Technopolitik
47 episodes - English - Latest episode: about 1 year ago -Exploring the intersection of technology and international relations from an Indian national interest perspective.
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#49 US-India's High-Tech Talks, and Concerns surrounding TikTok.
June 28, 2023 03:30 - 29 minutes - 19.9 MBLast week saw a flurry of technopolitical developments as the US and India announced a slew of technology and defense deals. In case you missed it, we had a special post dissecting the preliminary details of India’s accession to the Artemis Accords. Check it out here! Also tune in to this podcast episode of All Things Policy, where Pranay Kotasthane, Aditya Ramanathan, Bharath Reddy, and Saurabh Todi from the High-Tech Geopolitics team discuss the announcements in the India-US joint statemen...
#47 Of Measured Cyberspace Regulations and Lofty Space Ambitions
May 31, 2023 03:30 - 21 minutes - 15 MBMatsyanyaaya: Insights from recent OEWG discussions on Information and Communications Technologies — Anushka Saxena The militarisation of cyberspace is a reality. And to enable states to discuss and adopt common rules for global governance of cyberspace, on 31 December 2020, the United Nations General Assembly adopted resolution 75/240 establishing an Open-ended Working Group (OEWG) on the security of and in the use of Information and Communications Technologies. The mandate for the Group...
#46 Numerology of conflict and cooperation in technology
May 17, 2023 03:30 - 16 minutes - 11 MBBiopolitik: The Power of Four: Biomanufacturing and the Quad — Saurabh Todi A biological revolution is underway in global manufacturing. Products produced from genetic engineering and biomanufacturing techniques are replacing many chemical, industrial and farm-based products. According to a 2020 McKinsey report, the substitution of chemical products with biological alternatives through modern biotechnology has the potential to produce up to 60 per cent of the physical inputs required by th...
#45 Davids and Goliaths in the world of tech
May 03, 2023 03:30 - 21 minutes - 14.9 MBCyberpolitik: AI and Crime Prevention: Is it a force multiplier? — Satya Sahu Crime prevention is based on the idea that crime can be reduced or eliminated by modifying the factors that influence its occurrence or consequences. We can classify “prevention” into three main types: primary, secondary, and tertiary. Primary prevention addresses the root causes of crime or deters potential offenders before they commit a crime. Secondary prevention aims to intervene with at-risk groups or indivi...
#44: AI Misinform, US-India Cooperate and ISRO Reuse
April 05, 2023 03:30 - 14 minutes - 9.75 MBCyberpolitik: The Gell-mann “AI”mnesiac Effect — Satya Sahu Here are two screenshots of a hastily written prompt to which ChatGPT dutifully responded almost immediately. As I read the responses to my prompts, I was painfully aware of the fact that the second passage could very plausibly be attached alongside a doctored image of a scientist holding up a processor die and forwarded countless times on Whatsapp by thousands of my fellow citizens, all overjoyed at the prospect of India finally...
Technopolitik Special Issue: The untaken road towards AI
March 22, 2023 03:30 - 6 minutes - 4.31 MBA new discussion document authored by Shailesh Chitnis provides a pragmatic assessment of India’s capabilities in Artificial Intelligence (AI) today. It proposes one bold idea which, if properly executed, has the potential to catapult the country into a dominant position in the AI race. But why another document about AI strategy for India? The expert from the document is provided below. Most reports on AI in India follow a predictable pattern. First, they fuss over the potential of AI to al...
Keeping up with the trends and times
March 08, 2023 03:30 - 15 minutes - 10.7 MBCyberpolitik: A Recurring Payments Nightmare — Bharath Reddy Have you tried to make a recurring card payment to a foreign merchant only to find that your card gets declined? This is not an issue with the card being maxed out; most international payments using Indian credit or debit cards don’t work because merchants find it too cumbersome to comply with India-specific regulations. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) mandated that from October 1st, 2021, for every recurring transaction below ...
#42 Technology and their starting problems
February 22, 2023 03:30 - 13 minutes - 9.36 MBMatsyanyaaya: Why Apple's teething troubles in India matter — Shailesh Chitnis Last year, between April and December, Apple exported more than $2.5bn worth of iPhones from India. Shipments during those eight months were nearly double the previous fiscal year’s (April 2021 - March 2022) total. For India’s “Make in India” ambitions, those numbers are promising. They are also tiny. According to Bloomberg Intelligence, in 2021, India produced 3 million iPhones. China produced 230 million unit...
The Tech Quest to Eradicate Threats
February 08, 2023 03:30 - 15 minutes - 10.6 MBAntariksh Matters #1: Can India and the US Head into Space Together? — Aditya Ramanathan India and the United States have taken a modest leap towards greater cooperation in space. Last week, the two countries’ national security advisers, Ajit Doval and Jake Sullivan, kicked off the first meeting of the initiative on Critical and Emerging Technology or iCET. First set up in 2022, the focus of iCET was to enhance technological cooperation in defence as well as other sectors. A fact sheet r...
#40 The opening and closing of doors
January 25, 2023 03:30 - 14 minutes - 9.81 MBMatsinaya: Backdoors to state control — Shailesh Chitnis The Chinese government has signalled a shift in how it plans to control big tech. This month, news reports emerged that state-owned enterprises are set to take a 1% stake in two of its most prominent tech companies, Alibaba and Tencent. Euphemistically dubbed "golden shares," this small stake grants special privileges and gives the government an outsized role in how these companies are run. Typically, these shares come with a board ...
#39 Techno-forecasting: Regulatory gymnastics for a new year
January 11, 2023 03:30 - 14 minutes - 10.2 MBA happy new year to all our readers! To kickstart this year’s edition of Technopolitik, we have assembled a list of predictions for 2023 across tech sectors, ranging from online regulation, biotech and outer space. Maybe we can take stock of these predictions and see how much of it we got wrong (or right) at the end of this year! Beginning from this edition, we also introduce a new section to our newsletter called Biopolitik, while will cover all the fascinating tidbits about the biotechn...
#38: TechMania: The free, the expensive and the risky
December 14, 2022 03:30 - 12 minutes - 14.6 MBMatsyanyaaya #1: Opening up to open-tech — Bharath Reddy "Open Tech" refers to transparent, inclusive technology and embodies the freedom to use, study, modify and redistribute to the maximum extent possible. The definitions of open-source software, open standards, and open-source hardware are well understood. "Open Tech" is an umbrella term that includes all of these technology areas. The usual arguments promoting open source technologies highlight reducing costs, avoiding vendor and tec...
#36: Secrets, Bad Calls and Disconnections
November 16, 2022 03:30 - 17 minutes - 23.8 MBAntariksh Matters: Shattering Space Record Myths — Pranav R Satyanath Earlier this week, a record was broken in the shadowy world of military space tech. At least, that’s what some of the headlines make you believe. The secretive X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle (OTV) uncrewed spaceplane, operated by the US Space Force, landed at the NASA Kennedy Space Center on November 12th after spending 908 days in orbit. It broke the previous orbital record (780 days) by a large margin. The spaceplane, whic...
#35 Rage Against the (Company) Machines
November 02, 2022 03:30 - 13 minutes - 19 MBAntariksh Matters: Tying commercial and military ends — Pranav R Satyanath Eight months after Russia's invasion of Ukraine, it is an established fact that commercial entities in space provide a vital service for enhancing military capabilities. The Ukrainian military purchased hundreds of images from companies like Maxar and Planet to monitor Russian formations. More famously, internet services provided by SpaceX’s Starlink constellations proved vital for soldiers on the battlefield. Other...
#34 Tech Wars by Various Means
October 19, 2022 03:30 - 11 minutes - 15.7 MBAntariksh Matters: Starlink & the Dismal Attractions of Space Warfare — Aditya Ramanathan The contributors to this newsletter are not an unduly pessimistic lot. They nevertheless retained little doubt that geopolitical adversaries would seek to contest each others’ ability to use space-based assets. What was harder to predict was that we would see its first instances as early as 2022. It was also harder to imagine that some of these dangers would draw public attention because of a sordid s...
#33: On Protecting Nations and National Interests
October 05, 2022 03:30 - 17 minutes - 23.4 MBAntariksh Matters #1: Small Launchers and Small Windows of Opportunity — Pranav R Satyanath The small satellite launch vehicle market has a new player - Firefly Aerospace. The US-based private company on Saturday (October 1st 2022) conducted the first successful launch of its rocket Firefly Alpha. The company attempted a launch in September 2021, which failed to get to orbit. Today, Firefly is one of only four private NewSpace companies in the world which provide dedicated small-satellite ...
Technopolitik Special Issue: Getting Tech-diplomacy right
September 21, 2022 03:30 - 13 minutes - 19.1 MBIndia Needs a Holistic and Effective Techplomacy Strategy — Arjun Gargeyas Earlier this year, the Takshashila Institution published the Techno-strategic Doctrine for India. The doctrine outlined the fundamental principles India must follow to springboard as a technology superpower. As the doctrine mentions, one of the critical approaches for India to reach the status of a technology superpower is by becoming a vital node in the global technology ecosystem and building strong links with sta...
Hopes and Ambitions in Technology
September 07, 2022 04:00 - 20 minutes - 27.5 MBAntariksh Matters: Putting space ambitions in context — Pranav R Satyanath The Artemis 1 mission rocket stays grounded, ready to launch on another day. The North American Space Administration (NASA) made two unsuccessful attempts to get the massive Space Launch System (SLS) rocket off the ground. The first attempt to launch the Artemis 1 mission, the rocket's Engine-3 (SLS has four engines) faced a cooling issue. During the second attempt on September 3rd, NASA aborted the launch due to a ...
#31 Reacting to the Future
August 24, 2022 03:30 - 15 minutes - 21.7 MBCyberpolitik: The Internet of Yesterday and Tomorrow — Bharath Reddy The foundation of the internet was built on three pillars: * Reliance on the private sector, * Light regulatory oversight, * Free speech and a free flow of information. The hope was that these values would also be accepted as the internet would be accepted across the world. However this utopian vision is far from the reality of today’s internet. Gradually the internet has become less secure, more fragmented and les...
#30: Space, Spies, and Critical Technologies
August 10, 2022 03:30 - 15 minutes - 21.5 MBAntariksh Matters #1: Spying on Spy Satellites — Pranav R Satyanath In February this year, the United States launched a nondescript satellite simply designated as NROL-87. Those who keep a close of space launches know that the NROL designation stands for national security satellites operated by the National Reconnaissance Office. The satellite likely entered a 284 x 425 km Sub-synchronous orbit with an inclination of 97.25 degrees. The NROL-87, also designated as USA 326, is suspected to b...
#30 On Chips and Space Tourists
July 27, 2022 03:30 - 12 minutes - 17.7 MBMatsyanyaaya: The New CHIPS Bill Raises More Questions than it Answers — Arjun Gargeyas In the last week, the US Senate decided to advance a bill to promote and support semiconductor chip manufacturing in the country. The bill, known as the CHIPS Act, is an extension to the previous year’s legislation passed by the Senate which approved a $250 billion bill to reinforce US chipmaking to compete with the growing clout of China. With the global chip shortage receding and the production gett...
#29 On Securing Materials, Data and Outer Space
July 13, 2022 03:30 - 19 minutes - 26.9 MBMatsyanyaaya #1: Material Partnerships Today and Tomorrow — Pranav R Satyanath In June 1939, the United States Congress passed the Strategic and Critical Materials Stockpiling Act to ensure the steady supply of raw materials that were deemed to be critical for economic development and national security. Strategic materials at the time included those that were essential for nuclear research, like uranium and thorium. Although these materials were by no means rare in the form of natural ore,...
#28 The Environment for Tech Regulation
June 29, 2022 03:30 - 18 minutes - 24.8 MBAntariksh Matters #1: India’s Space Policy under IN-SPACe — Pranav R Satyanath On 10 June, 2022, Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the headquarters of the Indian National Space Promotion and Authorisation Centre (IN-SPACe) in Ahmedabad, Gujarat. The setting up of IN-SPACe promises to usher in a new era for India’s commercial space sector, as the organisation is geared to function as a one-stop institution for regulating space activities and providing entities in the private sector a...
Technopolitik Special Issue: The Techno-strategic Doctrine
June 15, 2022 03:30 - 5 minutesWe at the Takshashila Institution like to begin with first principles. Since the beginning of our High Tech Geopolitics Programme, we’ve pondered the key ideas and approaches that ought to inform our approach to the subject. After many discussions, message threads, and chats over lunches, we’ve distilled our thoughts into a short and crisp Techno-Strategic Doctrine. This doctrine provides a foundation which India’s policy wonks and policymakers can use as they craft domestic and internationa...
#27 Partnerships on Tech and its Controls
June 01, 2022 03:30 - 22 minutesAntariksh Matters #1: Fishing out illegal fishing vessels — Pranav R Satyanath During the Quad Summit held in Tokyo on May 23, the leaders of Australia, India, Japan and the United States agreed to establish the Indo-Pacific Partnership for Maritime Domain Awareness (IPMDA). This initiative hopes to extend the existing mechanisms for maritime cooperation among the four countries and harness commercially-available data to put together a more accurate picture of the maritime domain. The Qua...
#26 Of Tech and Insecurities
May 18, 2022 03:30 - 17 minutesAntariksh Matters #1: Dual-use Dilemmas in the OEWG on Space Threats — Pranav R Satyanath The first session of the Open-Ended Working Group (OEWG) on Reducing Space Threats was held last week between the 9th and 13th of May in Geneva. The OEWG was created under the requirement of the United Nations Resolution 75/36 which called on member states to exchange views on norms, threats and behaviours in outer space. Deliberations on matters of space security are not new. They’ve been taking pla...
#25 Of Tech and Space
May 04, 2022 03:30 - 19 minutesAntariksh Matters #1: Telangana’s SpaceTech Framework — Aditya Pareek In its latest policy document, “SpaceTech Framework”, the Government of Telangana acknowledges the central role of private enterprise in the rapidly growing global space economy. The twelve page long document lays down a framework to nurture the state’s own private space tech sector. There is a notable focus on enabling entrepreneurship in both upstream and downstream applications as well as removing many bottlenecks and...
#24 Devil is in the Nuances
April 20, 2022 03:30 - 14 minutesMatsyanyaaya: Russia’s response to Crippling Tech Sanctions — Aditya Pareek The Russian government’s response to the devastating series of embargoes, sanctions and export controls barring high-tech components and semiconductor chips is interesting. One of the measures intended for immediate relief is the legalisation of parallel or gray imports. Parallel imports will lead to the Russian market being supplied with products without their Original Equipment Manufacturer(OEM) or Intellectual P...
#23 Ukraine War by Other Means
April 06, 2022 03:30 - 23 minutesCyberpolitik: Invasion and Infektion — Prateek Waghre In a recent edition of The Information Ecologist, I had referred to the activity around the IStandWithRussia and IStandWithPutin hashtags that seemed to include a number of accounts associated with India. The second India subplot is the presence of seemingly India-associated accounts in Twitter trends such as ‘IStandWithRussia’ and ‘IStandwithPutin’. See this thread by @NovelSci and these threads by (1,2) by @MarcOwenJones. Since then...
#22 Studying the Winds of Change
March 23, 2022 03:30Matsyanyaaya: The Effects of Tech Sanctions on the Russian Economy — Arjun Gargeyas An edited version of this article came out in Hindustan Times on March 16, 2022. 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 export revenues. The US has also introduced high-tech sanctions, mainly depriving Russia of access to critical technologies (like semic...
#21 Deplatforming & Destruction
March 09, 2022 03:30 - 23 minutesAntariksh Matters: Let’s Not Destroy Satellites in Peacetime — Aditya Ramanathan Is it in India’s interests to support a ban on destructive anti-satellite tests? It’s a question Delhi may have to find an answer to in the near future. The trigger for this question is Russia’s ASAT missile test on 15 November 2021. The broader context is a series of moves that could eventually lead to substantial talks on space security. On 15 November, Russia apparently used an A-235 PL-19 “Nudol” Anti B...
#20 On Content Takedowns and Tech Espionage
February 23, 2022 03:30 - 16 minutesCyberpolitik #1: Wanted - Greater scrutiny of content takedown orders — Prateek Waghre Last week, reports suggested that the Union Government of India had issued an order to ban 54 apps. This would constitute the fifth such instance since June 2020 (when TikTok and 58 other apps were blocked), three of which have been accompanied by press releases. * June 2020: 59 apps (accompanied by a press release) * July 2020: 47 (not accompanied by a press release) * September 2020: 118 apps aka PU...
#19 Manipulating Minerals, Images and Bits
February 09, 2022 03:30 - 17 minutesMineralPolitik: REEs, If the Price is Right — Aditya Pareek The global contention for securing Rare Earth Elements(REE) supply chains is in full swing. Since the COVID-19 pandemic began, three countries have primarily been the movers and shakers of the REE world, the current market hegemon China, Australia, and the US. This is directly consequential to India’s national interests, as China is its strategic adversary, and the US and Australia are its Quad allies willing to cooperate with N...
#18 Norms, Standards, and Mind Control
January 26, 2022 03:30 - 17 minutesCyberPolitik: China’s Norm-game — Sapni G K In the 8th edition of this newsletter, I had written about the draft "Internet Information Service Algorithmic Recommendation Management Provisions" released for comments by the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC). After a few months of deliberations, including their process of public consultation, the draft was finalised this month. The newly released “Internet Information Service Algorithmic Recommendation Management Provisions” lays down ...
#17 Of Space Collisions and Cyberspace Evasions
January 12, 2022 03:30 - 19 minutesCyberPolitik #1: When can Governments Snoop on your Personal Data? — Sapni G K Over the past couple of weeks in this newsletter, we have covered the varying aspects of benefits that DCNs bring us. In earlier editions, we covered the harms that are associated with DCNs. Personal data and its governance has been a recurring theme within both these analyses. In addition to the dynamics of private entities dealing with data, it is important to consider government access to data. After all, ope...
#16 Quantum Leaps and Space Cooperation
December 29, 2021 03:30 - 20 minutesAntriksh Matters: Russia’s in Cooperative Mood on Space Stations — Aditya Pareek Despite the ubiquity of remotely operated space vehicles, inhabited orbital stations remain a symbol of prestige and scientific endeavour. In Russia’s case, much of its spacefaring tradition is tied to its history as a pioneer of the final frontier. Russia has continued to support the International Space Station(ISS) and has launched another module, this time a docking node called “Prichal”, the Russian word...
#15 Quad Alliance, Quantum Entanglements
December 15, 2021 03:30 - 22 minutesMatsyanyaaya: The US-Australia Quantum Tech Agreement — Arjun Gargeyas The Quantum race has just heated up. November saw an official agreement between the United States and Australia on quantum technology cooperation. An official statement underlined the importance of science and technology in the information age along with the need for collaborative and transnational efforts in the pursuit of scientific discovery and societal benefit. The statement also described quantum technology, as b...
#14 Space Debris, Blurred Battle Lines, Hype and Signals
December 01, 2021 03:30 - 24 minutesAntariksh Matters: Will Debris-Swallowing Satellites Eat Space Norms for Breakfast? — Aditya Ramanathan On the morning of 23 October 2021, a Chinese Long March 3b rocket shot into space, putting a satellite into geosynchronous transfer orbit, the elliptical path into which any satellite must first enter before moving into a geosynchronous orbit. Under normal circumstances, the launch would have received little attention, but this Long March rocket’s payload was different. According to the...
#13 National Influencers, International Norms
November 17, 2021 03:30 - 23 minutesCyberpolitik #1: France’s Influence Operations Doctrine — Prateek Waghre In October, France announced a new doctrine for Information Warfare. This development has received surprisingly little attention in English-language discourse over the last three weeks. It was initially reported by Francesco Busseletti, who highlighted: Objective: to counter the growing spread of fake news and disinformation, aimed at weakening the image of Paris and weakening its armed forces, especially abroad suc...
#12 Chips, Meta and Missiles
November 03, 2021 03:30 - 23 minutesSiliconpolitik: India and Taiwan Want to Complement Each Other’s Strengths — Arjun Gargeyas There were reports earlier this month that Indian and Taiwanese officials had met to discuss the possibility of a $7.5 billion investment in India by the Taiwanese government and its premier semiconductor foundry, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC). This was to set up a long-pending state-of-the-art semiconductor manufacturing facility in the country. While India has been strong at s...
#11 Antriksh Really-Really Matters
October 20, 2021 03:30 - 26 minutesSiliconpolitik: Where Do We Go Now? — Pranay Kotasthane I have a follow-up paper for NUS-ISAS discussing the next steps for the Quad Semiconductor Supply Chain initiative. I argue that the Quad Principles Document on Technology Design, Development, Governance and Use is a good reference point for the collaboration on semiconductors. An initiative to map capacity and identify vulnerabilities is a welcome first step. However, a lot more needs to be done to create a secure, resilient semicon...
#10 Quadrilateral Technopolitik
October 06, 2021 03:30 - 21 minutesSiliconpolitik: Mile Sur Mera Tumhaara — Pranay Kotasthane High Technology cooperation is fast becoming a differentiating point of the Quad arrangement. It appears that the Quad Working Group, which was formed after the first Summit meeting in March 2021, has locked in space, biotechnology, 5G communications, cybersecurity, and semiconductors as five immediate focus areas. Music to my ears. As Technopolitik readers are aware, I have been making a case for a Quad collaboration on semicond...
#9 Yogakshema in Space
September 22, 2021 03:30 - 18 minutesSiliconpolitik: Ab Dilli Door Nahin — Pranay Kotasthane Readers would've noticed that this newsletter bats for a Quad partnership on semiconductor supply chain security for geopolitical, geoeconomic, and technological reasons. In edition #5, we proposed what an 'announcement' on semiconductors as an outcome of the upcoming Quad leaders-level summit meeting, could look like. We wrote: One, announce a Quad Semiconductor Supply Chain Resilience Fund. Think of this as a multi-sovereign wealt...
#8 Space, Cyber and Info - Disruptions Assemble!
September 08, 2021 03:30 - 29 minutesAntriksh Matters: Is Space the Ultimate High Ground? — Aditya Ramanathan Several of the world's major powers have devoted hard cash and organisational resources to defend their interests in space. Most prominently of the new institutions created is the US Space Force, but its most notable counterpart is the PLA Strategic Support Force (SSF) in China. Even India has created a far more modest Defence Space Agency, though it is hardly comparable to the American and Chinese organisations. Wh...
#7 Mine : Moon
August 25, 2021 03:30 - 26 minutesInfopolitik: A Military Withdrawal in the Information Age — Pranay Kotasthane A month-and-half ago, I had tweeted this: I had further written that: “in the Industrial Age, such suppression could be covered up; that’s no longer the case in radically networked communities. The difference between the Afghanistan of 2001 and 2021 is mobile phones plus internet. Given these factors, the use of force against non-combatants is almost certain to receive instant condemnation from other countries....
#6 National Power and its Technopolitikal Domains
August 11, 2021 03:30 - 23 minutesMatsyanyaaya: Technology and National Power — Pranay Kotasthane To say that technology impacts geopolitics is to state the obvious. There are new books and articles written every day about how technology X might impact State Y’s politics. Yet, there are surprisingly few frameworks that precisely articulate the ways in which technologies can increase or decrease national power. It is for this reason that I found a recent CSET Report National Power after AI interesting. The central argument...
#5 Harmful Harms and Not so Rare Rare Earths
July 28, 2021 03:30 - 12 minutesSiliconpolitik: The Upcoming Quad Summit -Pranay Kotasthane News reports suggest that the first in-person Quad summit is likely to be held in September. The last online summit-level meeting created three working groups on vaccines, critical & emerging technologies (C&ET), and climate change. Though there has been some action on vaccine delivery, there are virtually no updates about the outcomes of the other two working groups. At least on the C&ET front, it seems to me that a vast agenda ...