetisation and stone-pelting

There have been many reported links between protesters pelting stones at security forces in Kashmir and the Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), with Indian intelligence reports that stone-pelters were paid money by the ISI, and often went on to become militants. This was an important motivation behind the demonetisation of currency notes by the Indian government in 2016. However, this raises the question: has demonetisation really curbed stone-pelting?

DRISHTI AI Courtesy: LinkedIn | Drishti
10 June 2021

Drishti: Foresight to a digital manufacturing future

Using computer vision and AI to capture factory-wide data of human operators, Drishti Technologies co-relates human actions to line efficiencies, bottlenecks and root-cause analysis. Indian manufacturers operating at the lower end of the automation curve can use this combination to improve productivity, safety and quality by a deep-dive into human-action analytics.

four dimensions of the quad Courtesy: Shutterstock
10 June 2021

Four dimensions of the Quad

The Quad countries are preparing for an autumn summit in Washington, which will provide an opportunity to discuss multilateral cooperation in various sectors. Four dimensions which merit closer attention and are crucial to the group's future are the Indo-Pacific strategies of European countries and the EU, partnerships with ASEAN and its members, closer India-U.S. ties and maritime security issues in the Pacific.

Source: Shutterstock Courtesy: Shutterstock
10 June 2021

U.S. Defense Budget: Mixed signals for the Indo-Pacific

On 28 May 2021, the Biden administration submitted a much-delayed Defense Budget to Congress, asking for $715 billion for 2022, a 1.6% increase over the previous year’s $703.7 billion. This marginal increase highlights the U.S.’s shrinking capacities compared with China, which spends less than a third of the U.S. on defence. This Budget is focussed on challenges in the U.S.’s geographic vicinity, not the administration’s resolve to counter the threat of China from a position of strength.

Source: Shutterstock Courtesy: Shutterstock
8 June 2021

Obligatory Olympics: Tokyo 2021

Japan is going ahead with hosting the Tokyo Olympics, despite the pandemic, several delays and few economic or social benefits to come. It’s not entirely Japan’s choice – the International Olympic Committee is the owner of the Games, and its financial considerations matter.

India's hibernating space launch sector Courtesy: ISRO
3 June 2021

India’s hibernating space launch sector

The Indian administration enacted much-needed space reforms in 2020, paving the way for a private space industry in the country. However, the COVID-19 pandemic has suspended space launch activities in the country. The Department of Space must remove these redundancies to make India’s space launch centers and spaceports market-oriented and ready for commercial, military, civilian, and experimental space launches.

Source: Shutterstock Courtesy: Shutterstock
3 June 2021

The Quad hits its stride

As China’s global competitive edge is sharpening across the military, economic, diplomatic, and technological domains, it is clear that the extent to which the Quad countries (Australia, India, Japan, and the United States) can collaborate across all four domains will be an important factor in determining whether China’s hegemonic designs on the Indo-Pacific will succeed.

Source: www.shutterstock.com Courtesy: Shutterstock
3 June 2021

Creating an Indian Digital Service

India is now an integral part of the global digital supply chain, and is salient to global technology stakeholders. The country’s innovation, regulation and legislation is working hard to keep up with this fast-moving new element. The gap is in domestic administrative technical capacity. A new all-India service cadre with technical expertise can streamline the technology policy work across ministries and play an important role in building India’s digital dimensions.

uk's irregular indian migrants: a colonial redux Courtesy: Wikimedia Commons
2 June 2021

UK’s irregular Indians: Colonial carry-over

The early roots of the Indian diaspora in the UK are not about the storied success of the Hinduja brothers or celebrated economist Lord Meghnad Desai. Rather it lies in Indian sailors – the lascars – and the soldiers – faujis – of the World Wars, and the many hardworking labourers attracted to jobs in post-war Britain. These are very much the profile of most irregular Indian migrants in the UK today, many of them Sikh youth.

Chaitanya UN Courtesy: United Nations India & Jindal Global University
27 May 2021

Natural intelligence is vital for AI ethics

On 25-26 May 2021, United Nations India held a Virtual Conference on Ethics of Artificial Intelligence (AI): Exploring pluri-perspectives in conjunction with OP Jindal University. Chaitanya Giri, Fellow, Space and Ocean Studies Programme, spoke on 'Operationalising AI ethics from a Pluri-Philosophical Lens', where he made the case for Sanskrit as an applicable language for instilling ethics in AI. He also emphasized the need for greater scientific inquiry in natural intelligence to avoid skewed technological progress with AI.