Forcing languages on people has a bad track record in the region

If only our high school text books did not stop History somewhere around 1950, generations of Indians might become aware of the mistakes made by our neighbours and stop insisting on repeating them in India. The subcontinent’s history of strife stirred by linguistic chauvinism should strike a cautionary note. Pluralism is the magic formula that others missed. We would do well to heed the warning that the history of our neighbourhood offers us: Don’t mess with language.

Health Star Rating for Packaged Food is a Welcome Move. But is It Enough?

In India, consumers have always had a difficult time separating unhealthy food items from their healthy counterparts. The country’s plan to implement a Health Star Rating (HSR) system for packaged food items is a long-pending move. The decision to approve HSR was made with an eye on rise in obesity, diabetes and hypertension in India. This rating will help in bringing about a behavioural change in the population. The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has been tasked with overseeing its implementation. The decision was made after a report was released by IIM Ahmedabad on ‘Consumer preferences for different nutrition front-of-pack labels in India’. The rating’s aim is to make customers aware and capable of making informed food choices.

Protracted war has damaged global military supply systems. Time for India to step up

Nine weeks into the Ukraine War, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres visited the war-ravaged suburbs of Kyiv and stated that war is an absurdity in the 21st century. Reality can be expected to remain deaf to such expressions of anguish as the war enters its tenth week.  Worse, the course of this war is bringing NATO closer to direct involvement with Russia through stepped up supplies of military hardware to Ukraine—which includes artillery and armoured vehicles besides anti-armour, anti-air, air-defence and cyber capabilities.

How India and China can Work Together on a Geoengineering Governance Framework

India and China have the possibility of driving forward the conversation on continuing credible research in the field of geoengineering. Both countries have been torchbearers for the rest of the developing world at climate conferences and both can work together to formulate a well-rounded governance framework regulating the research and technology in the field. While ethical considerations should be taken into account, the two countries can develop a holistic model (that also looks at potential negative consequences of geoengineering techniques) to have solar radiation management as a probable climate policy option. National agencies can be set up for funding solar geo-tech research and also keep tabs on the experiments being conducted.

How Should India Respond to the US' Unilateral ASAT Test Ban?

The United States (US) has pledged to stop conducting destructive direct-ascent anti-satellite (DA-ASAT) testing in space. During the announcement made on 18 April, US vice-president Kamala Harris called on other nations to follow suit in hopes to induce the norm of responsible behaviour in space and mitigating the problem of space debris. To date, China, India, Russia, and the US have been the only countries that have demonstrated debris-creating ASAT capabilities. While the ban is to mitigate the risk of space debris, it neither guarantees the redressal of an arms race in space, nor does it signal the onset of international norms against ASAT testing. Here is how India should respond.

China’s threat won’t wait for India to get better technology. Army must use more brainpower

The images of destroyed tanks in the Ukraine war have rekindled the global debate on the survivability of the tank in the battlefield. In March 2020, Gen Manoj Mukund Naravane, the Chief of Army Staff, said that in the context of the changing character of warfare, the icons of the 20th century such as main battle tanks and fighter aircraft are on their way out and the battle-winning factor in future may not be numerical equivalence but technological superiority.

Ownership of Digital Devices is Crucial for a Thriving Free Society

A few weeks ago, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reported that “Apple Inc. is working on a subscription service for the iPhone and other hardware products, a move that could make device ownership similar to paying a monthly app fee..”. Wall Street analysts and management consulting firms have been championing such a business model for some time, but my intuitive reaction upon reading the news was one of horror. And after further reflection and debate with my colleagues, I have no reason to change my mind: Hardware subscriptions are a bad idea for society. This business model must be challenged and subject to public and parliamentary debate. Public policy must exercise abundant caution and insist on regulatory safeguards.

Should India insist on large warships after sinking of Russia’s Moskva? The lesson not to take

On 14 April, Moskva, the flagship of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet, sank off the coast of Ukraine, in the Black Sea. A controversy immediately surfaced regarding the causes of the loss. The Russians attributed the loss to an accidental fire on board while Ukraine claimed that two of its Neptune Missiles had struck the vessel. US officials have backed Ukraine’s claims. Time should reveal the truth. But for now, the controversy is the poster for the escalation of the Ukraine war that suggests that the war is expanding in its reach, both physically and psychologically. The challenge in judging escalation is that while physical factors can be measured, the intangible nature of the psychological part is mystifying and debatable.

The Cascading Effects of Chip Starvation to Russia

The US and its allies like Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and the Netherlands enjoy an elevated status in the global high-tech sphere. Much of the world’s production capacity and intellectual property (IP) related to micro-electronic and semiconductors chips are concentrated in the territory of the US and its allies. This strategic high-tech dominance ensures that the US can inflict major costs on adversarial countries like Russia and China and their economies. It is clear that the recently imposed sanctions and export controls on Russia and the resultant chip starvation will have increasingly detrimental effects on the Russian economy. With no hope to import chips legally, Moscow may turn to gray imports and smuggling.

Divide Forex Reserve Into Two Components

The United States (US), European Union (EU) and several countries have imposed a raft of punitive measures on Russia for invading Ukraine. One of the more serious forms of sanctions has been the freezing of the Russian central bank’s assets held in foreign-denominated currencies. When a country earns more foreign exchange (forex) than it spends, it moves the surplus into its reserve account for future contingencies. These reserves are not held in physical currency, but in different forms of financial assets such as gold and debt instruments (bonds and bills) of foreign governments. Countries prefer to invest in currencies that are liquid (easily convertible), widely accepted and trustworthy. The US dollar fits all these criteria.

From Libya to Afghanistan and Syria, Vaccination Rates in War-Torn Nations Are Alarmingly Low

Fear grips the lives of people in various disputed regions around the world. Fear of several years of war and destruction and now the fear of a fatal global pandemic. The already hobbled healthcare systems have further been overwhelmed with high infection rates of Covid-19. As newer variants continue to keep coming up, the best possible way out of the situation is to get the maximum possible number of people vaccinated. However, vaccinating people in crisis zones has been fraught with difficulties thus far. Many of these areas have not even partially vaccinated one-fourth of their population. Rapid and concerted efforts in the coming months are critical to closing the vaccine distribution gap.

Why India should pull Sri Lanka out of China’s ‘debt trap’ and take it closer to the US

On 12 April, Sri Lanka declared the default on all payments on its $51-billion external debt to buy oil and agricultural commodities. The alarming level of food scarcity in the country has mobilised the population to demand the ouster of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa with the slogans ‘Go Gota Go’ and ‘Go Home Gota’ echoing on the streets. His decision to impose a public emergency on 1 April intensified protests further, leading to its quick revocation four days later. On the same day, former President Maithripala Sirisena-led Sri Lanka Freedom Party decided to withdraw its support from the ruling coalition led by Mahinda Rajapaksa. Till now, 42 members of the Sri Lankan parliament have withdrawn their support from the ruling coalition, including 12 from the Rajapaksas’ Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna, leading to the government’s loss of majority.

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.

As Nepal Turns to the Indo-Pacific, China Worries

On March 27, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi concluded his three-day trip to Nepal. During his visit, he held meetings with the country’s top leaders while also taking the time out for a hiking trip to Shivapuri. In his meeting with Foreign Minister Narayan Khadka on March 26, Wang outlined China’s “three supports” to Nepal. These include Chinese support in “blazing a development path” suited to the country, help in “pursuing independent domestic and foreign policies,” and participation in “Belt and Road cooperation” to “speed up [Nepal’s] development and revitalization.” Similarly, in his meeting with Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba, Wang reiterated China’s support to safeguard Nepal’s “sovereignty and national dignity, exploring a development path suited to its national conditions, and pursuing independent domestic and foreign policies.”

Despite US Restrictions, it Took China Only 15 Years to Lead the Quantum Computing Race

2008. The world-renowned quantum scientist Pan Jianwei returned to China and was allocated a lab at the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) to kickstart China’s quantum programme. Fast forward a decade and China is the leading power in quantum communications and making consistent leaps in other areas of quantum technology. While major technology giants have thrown their hats into the ring with their own in-house quantum computer programmes, states and their governments around the world are not far behind each having launched its own quantum initiative. The bulk of the funding of government policies related to quantum technologies is set aside for the development of state-of-the-art quantum computers.

Our Geo-economic Interests Lie with the West as Well as the Rest

Over the past few weeks, I discovered a marked difference in attitudes towards the Ukraine war between those of my friends who had spent time in the New Delhi establishment and those who hadn’t. The Delhiwaalas—diplomats, economists, journalists and veterans—were more likely to argue that reports of Russian losses were part of information operations, the West was to blame for provoking Vladimir Putin, we depend on Moscow for critical defence equipment, and that India ought not take any position that would hurt Russia. This was the case across the political and ideological divide: as long as they were Delhiwaalas, they more or less held this view. I was thus not surprised when opposition parties mirrored the government’s position on this issue, revealing a rare non-partisan consensus in these polarized times.

‘Agnipath’ scheme for military has good intentions. But Modi govt should conduct trials first

From the ongoing Ukraine war, some reminders are knocking on the doors of India’s statecraft and in particular, its defence reforms. Admittedly, the context of the war is different, and therefore, extrapolation would be an erroneous approach. However, since all wars imply the use of violence for political purposes, there is some scope that reveals lessons to inform the trajectory of India’s military reforms. For sure, in the course of time, the Ukraine war will be studied both globally and in India. We examine two issues relevant to the Indian context and immaterial to the future course of the Ukraine war — displacement of the civilian population and the management of military manpower. An examination of both these aspects would provide some useful insights into shaping and wielding India’s military power.

Merit Must be the Benchmark For Armed Forces’ Hiring, not Recruitable Male Population Index

In 2014, the Supreme Court dismissed a PIL alleging that the Army recruitment policy was discriminatory and based on caste, religion and region. The court accepted the Army’s justification regarding the existence of certain regiments that are based on classification related to social, cultural and linguistic homogeneity. The contention was that such homogeneity is considered to be a force multiplier, as a battle-winning factor. The assertion was accepted without challenge. Since 2018, and more recently in March 2022, some Ahir community leaders from South Haryana have been using the Army’s logic to demand the institution of an Ahir Regiment.

China’s New Focus on US Cyber Activities

In the last few years, Chinese companies have released several reports accusing U.S. agencies of cyberattacks on Chinese infrastructure. Although China has long released data on the numbers of U.S. hacking attempts, detailed reports were not a common occurrence. Recent reports indicate that Beijing is intensifying its efforts at narrative-building by focusing on malicious cyber activities of the United States.

Indians Don’t Believe in a China-led, Multipolar World

As the war continues to rage in Europe, India is maintaining an unrelenting focus on its Indo-Pacific engagements. Thus, on March 19, Prime Minister Modi hosted his Japanese counterpart Fumio Kishida for the latter’s first bilateral visit since assuming charge in October 2021. In the joint statement released after the meeting, both sides affirmed the “commitment to promoting peace, security, and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific”. Even the mention of the ongoing conflict in Ukraine occurred in the context of war’s “broader implications” for the Indo-Pacific region.

Similarly, though the joint statement released after a virtual meeting of the Indian and Australian Prime Ministers on March 21 mentioned the conflict and humanitarian crisis in Ukraine, the emphasis remained on “broader implications for the Indo-Pacific.” Following the virtual summit, the Indian Foreign Secretary confirmed in the press meet that the two countries agreed that the Ukraine crisis should not divert the Quad’s attention away from the Indo-Pacific region.