The Hindu | China’s ‘developmental’ security approach

The story so far: Late in May this year, the Cyberspace Administration of China announced that the U.S. chip giant Micron, which had been under investigation by the Cybersecurity Review Office, failed to obtain a security clearance, and that its products posed a threat to national security. Consequently, business operators tied to critical information infrastructure were advised not to procure Micron products. This is the latest incident in a series of crackdowns by the Chinese government against American consultancies and domestic firms dealing with overseas clients. Read the full article here.

Mint | Free public transport for women could well transform Karnataka

The Siddaramaiah-Shivakumar government’s move to provide free basic public bus services to women could be a game changer for Karnataka’s development, if it follows up to make the investments necessary to make the policy a success over the medium-term. The economic case for subsidized transport is that it has positive externalities—for growth, environment and social development—that are massive in the Indian context, and thus private players alone will not sufficiently provide. Sure, conditional cash transfers might have been a more efficient way to deliver this subsidy, but a policy that is politically feasible and empirically effective is far better than one that is merely elegant. Read the full article here.

WION | Remembering Galwan and the China Challenge: Capabilities of the PLA Western Theatre Command

Three years on, the spectre of Galwan is looming large over India’s China policy. Amidst China’s unwillingness to back down and Indian forces’ intensifying willingness to hold their ground, we are likely to see more skirmishes similar to the one witnessed in Arunachal Pradesh’s Tawang sector in December last year, taking place. And in this light, an assessment of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) capacity-building close to the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in the past three years indicates that China is not planning to concede its strategic entrenchment beyond India’s claim lines. Rather, it is attempting to create a new status quo with increased firepower available for ready use in anticipation of such potential skirmishes. Read the full article here.

ThePrint | General Electric jet deal will be a test of India-US trust. Critical tech at stake

Last week, media reports raised expectations that an important announcement on defence sector cooperation may occur during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the United States on 22 June. This announcement could be about manufacturing the General Electric F414 fighter engines in India, and the transfer of technology. White House has not commented on these news reports yet, but if they turn out to be true, India’s indigenous capacity to produce fighter aircraft would be boosted, and a major hurdle in its defence preparedness would be mitigated. It would also signify the growing level of trust rooted in global geopolitical considerations that could potentially strengthen strategic cooperation between India and the US, particularly in the Indo-Pacific region. Read the full article here.

Hindustan Times | A road map to propel US-India chips push

Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi will travel to Washington DC on June 21 for his first official State visit. A prominent item on the agenda is technology cooperation. In May last year, the two governments elevated their strategic partnership by announcing an initiative on Critical and Emerging Technology (iCET). During this visit, the two sides will aim to announce concrete steps under this initiative. This article proposes a way forward on one of the main pillars of iCET: Resilient semiconductor supply chains. iCET’s readout explicitly mentioned enhanced cooperation in three areas: Supporting the development of a semiconductor design, manufacturing, and fabrication ecosystem in India; promoting the development of a skilled semiconductor workforce; and encouraging the development of fabs for mature technology nodes and packaging in India. Using iCET’s vision, we propose cooperation options in the three archetypal stages of the semiconductor supply chain: Design, manufacturing, and Outsourced Assembly and Test (OSAT).

MoneyControl | Government overreach in digital economy could end up with no commensurate benefit and serious distortions

History, it seems, tends to move in full circles. “Be Indian, Buy Indian”, a popular slogan from the bygone era has changed to “Vocal for Local”. Deliberate incursions by the government into the market, especially into the digital economy, are reminiscent of old Nehruvian socialist objectives despite all the blame Nehru gets for India’s economic problems. The government’s intervention into payment via the Unified Payments Interface (or UPI) was justified on the grounds that it is a public good (it isn’t) and that lowering transaction costs can benefit everybody (it can). But the justifications grow thinner when we consider other government run or backed enterprises in the digital economy, such as the Government e-Marketplace (GeM) (facilitate government procurement), mSeva app store (indigenous mobile app store), and the Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) among others. Read the full article here.

Deccan Herald | Free bus travel is not a silver bullet

As temperatures cool down and the monsoon sets in, on the governance front it is raining schemes. The Karnataka government, as part of its five promises programme has announced free bus travel to all women in the state. Expectedly, this announcement has received reactions ranging from criticism that it encourages ‘freebie culture’ to being hailed as ‘revolutionary’. The truth lies somewhere in between. Free bus travel is a welcome step, and will move the needle on women’s mobility. But for this to have a meaningful impact in the long term, the government needs to bring back the focus on economic growth with employment opportunities for women. Read the full article here.

Mint | NCERT’s curriculum for science needs to be ‘rationalized’ again

India, unlike Western and Middle Eastern societies, does not have a doctrinal problem with science. There is no holy book, word of god or scripture whose literality must be defended against new discoveries. I can understand why religious conservatives in the United States challenge modern biology and the evolutionary science it is based on, for it directly contradicts their article of faith. Darwin does not pose such a fundamental threat to religious conservatives of Indic faiths—the story of the origin of the earth and of humans is not a major concern. In fact, there are many different versions of the origin story, none of which are central to the practice of one’s faith, none of which matter to the conduct of daily life, and none of which get in the way of one’s pursuit of knowledge. Read the full article here.

News18 | China-Taiwan Saga: Recent Developments and the Use of Force

The China-Taiwan relationship continues to develop in a dynamic fashion, with the action-reaction cycle caused by recent events highlighting the threat to global stability. Active militarisation of the Taiwan Strait has contributed to the deteriorating security situation in the region. Over the past few months, the US has approved large-scale arms sales to Taiwan, with its most recent consignment from March 2023 comprising various anti-aircraft missiles worth $619 million. Before this, in September 2022, Taiwan purchased from the US radar systems for anti-air missiles in a consignment worth US$1.1 billion. Read the full article here.

Hindustan Times | First signs of thaw in US-China ties, but road to normalcy is uphill

The freeze in Sino-United States (US) engagement, following the balloon incident, appears to be finally thawing. The signs were evident in early May in a conversation between Chinese foreign minister Qin Gang and US ambassador Nicholas Burns in Beijing. This was followed by a meeting between China’s top diplomat Wang Yi and US national security adviser Jake Sullivan in Vienna. A few weeks after that, in his remarks to the press in Hiroshima, US President Joe Biden, indicated that dialogue was expected to resume. Read the full article here.

The Hindu | China’s military diplomacy in Southeast Asia

The story so far: Due to its intensifying geopolitical competition with the U.S. and its own security interests in the region, China is expanding its military outreach to Southeast Asian countries. The Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA)’s global activities and influence campaigns are part of its broader reform process initiated by Chinese President Xi Jinping in 2015, and form a fundamental element of China’s overall foreign policy. In this light, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has become a priority target for the People’s Liberation Army’s military diplomacy. Read the full story here.

ThePrint | Rajnath Singh wants Indian military to boost R&D. But defence finance is complex territory

Last week, on two separate platforms, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh pointed out the dire need for India to metamorphose from being an ‘imitator’ in Research & Development to a ‘leader’ in developing futuristic technologies that could deal with pressing global security concerns. One of the platforms was the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO)’s Academia Conclave in Delhi, where Singh highlighted the need for deepened collaboration between DRDO and academia. If realised, the cross-movement of scientists between DRDO and other institutes could produce results greater than the sum of its parts. Read the full article here.

ThePrint | India’s defence sector is not Aatmanirbhar. Govt is exaggerating progress

India has made varied attempts since Independence to achieve self-reliance in defence-related requirements but its achievements have been limited.

The quest for self-reliance has to keep abreast of scientific discoveries and harness them for military purposes. Contemporarily, self-reliance has been rechristened as Atmanirbharta, and cast within a larger national agenda that engages R&D Institutes, academia, industries, start-ups, individual innovators and users. In political and strategic terms, this ecosystem approach aims to protect and preserve India’s ability to take independent policy decisions in an increasingly volatile and anarchic global environment.

Read the full article here.

Mint | It is important to find pathways to make India a casteless nation

I am of the opinion" Ambedkar told the Constituent Assembly, “that in believing that we are a nation, we are cherishing a great delusion. How can people divided into several thousands of castes be a nation? The sooner we realize that we are not as yet a nation in the social and psychological sense of the word, the better for us. For then only we shall realize the necessity of becoming a nation and seriously think of way[s] and means of realizing the goal. The castes are anti-national in the first place because they bring about separation in social life. They are anti-national also because they generate jealousy and antipathy between caste and caste."

Read the full article here.

The Hindu | India as a Quad-led biomanufacturing hub

In March 2021, the Quad (Australia, India, Japan, and the United States) set up a Critical and Emerging Technology Working Group to facilitate cooperation, monitor trends, and scout for opportunities related to developments in critical and emerging technologies, that included biotechnology. However, the potential for Quad cooperation in biotechnology remains insufficiently tapped. The establishment of a Quad-led biomanufacturing hub in India will give the necessary fillip to enhance this cooperation.

This article can be read here.

Money Control | Rs 2,000 Note Withdrawal: No demonetisation redux but RBI could have done it better

Like a nightmare resulting from a traumatic experience for a person suffering from PTSD, demonetisation came back to haunt the collective consciousness of this country when the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) decided to recall the 2000 rupee note. Sure, there is an element of exaggeration in the previous statement, but the 2016 demonetisation weighs so heavily on the shared experience of the population that a move by the central bank to recall notes inevitably triggers memories of that episode.

Read more here.

Nikkei Asia | The Quad should have its own biomanufacturing hub in India

Biomanufacturing, which uses microorganisms and cell cultures to produce molecules and materials on a large scale, is rapidly rising in importance for Indo-Pacific nations. The world's response to COVID-19 depended on the rapid production of new vaccines through biomanufacturing. Countries with preexisting manufacturing capabilities became the gatekeepers of vaccine supply. Scaling up biomanufacturing in India will be fraught with challenges, however, but these can be overcome with external support. The Quad group in particular is ideally placed to collaborate and boost India's efforts.

Read more here

Moneycontrol | The missing piece in the National Logistics Policy is supply chain financing

India’s logistics industry is poised for a brighter future, thanks to the National Logistics Policy launched in September last year. The policy promises to upgrade the physical and digital infrastructure of the logistics sector and improve service efficiency. However, there is a missing piece in the puzzle that could make all the difference for businesses: the financial infrastructure.

Read the full article here.

ThePrint | India should declare that AI will not be used to autonomously launch nuclear weapons

Twenty-five years have elapsed since India carried out six nuclear tests and announced its ambitions to be a nuclear power. Pakistan reacted with seven tests. Worldwide condemnation followed. The five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council enforced sanctions. A year later, the Kargil conflict, which was limited in terms of geography and quantum of force, was fought under the nuclear shadow, even though at that time both nations hardly had any operational nuclear weapons capability. Yet it played a role, and to some unknown extent contained the conflict.

Read more here.

Interstellar | US-China Chip War: What Might The Future Hold?

The US-China geopolitical fault lines in high technology have become sharper than ever, and nowhere has it been more significant than semiconductors. Semiconductors are critical to advanced computing and artificial intelligence (AI) that will form the core of the next-generation industrial revolution. They also have significant implications for advanced and precision weaponry and consumer tech.

Read more here.