The Wire | India Navigates Relations With Taliban Amid Tensions With Pakistan

From a previously cautious stance toward the Taliban, India’s seemingly proactive diplomacy can be understood through the prisms of strategic pragmatism and strategic opportunism. The first entails adopting a nuanced approach aimed at balancing national interests while setting aside ideological absolutism and the second refers to leveraging opportunities while keeping Pakistan firmly in the calculation. Notably, the timing of this month’s meeting, occurring amidst strained relations between the traditional allies, Pakistan and the Taliban, can widely be perceived as India’s willingness to exploit these tensions.

By Aishwaria Sonavane

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Loksatta | Mumbai's Traffic Congestion Woes: Is Proof-of-Parking the Solution?

Mumbai, one of the most vehicle-dense cities in the country, is considering policy solutions to tackle growing traffic congestion. One of the solutions that the Maharashtra government is considering is to mandate a parking space to buy a car.  In this proposed policy, an individual must own or secure a private or public parking space to buy a car. The Maharashtra Government is considering deploying this policy in the next 100 days, taking inspiration from the Japanese-certified parking area policy, which banned free street parking to create a market for parking spaces and reduce car ownership in cities. However, it is unclear how this policy will address road congestion when it only applies when buying cars and not restricting where the vehicles are parked once bought. The policy comes with other challenges - its high state capacity requirements make it difficult to execute, and potential consequences, such as rent-seeking and false certifications, might follow. The policy's success will depend on whether it can create a market for parking spaces in the city.  

Vehicular congestion is increasingly becoming a problem in Indian cities. Although Mumbai reduced its average travel time by 20 seconds, it slipped from 39th in 2023 to 52nd in 2024 in its average travel time position worldwide as per the TomTom Traffic Index. Bengaluru ranked 1st and Mumbai 6th on congestion in megacities (population greater than 8 million) worldwide. It is well established in economic theory that one vehicle on the road causes a negative externality on every other vehicle. Pollution and the probability of accidents also increase as cars increase. An ITDP report states that congestion in Mumbai causes the city productivity and fuel losses of more than Rs 36000 crores and time losses of about 85 minutes a day. This is even though only 19 per cent of trips in Mumbai are made using taxis and private vehicles, compared to 51 per cent by walking and cycling and 30 per cent via public transport. These problems stem from Mumbai's 2300 cars/km car density, the highest among the Indian cities. Private cars occupy almost 50 per cent of Mumbai's road space. The parking shortage is a symptom of this density, hence the proposed policy. 

This policy was inspired by a similar one introduced in Japan in the 1950s, and to some extent, it was successful.  However, this will be tricky to execute in India. Firstly, it would require the individuals to showcase parking space availability before purchasing a car. This may lead to rent-seeking behaviour, providing false certificates, etc. 

Secondly, mandating space requirements doesn’t solve congestion due to street parking. Japan outlawed free street parking and leased those spaces to car owners to show as proof. People also might provide proof of a parking space in non-congested areas and use cars in congested ones. 

Thirdly, the demand for in-built parking space could increase the cost of urban real estate, making homes unaffordable for many. In India, it is already mandated that apartment buildings provide parking spaces. A policy like this could come with increased mandates, which have been shown to distort land markets. In Japan, such parking mandates excluded small buildings and were purposefully low (approximately one parking space per 3230 sq ft). Moreover, the parking space supply might not meet the vehicles already on the road in a land-scarce city. 

Finally, this proposed policy would require massive state capacity. It would require a comprehensive survey to identify available parking spaces, assigning them unique identifiers linked to specific vehicles via registration numbers. Additionally, vehicles registered outside the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) would incur a daily fee to operate in Mumbai under the proposed policy. This necessitates significant human and technological resources to execute the policy effectively.

A better and simpler alternative is congestion pricing, a toll on the most congested roads in the city. It has been shown to reduce congestion and car ownership. Studies have already been done to implement this in Mumbai, and large cities like Singapore, London, Tokyo, New York, etc., already implement such charges. India's FASTag toll collection system can be used for this purpose. The government isn't opposed to this and is trying to develop congestion pricing as a package deal with the proof-of-parking system. Surveys suggest that a significant majority of Mumbaikars, around 75%, support congestion pricing. The critical difference between a proof-of-parking policy and a congestion price is that the latter doesn’t disincentivise one from buying a car but just from using it on congested roads. Solutions to better control traffic management, including real-time traffic mapping, dynamic signals, and Tokyo-style visual mapping to inform traffic management, can also be considered.  

Ultimately, any policies that try to reduce the number of cars on the road must be accompanied by expansion in public transportation. Many cities in India have seen a fall in the share of public transport use, fuelled by a massive rise in private vehicles. India faces an acute shortage of buses in cities. Even though most attention is grabbed by metros, buses are essential to urban transportation. As Enrique Penalosa, Bogota's ex-mayor, once said, "An advanced city is not one where even the poor use cars, but rather one where even the rich use public transport".

By Miheer Karandikar & Anisree Suresh

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FirstPost | What Trump 2.0 means for Taiwan and its future

More than narratives of friendship and cooperation, what is likely to work for Taiwan is ensuring reciprocal benefits for the US in economic and technological domains as Trump endeavours to nip China in the bud.

By Anushka Saxena

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Deccan Herald | Curiosity in the age of AI

Are people using AI-driven technologies like ChatGPT correctly, or have they impacted the level of creativity? This is not to say that people should completely shun these mediums or dismiss that they have expedited efficiency. They do come with a lot. They do come with a lot of perks. However, this growing reliance on AI can be concerning.

By Sourav Mannaraprayil & Wini Fred Gurung

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The Diplomat | China Revises PLA Regulations to Focus on ‘Conscious Discipline’

As a code of conduct for the PLA, the revised regulations are further expected to emphasize combat effectiveness as the military’s top priority.

By Anushka Saxena

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Money Control | Locust invasion threat demands India-Pakistan co-operation

As the locust breeding season approaches, both India and Pakistan must depoliticise locust management and prioritise it as a humanitarian imperative. Using technology like drones, weather models, and AI predictions to track, forecast and control the movements of locusts to protect crops

By Rakshith Shetty and Keerthi Shree

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Indian Express | The colonial era of AI is here — India must chart its own course

The Paris AI Action Summit, with its impressive array of declarations and initiatives, could not mask a deeper geopolitical reality: We have entered the colonial era of artificial intelligence, where corporate sovereignty increasingly trumps national sovereignty, and global governance and ethics have been put on the backburner while still being paid lip service. The final declaration by the real power players— the US and the UK — speaks volumes. They are the tech giants who have effectively colonised the digital frontier.

By Arindam Goswami

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The Hindu | Implications of the AI Diffusion Framework

India has set ambitious goals for its space programme in the next two decades. These goals hinge on powerful, reusable rockets such as the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO)’s upcoming Next Generation Launch Vehicle (NGLV). In addition to the NGLV, India must tap into its private sector to develop more such rockets in order to secure strategic autonomy in its access to outer space.

By Ashwin Prasad

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Money Control | US BioSecure Act: Impact on India and Biotech Opportunities in Supply Chain Shifts

The BioSecure Act seeks to reduce US-China biotech ties, creating the potential for India to become a biomanufacturing hub. However, India's biotech sector must overcome challenges in innovation, regulatory standards, and technology to attract businesses shifting from China.

By Anisree Suresh

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Firstpost | Paris AI Summit: How Indo-French partnership can be a rule maker for future innovations

As co-chair of the AI Action Summit in Paris, India, under the prime ministership of Narendra Modi, has the opportunity to kickstart a new chapter in global technological cooperation. Artificial Intelligence (AI) has a pervasive impact across different sectors. In that sense, it is a general-purpose technology (GPT), to borrow the term from Jeffrey Ding’s GPT Diffusion Theory, which promises to reshape various sectors. Nations are grappling with both its enormous potential and inherent challenges. Now is the time to come together and collaborate on setting a strong foundation for the years to come.

With its considerable experience in building and running a vast digital public infrastructure, coupled with a workforce that has proven expertise in software development, India could become an important voice in the global AI discourse

By Arindam Goswami

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Firstpost | Creative insecurity: What India can learn from Chinese DeepSeek saga

DeepSeek benefitted from a supportive structural Chinese research and development ecosystem that existed for several decades. Also, Xi Jinping’s vision for a ‘Chinese Dream’ and national rejuvenation is rooted in technological supremacy

By Arindam Goswami and Shobhankita Reddy

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The Hindu | The U.S.’s immigration blocks as a self-defeating path

What do we see in the bustling corridors of Silicon Valley, the research labs of Boston, and the biotech hubs of San Diego? Skilled immigrants do not just fill jobs; they create them. They launch startups, file patents and drive innovation, expanding the very foundation of American employment.

However, to understand this, we need to challenge our most basic assumptions about how labour markets work in knowledge economies.

The debate over H-1B visas in the United States seems to hinge on a seemingly very intuitive argument: that restricting skilled immigration will translate into more jobs for native workers. On the contrary, extensive research has shown that this approach is flawed and, in fact, counterproductive to innovation and job creation.

By Arindam Goswami

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The New Indian Express | Is China's mega dam project a geopolitical weapon under the guise of development?

Given the ecological, social and geopolitical impacts of the project on the Yarlung Tsangpo, known as the Brahmaputra in India, China must commit to international norms for equitable resource sharing and data exchange.

By Y Nithiyanandam

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The Diplomat | Y Nithiyanandam on the Risks of China’s Ambitious Yarlung Tsangpo Project

“Without greater transparency on the part of China and cooperative frameworks, this dam could become a flashpoint in an already delicate regional equilibrium”

By Y Nithiyanandam

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Deccan Herald | A River Beyond Borders

Alterations to Brahmaputra’s flow can adversely affect the dependencies on Teesta – its major tributary – which originates from the Khangtse glacier in the northeastern Himalayas of India.

By Swathi Kalyani

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Deccan Herald | Delimitation and its complex play of disparities

The past few decades have brought drastic changes in states’ populations, leading to two main problems – a high population/MP ratio and dramatic variation across states. Addressing this will require a package of solutions rather than a single silver bullet.

By Miheer Karandikar

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News18 | Opinion | Atal Innovation Mission: Building An Ecosystem For Technological Diffusion

AIM focuses on accelerating innovation; the path to that is not just via capturing first-mover advantage, but also by creating linkages to enable cross-sectoral adaptation of technologies

By Arindam Goswami and Bhaskari J

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Deccan Herald | DPDP Rules and a missed opportunity

The draft DPDP Rules fail to address many of the ambiguities and concerns surrounding the DPDP Act. Additionally, some provisions in the rules appear to undermine rather than protect individual privacy, raising further doubts about their effectiveness.

By Anwesha Sen

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Outlook Business | How Satellite Internet Can Bridge India’s Digital Divide and Expand Its Strategic Heft

Recent events in India highlight the growing prevalence of satellite-based internet technologies. In the Northeast state of Manipur, Indian security forces recovered a Starlink dish and router with weapons during a raid. This is not an isolated occurrence; another Starlink device was recently found in a drug-bust off the Andaman coast. Authorities suspect that these devices were smuggled in from Myanmar, where Starlink is reportedly active despite lacking regulatory approval. It is likely being used to circumvent government-imposed internet restrictions there. These incidents highlight the potential as well as the penetration of space-based technologies like satellite internet.

By Ashwin Prasad & Rakshith Shetty

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Deccan Herald | Soaring over traffic

The rise of eVOTL technology demands new governance structures distinct from conventional aviation. This includes rules for aircraft certification, urban operations, pilot training, and vertiport construction. For a growing economy like India, seizing this opportunity early is vital to realising the potential benefits of eVTOL technology. The country must address regulatory gaps with air traffic management and pilot training rules and develop a roadmap to support eVTOL technology and infrastructure for building a robust urban air mobility ecosystem.

By Avinash Shet

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