CG-Final Courtesy: rawpixel
4 June 2020

Can ISRO do what SpaceX did?

The launch of the U.S.’s Dragon-2 astronaut capsule by SpaceX has a resonance in India too. India’s future heavy-lift launchers, already under development, can be competitive if they are transformed to Two-Stage-To-Orbit and made reusable. The successors to Gaganyaan, Chandrayaan and Mangalyaan, developed in public-private partnerships, can result in a vast domestic launch market for India’s heavy-lift rocket capability.

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21 May 2020

Digital services across verticals: Jio, Alibaba and Amazon

Recent investments by Facebook, Silver Lake, Vista Equity Partners, General Atlantic, KKR, Mubadala, ADIA, TPG, L Catterton and Intel Capital could well be the infusion of capital and expertise Jio needs to compete with Alibaba and Amazon. The infographic compares the number of services offered by these companies across different technology domains

49577427353_7082006d59_c Courtesy: MEA/Flickr
24 February 2020

Deepening bilateral ties

The outcome of the U.S. presidential elections could have a significant impact on the deepening Indo-U.S. bilateral. The partnership has grown substantially in the last two decades resulting in a deepening of economic and strategic relations. Defence dominates the strategic partnership and also stimulates the economic engagement. The newly signed BECA agreement is a testament to this. The next U.S. administration's policies will be critical for India, given repeated Chinese incursions into Indian territory on the Line of Actual Control at the border, the U.S.-China rivalry and China's ambitions to dominate Asia. Gateway House has an extensive repository of primary research, analysis and reporting on the Indo-U.S. bilateral, addressing issues such as trade, technology exchange and defence cooperation.

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16 January 2020

NEST-ling new tech in foreign policy

The recently announced New and Emerging Strategic Technologies (NEST) Division of India’s Ministry of External Affairs is timely. It can become vital for India’s national technosecurity in the imminent Fourth Industrial Age if a new Cabinet Committee on Futuristic Science and Technologies is established along with it

shutterstock_765921106 Courtesy: Shutterstock
11 July 2019

Making India a Methane Economy

India is the second largest emitter of methane in the world. But methane-cracking has enormous economic potential. It can help India become a high-technology manufacturing powerhouse by producing a steady supply of methane-derived, advanced carbon materials and hydrogen-energized transportation

shutterstock_1042736410 Courtesy: Shutterstock
11 July 2019

Chandrayaan-2: presaging private participation

On 15 July, the Indian space programme will achieve a feat with the Chandrayaan-2 mission. Two challenges lie ahead: the speedy construction of Chandrayaan-3 and the development of a public-private ecosystem of space capabilities

MzExMjcwMA Courtesy: IEEE Spectrum
6 June 2019

BECA and the 5G-weather clash

The Basic Exchange and Cooperation Agreement for Geospatial Cooperation (BECA), the last of the India-U.S. foundational agreements, will enable India to avail of U.S. expertise on geospatial intelligence and to sharpen the accuracy of weapons and automated hardware systems used for military purposes. But the over-emphasis on imaging in the agreement overlooks the likelihood of a clash between the telecom and meteorological technologies, which can hurt India’s crucial capabilities in space-based weather forecasting and disaster management

regan Courtesy: Pacom
11 April 2019

Canada in the Indo-Pacific

Canada, which has been slow to respond to a changing trans-Pacific neighbourhood, can join India and the ASEAN member states to embark on a trilateral dialogue on the Indo-Pacific’s importance in terms of political, strategic and other domains. An alignment in outlook can strengthen the security and prosperity of a region, currently mired in U.S.-China rivalries

so18_cover_large_0 Courtesy: Foreign Affairs
1 October 2018

Battlefield Internet

The immediate threat is more corrosive than explosive. States are using the tools of cyberwarfare to undermine the very foundation of the Internet: trust. The result is that an arena that the world relies on for economic and informational exchange has turned into an active battlefield.

US Space Force Courtesy: National Museum of the U.S. Air Force
19 July 2018

U.S. Space Force: reconfiguring military for space

Washington is planning to integrate its military space operations. Each arm of the United States Armed Forces has had a space command until now but uniting these discrete units into a new Space Force is a step ahead. The U.S.’ big-picture ambition is ‘full spectrum battle-space dominance’ and the contest to achieve it has implications for the defence and space industry