Courtesy: Wikimedia Commons
The Space20 is the newest sub-forum of the G20 initiated by Saudi Arabia, with the support of the United Nations Office of Outer Space Affairs. India, on its way to the G20 presidency in 2022, should set a comprehensive Space20 agenda for the democratization of outer space, whereby it can share its space growth story with the developing world and achieve its goal to become a global knowledge epicenter.
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The UN turned 75 this year but instead of grand celebrations, the world witnessed an empty UNGA with world leaders addressing it via video screening because of the pandemic. The UN is under unprecedented stress and being shown up for its inability to tackle the challenges of today like the pandemics, climate change, terrorism or global peace and security. The institution's key governing structures, especially the UN Security Council, are inadequate and demand reform. India must now use gritty resolve to ensure its place in these governing structures.
Courtesy: Prime Minister of Japan and his Cabinet
Japan's new Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga belongs to the Ganesha Group – an amorphous but important group of short time Members of Parliament without political hereditary. Ganesha or Kangiten in Japanese is the symbol of good fortune in business and also a solver of problems. This is certainly an appropriate mascot for the Suga administration, which will need to resolve pending global issues and develop good business partnerships in the coming years.
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With Oracle, Walmart and U.S. venture capitalists now holding the majority of TikTok Global’s shareholding, China’s closed digital world gets a breather, and the possibility of a truly open global Internet, gets a blow. China has won this round.
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The depth and complexity of India’s digital citizenry and ecosystem puts it in a unique position to impact global rules on digital governance. An opportunity to assert its influence is coming up with India’s presidency of the G20 in 2022. Work on this agenda must begin now.
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Under Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, India and Japan shared a live and confident partnership. The engagement with India is one of his legacies, with Japan a steadfast partner and the strategic dimension being qualitatively different. Dealing with a new Japanese leader will be a challenge for India, and that new equation will determine the pace at which Japan's partnership with India will deepen.
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The Covid-19 pandemic has accelerated geopolitical changes. Countries around the world are becoming increasingly concerned about the nature of China’s global advances. China, at the urging of President Xi Jinping, is pursuing technological goals and investment programs to build a China-centric global model, not to mention its militarization of the South China Sea and its clampdown on Hong Kong.
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Facial recognition technology has emerged as an important identification tool. Big tech, social media companies and governments around the world use it and hold an unprecedented power over individuals and communities. Its use for surveillance purposes has brought it under public scrutiny. The technology has still not been perfected. Is it really ready for adoption?
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The recent use of geospatial analyses by Indian social and mainstream media for near real-time defence and military intelligence in Ladakh has been made possible because of the lower cost of earth-observation satellite construction, and thereby, easy access to satellite imagery on the internet. While independent analysis is useful, the same intelligence can be also used against the interests of a sovereign nation by an adversary, especially border imagery. India must find innovative methods to reduce this vulnerability of commercial satellite imagery.
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The recent rush of U.S. capital into India’s digital future, and India’s recent structural reforms, is the impetus for an attractive collaboration between the U.S. and India. To really succeed, the U.S. will have to support India with the same kind of technical assistance and best practices in areas like regulation, distribution, and innovation, that it gave China. The alternative is for India to follow Europe’s regulatory model, which places less of an emphasis on job growth and innovation.