The New Indian Express | New Telecom Act risks normalising dangerous culture of unaccountable state intrusion

Any law student can attest to the principle that definitional uncertainty goes against the core tenets of good legislative drafting, which call for clear and targeted provisions.

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Centre on Asia and Globalisation | Confronting Trade-offs for India’s Electronics Manufacturing Success

The improving performance of India’s electronics manufacturing sector has been a topic of intense policy interest in the country. Electronics exports saw a spectacular growth of almost 50 percent in FY23, reaching $25.3 billion. Electronics is now India’s sixth largest merchandise export, overtaking readymade garments. Encouraged by these successes, the Indian government is confident of achieving its target of $140 billion in electronics exports and 1 million new jobs by FY26. This sector’s success is now portrayed as a vindication of the Indian government’s flagship industrial policy instrument: the Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme. Policy debates surrounding the PLI have primarily focused on its design, effectiveness, and potential pitfalls. But the elephant in the room is the crucial role of Chinese companies in India’s electronics manufacturing story. Read the full article here.

How India Can Use Technology as a Strategic Tool to Advance Its Interests

In the current Information Age, technology has become a ubiquitous part of every country’s society. Citizens are empowered in a wide range of ways with improved access to technology, states’ economic sectors are transitioning into the digital space, and tech development has been outpacing regulations and governance regularly. This is the era where technology is becoming a strategic tool for the state to drive growth and protect its interests. India, as a fledgling and rising technological power, has the ability to leverage technology for the greater good. The Indian state should now start viewing technology and its adoption from a more strategic lens. But how can India use ‘technology’ to tackle existing problems as well as try to deploy it as a prospective solution in key areas of governance?

A Blueprint for India to Insulate Itself from Future Tech Sanctions

One interesting aspect of the conflict has been the use of tech sanctions by the West, its allies and even private technology companies to deny Russia access to critical technology components needed for the running its critical sectors, like space and telecommunications. This is the first time that specific technology sanctions have been levied against a single country. The impact of these sanctions can be absolutely devastating to the government and its strategic sectors, and even create inaccessibility to domestic consumers.

The Effect Of Tech Sanctions On The Russian Economy

During the course of the ongoing Russia-Ukraine crisis, the West (mainly the United States and its NATO allies) have been looking at deterrence mechanisms to curtail Russia's continuous military offensives. The current actions taken against Russia have mainly been in the form of targeting the Russian economy through sanctions and embargoes specifically targeting sectors that Russia relies on for export revenues. The recent announcement by President Joe Biden on banning Russian oil, gas, and energy imports to the US is just one of the decisions that are hitting the core of the economy. But, the US, has also specifically introduced high-tech sanctions mainly depriving Russia the access to critical technologies (like semiconductors, quantum, artificial intelligence, and big data) and their applications. 

Why India-Australia Technology Cooperation is a Welcome Development

Collaboration on critical and emerging technologies has been high on the agenda for the Australian and Indian governments in recent months. On 17 November 2021, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison gave a virtual inaugural address at the Bengaluru Technology Summit. Morrison’s speech was accompanied by an announcement expressing Australia’s commitment to establish a Centre of Excellence for Critical and Emerging Technology Policy in India. The very next day, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi gave a keynote address at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute’s Sydney Dialogue, in which he emphasised the importance of technology to the two countries’ comprehensive strategic partnership, which was established in 2020.

Bengaluru needs more high-tech companies, not fewer

The Karnataka government is set to release a new industrial policy next month with the goal of encouraging investment in tier-II cities. As it has been in the past, this goal is likely to be framed in zero-sum terms i.e. achieved by pushing IT companies to move away from Bengaluru and in other cities instead.We will limit this article’s focus on what such a policy direction would mean in high-tech sectors such as biotech, aerospace, and IT. , this push towards creating an alternative of centre gravity for the high-tech industry seems to be an intuitive answer for achieving balanced regional growth. And yet, this view is wrong because it doesn’t square with the empirical experience of high-tech clusters elsewhere in the world.Read more at: https://www.deccanherald.com/opinion/bengaluru-needs-more-high-tech-companies-not-fewer-780314.html