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.

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.

irregular indians in the UK: a conflicted issue Courtesy: Twitter | @DrSJaishankar
27 May 2021

Indian immigration to the UK: still conflicted

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson is in India, seeking a trade deal, and promising immigrant visas. The UK wants more Rishi Sunaks but the simmering issue is about irregular migrants from India, low-skilled labour whose numbers are still disputed by both countries. While a free trade agreement may still be signed, it will likely not address this problem, leaving thousands of Indians undocumented in the UK.

c4i4 Courtesy: C4i4
20 May 2021

C4i4 Pune: Taking MSMEs to Industry 4.0

C4i4 is a part of the Government of India's Samarth Udyog initiative, and aims to hand-hold micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in the journey towards digitisation. Though MSMEs account for 45% of manufacturing output and 40% of exports, almost 90% of them lack access to markets beyond their limited geography. C4i4 helps them scale productivity and quality, and compete in global markets.

eu-india: intentions, with results Courtesy: Shutterstock
13 May 2021

EU-India: Intentions, with results

The India-EU summit held May 8, was more ambitious than previous ones. Now the summit’s words must turn into action, an effort that will require continuous discussion, patient negotiation and uninterrupted dialogue between Delhi and Brussels. Will the two capitals be willing to compromise and find common ground that they have not managed to demonstrate before?