The Quint | How Ma-Xi's Meeting Serves the Chinese Supremo More Than the Cross-Straits Ties

In January 2024, Taiwan witnessed one of its most important presidential and parliamentary elections, with many calling it a choice between war and peace. The election results also spoke to the divided nature of political opinion. Lai Ching-Te, the candidate of the incumbent Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), won the presidential election, while the majority in the legislative yuan was won by the primary opposition party, the Kuomintang (KMT). Read the full article here.

NDTV | A Shaky World Order: Can India Navigate A Russia-China-Iran Axis?

The world today appears to be on the verge of a cascade of conflicts. Over two years since it started, the Russia-Ukraine war does not seem to be heading towards an imminent settlement. Likewise, despite calls for a ceasefire, the Israel-Hamas conflict appears unlikely to abate anytime soon. And now, events over the past month involving Israel and Iran have demonstrated the potential for a wider regional conflict. Read the full article here.

The Indian Express | Warmer Moscow-Beijing ties are a chilling signal for New Delhi

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s recent visit to China was brief but significant. On the face of it, Lavrov was in Beijing to set the stage for an anticipated trip by President Vladimir Putin in May. To that end, he met China’s President Xi Jinping and Foreign Minister Wang Yi. Amidst the usual diplomatic pleasantries, three outcomes that emerged are particularly important from India’s perspective. Read the full article here.

Mint | Iran-Israel lesson: Effective missile defence is costly and could be risky too

The conflicts between Ukraine and Russia and between Israel and Iran over Palestine have demonstrated that missile defence has come of age. Even before Israel, with the help of the US and its allies, successfully intercepted nearly all of the 320 drones, cruise and ballistic missiles that Iran launched last week, the Ukrainians had reported that they had shot down all 80 of the drones that the Russians had dispatched against them on one New Year’s weekend. Read the full article here.

Takshashila Blogs | An Invitation to Inquiry: Rekindling Flame of the Mahabharata

Enduring strength of a banyan tree's roots symbolise the advantages of tapping into the wisdom, values, and traditions passed down through generations. Just as the banyan tree draws nourishment and support from its deep and interconnected root system, individuals can find inspiration, beliefs and thoughts in their cultural history. Just as banyan tree expands its foliage, society can also learn to strengthen and reconnect with its foundations while it expands. Beliefs and ideas from the past may not directly solve the challenges of contemporary times yet they can serve as potent instruments for analysing and reflecting on modern political, social, and personal facets, thereby fostering critical thinking. Read the full article here.

Nikkei Asia | India-U.S.-South Korea tech cooperation has strategic logic

In their own way, the U.S., South Korea and India each have come to realize their potential vulnerability to supply chain cutoffs and trade coercion. Now the trio have begun working together on a joint initiative, the Trilateral Technology Dialogue (TTD), that aims to make technology supply chains more resilient, bring technology solutions to the broader Indo-Pacific region and spur innovation and economic growth. Read the full article here.

The Free Press Journal | Analysis: America’s Tragic Tryst With Gun Control Laws

On November 30, 2021, a 15-year-old boy in the otherwise quiet township of Oxford in Michigan, in the upper midwestern region of the United States, entered his high school premises with a semiautomatic handgun he had picked up from home and began shooting indiscriminately at his teachers and fellow students. Ethan Crumbley continued firing for four minutes until he was captured, but those 240 seconds were enough to kill four teenagers and injure seven others. Read the full article here.

ThePrint | MIRV tech entry in nuclear arsenal must not lead India away from ‘No First Use’ policy

India has achieved two major milestones in modernising its nuclear weapons arsenal. First, the entry of MIRV technology in March, followed by the successful user trial of Agni-Prime ballistic missile on 3 April with a range of 1,000-2,000 km. The MIRV, or Multiple Independently Targetable Reentry Vehicle technology, tests have raised concerns about a potential nuclear arms race between India, China, and Pakistan and whether it would amplify similar concerns at the global level involving other nuclear weapon powers. Read the full article here.

Mint | India cannot solve its water crisis without proper pricing

A few years ago, the mayor of a Karnataka town asked me how she could prevent people from wastefully washing their yards, walls and vehicles with water from the municipal water supply. She told me she had organized awareness campaigns, promoted conservation efforts and even personally remonstrated with citizens, but to little avail. When I asked her how much they paid for the water, she replied that the monthly charge was a few tens of rupees per connection, but this was not strictly enforced. She was taken aback when I told her that was why her conservation efforts had been unsuccessful. Read the full article here.

Times of India | Piketty’s wrong again. We should be happy India is creating billionaires

To a man with a hammer, everything looks like a nail. Thomas Piketty, economist and writer of big fat books, believes that economic inequality is a problem and higher taxes on the rich are the solution. To this end, he has enlisted social scientists from around the world to cast inequality as a global problem. It’s a little like European communists who, a century ago, zeroed in on class struggle as the big problem and went around the world looking for it. Read the full article here.

ASPI - The Strategist | A practical agenda for India-Australia semiconductor collaboration

With the global semiconductor supply chain under strain, India and Australia have a timely opportunity to strengthen their partnership in the critical sector. Both recognise the strategic importance of developing domestic semiconductor capabilities. As Quad members, they are also a part of the Quad Semiconductor Supply Chain Initiative, which seeks to ‘map capacity, identify vulnerabilities, and bolster supply-chain security for semiconductors and their vital components.’ Read the full article here.

South Asian Voices | Contemporary Dynamics of an India-Taiwan Partnership

Since India launched its Look East Policy in 1991, India and Taiwan have worked towards building a crucial bilateral partnership. On the technological front, Taiwan is a significant partner for India vis-a-vis sharing of knowledge on development of semiconductors, cybersecurity, and telecom infrastructure. On the economic front, Taiwan is becoming an important destination for Indian migrant workers looking for jobs in the agriculture and manufacturing sectors abroad. To this end, a labor migration and mobility Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed on February 16 by heads of the India-Taipei Association and the Taipei Economic and Cultural Center, New Delhi. The MoU is intended to make it easier for Indian workers to find jobs in the manufacturing, construction, and agriculture sectors in Taiwan, thereby mitigating Taiwan’s labor shortage and India’s surplus labor problems.  Read the full article here.

ThePrint | Successful Agni-5 test just one step. India needs to prepare an airborne command post

India’s recent successful test of MIRVs, Multiple Independently Targeted Re-entry Vehicles, delivered by the AGNI-5 missiles marks the success of its efforts to counter the Ballistic Missile Defense Systems of potential adversaries, China and Pakistan. The implications of MIRVs being included in the existing nuclear arsenal were covered earlier in ThePrint. This article attempts to utilise the limelight of the MIRV success, to highlight a critical issue that requires to be addressed post-haste. It relates to the survivability of India’s Nuclear Command and Control System. Read the full article here.

Mint | The West’s disregard for global norms is endangering the world

In the summer of the year 416 BCE, an Athenian naval fleet turned up on the island of Melos and demanded that its population submit to slavery. The Melians argued that since they had refused to side with Sparta—Athens’ main adversary in the ongoing conflict —and instead wished to remain neutral, it would only be right for the big powers to leave them alone. The Athenian response, one of the famous lines in world history, was “You understand as well as we do that in the human sphere judgements about justice are relevant only between those with an equal power to enforce it, and that the possibilities are defined by what the strong do and the weak accept." In Richard Crawley’s classic 1874 translation of Thucydides’s History of the Peloponnesian War, the words are punchier. “The strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must." Read the full article here.

Deccan Herald | Navy is showing its mettle in the Indian Ocean Region

The Indian Navy is playing an important role as a security provider in the Indian Ocean Region, with repeated operations demonstrating its capabilities, particularly in the north-western Indian Ocean, where security risks have increased due to the twin problems of Houthi attacks on shipping in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, and piracy off the coast of Africa. This has strengthened Indian Navy’s credentials and India’s reputation as a first responder and a force for peace and stability in the area. Read the full article here.

ASPI - The Strategist | Building supply chain resilience in telecommunications: the Quad’s role in accelerating open RAN adoption

Open radio access network (RAN) technology has featured in key bilateral and multilateral partnerships in the past year. It has been mentioned in the critical technology partnership between the United States and India. Additionally, it has featured in a joint statement between the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, and the US regarding telecommunications supplier diversity. Open RAN was discussed in the Quad leaders’ summit. It’s very unusual for an esoteric telecom industry term to be referenced in statements of national leaders, and it’s a sign of the increasing linkage between technology and national power. Read the full article here.

Scroll.in | AI adoption in India: Opportunities and challenges for policy considerations

Artificial intelligence has immense potential to enhance human capabilities and drive growth in several industries. It is projected to greatly improve governance, healthcare, and education outcomes.

However, this potential may not be realised if the building blocks of AI remain concentrated in the hands of a few dominant companies or the countries in which they are located.

The priorities for AI adoption in India can be quite different. Vijay Kelkar and Ajay Shah propose that the toughest challenges for a state – such as the tax system – involve processes that feature a high number of transactions, the need for discretion, high stakes for individuals, and some degree of secrecy. Read the full article here.

The Free Press Journal | Analysis: Biden May Not Like It, But His Age Will Play Spoilsport

In 1984, when then US President Ronald Reagan was 73 and running for a second term, he had to debate with Walter Mondale, a former Vice President under Jimmy Carter and the Democratic Party’s frontrunner against the Republican incumbent. Mondale was 17 years younger than Reagan. The debate’s host — Henry Trewhitt of The Baltimore Sun — asked Reagan on live TV: “You already are the oldest President in history. Some of your staff said recently that you looked tired after your recent encounter with Mr Mondale. I recall that President Kennedy had to go days on end without sleep during the Cuban missile crisis. Any doubt in your mind whether you will be able to function under such circumstances?” Read the full article here.

Modern Diplomacy | Cross-Straits Relations have become more Dynamic and Volatile – Here are Four Reasons Why

Contemporary China-Taiwan cross-Straits relations have become a significant defining feature of regional security and stability in the Indo-Pacific, and are an equally important bone of contention in the US-China relationship. However, trends from this past decade indicate that cross-Straits dynamics are being shaped not just by unpredictable trigger events, but by four persistent and fundamental factors – political changes brought about by the rule of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) since 2016, a strengthening sense of social identity in the Taiwanese population, increasing proximity between Taiwan and the US, and increasing Chinese power and assertiveness under Xi Jinping. Read the full article here.

9DashLine | China’s ‘history learning’ regulations

In February, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) released regulations governing the study of the Party's history. According to Chinese media, the document serves as the CPC’s “core internal guideline” for organising and implementing study programmes about the Party’s history, with the goal of “strengthening understanding, conviction, integrity, and diligence”. Read the full article here.