The Hindu | The signals from this ‘Made in China’ smartphone story

Huawei, the Chinese smartphone giant, has created ripples within the strategic and business community with its newly unveiled Mate 60 Pro which houses the Kirin 9000 processor. The chipset reportedly used Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC)’s second-generation 7nm fabrication technique, thereby demonstrating China’s capability to manufacture a 7nm chip. Read the full article here.

ThePrint | Delhi Declaration first step to global no-first-use treaty. India should take the lead

The text of the G20 New Delhi Leaders Declaration certainly adds a feather to India’s political and diplomatic cap. The declaration states that “the use or threat of use of nuclear weapons is inadmissible”. If this is their commitment then they should agree to a global no-first-use policy. Steered by the MEA, the Declaration mentioned nuclear weapons in the section about the ongoing Ukraine War. It stated – “While recalling the discussion in Bali, we reiterated our national positions and resolutions adopted at the UN Security Council and the UN General Assembly (A/RES/ES-11/1 and A/RES/ES-11/6) and underscored that all states must act in a manner consistent with the Purposes and Principles of the UN Charter in its entirety. In line with the UN Charter, all states must refrain from the threat or use of force to seek territorial acquisition against the territorial integrity and sovereignty or political independence of any state. The use or threat of use of nuclear weapons is inadmissible”. Read the full article here.

Nikkei Asia | India can get more out of nuclear power with private sector help

India needs a way to generate a lot more power to keep up with rapidly rising demand without adding to its already severe pollution woes. For India, nuclear energy is the obvious solution. On Aug. 31, a new unit of the Kakrapar Nuclear Power Plant -- the largest to be designed in India -- began full operations in Gujarat state. At their meeting in New Delhi on the sidelines of the Group of 20 summit last week, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and U.S. President Joe Biden discussed how the two countries could collaborate on developing next-generation small modular reactor technologies. A few weeks before, Modi talked to French President Emmanuel Macron about joint work on another emerging technology, advanced modular reactors. Read the full article here.

Deccan Herald | Enhancing India’s role in the Indo-Pacific

On September 7, Prime Minister Narendra Modi attended the 20th ASEAN-India summit in Jakarta, Indonesia, where leaders held extensive discussions regarding bolstering the ASEAN-India relationship in the Indo-Pacific. Modi remarked on the “unison in the vision of India and ASEAN for the Indo-Pacific”. India’s increasing development and maritime diplomacy in the Southeast Asian region suggests that the ASEAN-India relationship in the Indo-Pacific region is becoming stronger, underpinned by a convergence of interests in the Indo-Pacific. Read the full article here.

Moneycontrol | G20 Summit: India takes its Digital Public Infrastructure success to the world

Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) has created quite a storm in the recent G20 meetings. For years, India’s soft power was confined to cricket, Bollywood, Yoga and Ayurveda. It now seems that there has been a powerful addition to this list. The Finance Minister, Nirmala Sitharaman even mentioned that the inclusion of DPI into the G20 Financial Inclusion Action Plan was the defining legacy of India’s presidency of the G20. Read the full article here.

Mint | Hustles could yet trip up Indian startups if we don’t take due care

Yes, I live in Bengaluru, and yes, my neighbourhood is the epicentre of India’s startup ecosystem. Still, I was struck by the manner in which the person at the adjacent table at Third Wave Coffee greeted his friend. “What’s your hustle, man?" Over the past decade, the word ‘hustle’ has made inroads into the vocabulary of the country’s tech industry. In a positive sense, it means different things: to move fast and get things done; to work hard and for long hours; to earn a second income; to do freelance work in the gig economy; or to start up a new business. Read the full article here.

The Diplomat | Restricting Foreign State Immunity: China’s New Law and What It Means

Among the many legal drafts reviewed and adopted at the recently concluded session of the Standing Committee of China’s top legislature, the National People’s Congress, was the Law on Foreign State Immunity. On September 1, the concluding day of the session, the NPC Standing Committee adopted the bill, and the law is scheduled to come into force on January 1, 2024. It joins a line of foreign policy-affecting legal changes introduced at the NPC in the past few months, such as the Foreign Relations Law enacted in June. Read the full article here.

Moneycontrol | The many messages from NCAER’s report on food delivery gig workers

Food delivery companies will use almost any excuse to prompt you to order more from them and right now it’s peak cricket season. Push notifications on your phone and take-away containers in your kitchen are piling up at a rapid rate. Unfortunately, the rate of wage growth for the delivery personnel is anything but rapid. Read the full article here.

ThePrint | At LAC, China is not settling ‘disputed’ borders. It’s containing India

Interconnectedness of events and diplomatic exchanges often provide clues to the state of power play that shapes relations between countries. Two recent events in the landscape of India-China relations seem to indicate that the outlook may not be encouraging. The first was the 19th round of military commander-level talks held on 13 and 14 August. Second — the 15th BRICS meeting at Johannesburg on 22 and 23 August. Read the full article here.

Moneycontrol | China Economy: Has the export-investment-state-driven growth model reached its limits?

The Chinese economy appears to be undergoing a historic churn. This is a product of several factors, such as the structural challenges of the investment and exports-driven growth model, government intervention in order to reshape economic structure and incentives and a turbulent external environment. The scrapping of the zero-COVID policy in late 2022 had created expectations for a rapid economic recovery in China. This was reflected in the rise in growth expectations in the first quarter of 2023. There was anticipation that pent-up consumer demand, increased fiscal spending, and efforts to boost market confidence and signal openness and policy predictability would result in growth rebounding. This, however, has not come to pass. Read the full article here.

Mint | China’s economic troubles mark the end of its geopolitical ascent

In the past few weeks, the world has discovered that the Chinese economy has serious problems and might already be in a crisis. The impending collapse of a real estate behemoth is causing analysts to ask if China’s Lehman moment is at hand. One-fifth of the stock of apartments is unoccupied. There are worries about how China will manage the nearly $9 trillion in off-budget domestic debt that its local governments have accumulated by building bridges and airports to nowhere. One in five young people are unemployed in a country where it takes just over two working adults to support one senior citizen. Economic growth might already be in the vicinity of 3% and might fall to 2% by the end of this decade. Over the past few years, Beijing lent developing countries nearly $1 trillion to gain global political influence. Most of that money is not coming back. Read the full article here.

Takshashila Blog | Is Europe Unanimous on China?

Germany recently released its strategy on China, outlining the challenges China poses and setting forth an agenda regarding how it intends to cooperate with it. The document notes the assertive character of Chinese foreign policy, China’s efforts to reshape the existing rules-based international order “according to its own preferences”, and how China impacts European and global security as a result. Germany calls China a “partner, competitor, and systemic rival”. It points out human rights violations in Xinjiang and Tibet, and the erosion of civil liberties in Hong Kong. Read the full blog here.

Hindustan Times | Chandrayaan will help us profit from the heavens

After Chandrayaan-3’s success, India’s goal is to not only build on Isro’s extraordinary achievement but also to harness popular enthusiasm for space exploration towards concrete outcomes for the country’s high-technology economy. Unlike the IT and biotech sectors, space remains a State-led industry. Governments such as those of the United States have deep pockets and can act as anchor customers until segments of the space sector stabilise and become self-sustaining. Most government and private funding is directed to practical space applications such as satellites that provide immediate returns on investment. Military requirements are a primary driver of satellite infrastructure as are other State-led requirements such as monitoring weather patterns and ecological degradation. All this needs cutting-edge innovation that only space exploration can drive. Read the full article here.

Deccan Herald | Why are nations interested in joining BRICS?

The 2023 BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) Summit is currently underway in Johannesburg, South Africa. Pre-Summit deliberations show that there are some unique and significant developments to look out for. One of them is the expansion of BRICS, which is set to be taken up for an elaborate discussion at the summit. Read the full article here.

Times of India | Why India must now prepare for lunar geopolitics as well

The successful Chandrayaan-3 mission not only marks India’s ascension to a tiny club of lunar states, it also marks the first time humans have conducted a controlled landing in the southern polar region of the Moon. Read the full article here.

Business Standard | Doing better than a competitive exam

The IIT JEE (Indian Institute of Technology joint entrance exam) is revered as the arbiter of merit. With industrialised coaching classes, it is less clear how the JEE selects the right people to attend an IIT. Simplistic measurement of marks in an exam is not how the entry barriers into most sensible institutions work. The high-powered incentive — attending an IIT — is damaging the learning process. We propose a two-part mechanism: A broad exam that filters for sound capability, and then randomised allocation. Read the full article here.

Deccan Herald | National Research Foundation: Old wine in a new bottle?

The Indian research community is looking to the formation of the National Research Foundation (NRF) to herald a new era — where research is one of the government’s priorities resulting in access to a reasonable quantum of funding disbursed in a timely manner. However, short of these two dramatic changes, the NRF would be reduced to just another funding avenue, riddled with the issues of the past. But even with the passing of the NRF Bill there is little clarity on whether either of these two issues will be resolved. Read the full article here.

ThePrint | Why Assam Rifles’ vilification is a calculated, conniving move for revenge

The Assam Rifles is a central paramilitary force responsible for border guarding and internal security in Northeast India. Also utilised as a combat force in times of conflict, it has been administered by the Ministry of Home Affairs since 1965 but is under the operational control of the Indian Army since the 1962 India-China war. The Assam Rifles’ rank and file is recruited by the MHA, but it is led by Army officers on deputation. India’s oldest paramilitary force, it was originally raised in 1835 as Cachar Levy, has had several designations and got its present name in 1917. Read the full article here.

Mint | How to govern the AI industry must be accorded high priority

The manner in which the world’s big artificial intelligence (AI) companies are scaring the world’s governments and asking for regulation reminds me of how incumbent telcos used to push ‘Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt’ (FUD) 20 years ago. We should suspect that the motives are similar: to use regulation to slam the gates shut for new entrants and use incumbency to acquire greater power over public policy. If OpenAI and Google are really worried that their products are dangerous and pose severe, unpredictable risks to public safety, they could stop developing them. It is reasonable, therefore, to suspect that their calls for regulation of so-called foundation models are partly motivated by the desire to lock-in their dominant market positions. Read the full article here.

The Times of India | Laptop licence: Why are failed policies being revived again?

In the 1970s and 1980s, a large country undertook a “market reserve” policy. The idea was to restrict imports, protect the infant computer industry, and give it a chance to become competitive. But after nearly two decades of restrictions, the country was far from achieving its desired goal of becoming a major international player in computers. Smugglers prospered as they found ways to get around the trade barriers. The local players that benefited from a closed market were so inefficient that many vanished as soon as the winds of globalisation swept in the 1990s. That country is not India, but Brazil. Read the full article here.