Results of the US midterm elections and what it means for India

With only a few seats left to be declared, the 2022 US midterm election is like the cliffhanger scene from the penultimate episode of a thrilling whodunnit. The predicted red wave did not lash America, but the Republicans did manage a ripple, and flipped some seats in the US House of Representatives, the lower house of the American Congress.

Should India look closely at these elections from a foreign policy lens? Not generally, but there will be some specific impact as we shall see in a while.

SC refused to abolish domestic work for Army Sahayaks. But Agniveer era can end it

On 31 October, a three-judge bench of the Supreme Court refused to entertain a Public Interest Litigation that sought to abolish the ‘Sahayak system’ in the Indian Army. In 2009, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Defence described the practice of employing ‘Sahayaks’ as shameful that should have no place in independent India and recommended its abolition. The Committee said it expected the Ministry of Defence to stop the practice and hoped that the Ministry of Home Affairs would take similar action in respect of paramilitary and other organisations.

We Should Confront the Global Polycrisis with Revitalised Hope

Framing the contemporary coincidence of economic shocks, rising political violence, extreme weather events, the covid pandemic and intensifying geopolitical tensions as “the polycrisis", Adam Tooze writes that “the shocks are disparate, but they interact so that the whole is even more overwhelming than the sum of the parts. At times one feels as if one is losing one’s sense of reality."

Gujarat is India’s economic hub. But basing key military infrastructure makes us vulnerable

The increasing range, speed, accuracy and destructive capability of firepower has been unremittingly on display in the Russia-Ukraine war for nearly eight months. The lethality of weapons is often displayed by their effect on civilian infrastructure—wrecked buildings, cratered roads, twisted electric poles and corpses of civilians. Missiles, drones and artillery constitute the predominant vectors that bring destruction and damage on permanent structures that can be easily identified and targeted.

Road Ahead for UPI: Free Public Infrastructure or Yet Another Payment Mechanism?

With its widespread adoption, UPI is now here to stay. Regulators must now switch their focus on ensuring fair competition in the digital payments space. The zero-charge framework gives UPI an advantage over other digital payments and a big task for regulators is to determine how it can be phased out going forward. With the market currently dominated by a handful of players at the front-end (GPay, PhonePe, Paytm) and monopolised by NPCI and banks at the back-end, enabling competition in each layer of UPI to tackle this would be the sensible direction to take for UPI to sustain on its own.

The US and China are battling for semiconductor supremacy

Hindustan Times, Oct 29, 2022. The geopolitical impact of the new controls is perhaps the most significant. The US and China’s semiconductor ecosystems might recover, but this move is a critical juncture in technology geopolitics.

Theatre commands to defence university, why Indian security interests need a political push

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s clarion call for Atmanirbhar Bharat in May 2020 made self-reliance a policy goal for the Ministry of Defence. Despite decades of effort, India’s defence industrial ecosystem has failed to achieve substantive progress and indigenous research, development and production capabilities remain a challenge. Time will reveal whether the slogan has been matched by accomplishment. However, even if Atmanirbhartha is accomplished to any acceptable degree, India’s military effectiveness will require the fulfilment of two other crucial reform initiatives – defence university and theatre commands.

Can India Take Cues From Kenya's GMO Ban Lift to Meet Climate Change Challenge?

In early October 2022, Kenya lifted a decade-long ban on importing Genetically Modified Organisms or GMOs as a source of food and feed. This follows Kenya's approval to GM cotton in response to the ongoing drought conditions.

Parts of Africa are experiencing unprecendented drought and nearly four million people in Kenya are facing hunger issues. Kenya’s move to adopt GMOs to improve food security comes on the recommendation of a task force which was set up to examine the safety and viability of using GMOs.  

While this move may mitigate some of Kenya’s food concerns, the shift to GMOs in the middle of an ongoing disaster will take time and effort. With this backdrop, it is time for India to also revisit its de facto ban on GMOs and invest in this technology now.

Modi govt’s self-reliance goals for Army forcing India to attempt an impossible task

Gujarat’s Gandhinagar was the venue for DefExpo 2022, the 12th edition of the defence exhibition organised by the Ministry of Defence from 18 to 22 October. In keeping with the Atmanirbharta spirit, for the first time, only ‘Indian’ participants were permitted — defined as Indian companies, subsidiaries of foreign original equipment manufacturers, divisions of companies registered in India, and exhibitors having joint ventures with Indian companies. ‘Path to Pride’ was the adopted theme.

India must dominate the game of chips - through its Human Resources

Washington’s wide-ranging sanctions on China’s semiconductor industry will go far in containing the US’s geopolitical rival. Not only will they set China’s chip makers back by years, but also restrict the country’s progress in several areas, from personal computers to data centres, from artificial intelligence (AI) systems to hypersonic missiles. This may well be America’s most consequential move in the ongoing contest among global powers.

The future as foretold by Xi: Chinese citizens have to brace themselves for tough times, Indians for a more aggressive PLA

In many ways, the 20th Congress of the Communist Party of China has been a somewhat anticlimactic event. Prior to the quinquennial meeting, there was a general sense among scholars and watchers of China that the congress would largely signal political and policy continuity. It has indeed largely reaffirmed the direction in which China was already heading. That said, the past week has shed greater light on what we can expect going ahead.

Launch of missile from Arihant a milestone. But India’s nuclear triad isn’t complete yet

Operating covertly from the depths of the ocean and striking with nuclear weapons is the leitmotif of Ship Submersible Ballistic Nuclear or SSBN submarines. Such capability was demonstrated by India on 14 October this year in the firing of the nuclear-capable missile, Sagarika/K-15, from its first SSBN, the INS Arihant. The submarine was launched in July 2009, with sea trials commencing in December 2014, and was commissioned into the Indian Navy in August 2016. It undertook its first deterrence patrol in 2018, soon after the K-15 missile was first test-fired from the submarine.

As Ukraine-Russia heats up, India can call parties to pledge No First Use on nuclear weapons

Threat and persuasion are two sides of the same coin and form the staple of influence in all human relationships. The ability to so influence contentious matters determines the exchange rate of the currency of power, which is a relational variable enmeshed in specific contexts. The extent to which Russian nuclear weapons are likely to influence outcomes in the ongoing Ukraine war remains debatable. It would certainly provide enough information for future historians and political scientists to answer the question – what role did nuclear weapons play in the Ukraine war? Unless, of course there is no one left to ask that question. It is an extreme possibility, that some believe has provided the oxygen for the nuclear taboo to survive.

Forewarned & Forearmed: Through G20 Presidency, India is at Right Position to Prevent Climate Disaster

The impacts of climate change are no longer just visible in the developing world. In 2022 itself, the effects were seen across the globe from heatwaves in India, to high temperatures in the UK to forest fires across several European nations. Most of these impacts are induced by anthropogenic activities. G20 which is a group of 19 countries and the European Union is responsible for most of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions. The countries make up about 2/3rd of the world population and 80% of Global GDP. The constituents of this group hold considerable sway over the world’s action towards climate change.

Malnutrition: Is Public Nutrition the Best Approach?

In India, with the initiation of schemes like POSHAN 2.0, nutrition is gradually gaining importance as an important aspect of health. With an increase in our understanding of health and nutrition, we are now able to test and prescribe individualised nutritional recommendations. Now, instead of population level recommended dietary allowance (RDA), it is possible to get personalised nutrition guidance based on comorbidities, genetic makeup and family history. As we just observed POSHAN maah (month) in September, let us talk about malnutrition.

Wastewater surveillance programmes for India: A call for action

New York Governor Kathy Hochul declared a disaster emergency on September 9 2022, to ramp up efforts to vaccinate residents against polio after the virus was detected in wastewater samples in four counties. While wastewater surveillance is an effective tool for monitoring community health, there has been no concerted governmental effort in India to include it in the broader public health strategy.Such a programme could better predict the emergence of diseases, help prepare mitigation measures and improve public health outcomes

An ‘everything’ app is a nightmare for our freedoms

Monopoly, the board game, is often held up as a demonstration of capitalism, teaching us how business works. Actually, it does more than that. While it is true that a budding capitalist’s goal is to grab as large a market share as possible, the game shows that allowing a player to do so is bad for society as a whole. Now there is nothing wrong in a business person seeking a monopoly. It is for society—through its political institutions—to protect its broader interests and check monopolistic tendencies through public policy.

Indian Armed Forces can’t turn a blind eye to religious politics anymore

National security planners have an unenviable task as they deal with an imagined and unknown future visualised as threats and opportunities. The challenge is compounded by the shortage of resources and the unplumbed possibilities of progress in science and technology. External threats are often better known and acknowledged. Internal threats that have manifested as insurgencies are troublesome but are usually within the power of the State to keep under control. But what could be unacknowledged and neglected and is generally allowed to simmer for long till it explodes like a powder keg is communal disharmony. For India, it holds the hazards of a live fault line.

Securing India’s Cyberspace from Quantum Techniques

Last month, there were reports that the Indian Army is developing cryptographic techniques to make its networks resistant to attacks by systems with quantum capabilities. The Army has collaborated with industry and academia to build secure communications and cryptography applications. This step builds on last year’s initiative to establish a quantum computing laboratory at the military engineering institute in Mhow, Madhya Pradesh. With traditional encryption models at risk and increasing military applications of quantum technology, the deployment of “quantum-resistant” systems has become the need of the hour.

भारतीयों के विदेशों में बसने के फ़ायदे कम नहीं

राजस्थान पत्रिका, Sept 30, 2022. We need two look at two categories of Indians in this regard - one, emigrants that have already left and two, Indians who are yet to leave. For those ones that have left, it will be tough to surrender a foreign passport and return back to India. A probable solution would be to actively consider dual citizenship policy, allow ease of investment to NRI/PIO’s and maintain healthy relationships through Indian diplomacy. For the ones who have not yet taken up foreign citizenship, India needs to invest in building social harmony, abundant economic opportunities, and a steady improvement in the quality of life for people from diverse backgrounds. Our critical focus should be for the people from the second category. This includes medical students who are forced to leave due to the government restrictions leading to smaller intakes in medical courses, and high net worth individuals who choose to migrate because of poor business, tax, and policy environments. Unless we address these fundamental challenges, movies such as Swades might bring tears to our eyes, but will not stop in converting pardesi to swadeshi.