10 Years Of The Graduate Certificate In Public Policy
Dear Reader,
We hope you and your loved ones are safe. In this edition, we mark the tenth anniversary of our Graduate Certificate of Public Policy programme, examine the importance of outer space as a geopolitical entity, and make the case for a Quad cooperation in Biotechnology.
10 Years Of The Graduate Certificate In Public Policy
The new cohort of our public policy courses began on Saturday, 15 January. We welcomed over 350 students across our 48-week Post-Graduate Programme (PGP) and the 12-week Graduate Certificate in Public Policy (GCPP).
That weekend also marked ten years of the GCPP. In these ten years, we have introduced specialisations in Advanced Public Policy, Defence & Foreign Affairs, Technology & Policy, and Health & Life Sciences to the GCPP and created the more rigorous Post-Graduate Programme in Public Policy. We have helped over 3000 people discover and hone their passion for public policy in the process.
We at Takshashila believe that transforming India's constitutional values and transforming the country is a marathon. A marathon that might be arduous but one that we continue to run, steadily, through our public policy programmes and research work. Thank you for being part of our network, spreading the word about us, and believing in the power of good ideas.
Quad Co-operation In Biotechnology
The Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (Quad), between the United States, India, Japan, and Australia, was envisioned as an informal grouping of four states with common interests in the Indo-Pacific. In 2021, the Quad officially announced the establishment of over 10 working groups to bolster collaboration in multiple sectors, including biotechnology and allied applications.
Our new intelligence estimate by Arjun Gargeyas, Ruturaj Gowaikar and Shambhavi Naik explores various technologies in the life sciences domain that the Quad countries enjoy comparative advantages in. It identifies the following areas with potential for cooperation:
A) Pandemic Research Hub
B) Sustainable Agriculture and Animal Husbandry
C) Vaccines
D) Gene Editing
E) Synthetic Biology
F) Computational Biology
Finally, the document examines the benefits of existing technologies in life sciences and provides an overall perspective of biotechnology’s potential to be one of Quad’s driving forces in the coming years.
Fighting Digital Hate
The recent controversy around the deplorable Bulli Bai and Sulli Deals apps has prompted important conversations around the infestation of hate and Islamophobia on social media platforms. In this context, Takshashila’s Prateek Waghre and Tattle Civic Tech’s Tarumina Prabhakar explore the reasons behind polarisation and radicalisation on social media in an article in the Indian Express. They also critique the way polarisation is analysed and talked about:
Our focus tends to be on those who command the largest audiences, have the loudest voices or say the most egregious things. While important, ignoring or downplaying the role of everyone else, or envisioning them as passive, malleable audiences risks overlooking the participatory nature of our current predicament. Big and small polluters feed off each other’s actions and content across social media, traditional media as well as physical spaces. The distinctions between “online” and “offline” effects or harms are often neither neatly categorisable nor easily distinguishable, “online” harassment is harassment.
Actors as varied as bored students, local political aspirants, content creators/influencers, national-level politicians, or someone trying to gain clout, etc. engage throughout the information ecosystem. Their underlying motivations can range from the banal (FOMO, seeking entertainment, fame) to the sinister (organised, systematic and collaborative dissemination of propaganda, hate) to the performative (virtue signalling, projection of power, capability, expertise), and so on. The interactions of these disparate sets of actors and motivations result in a complex and unpredictable system, composed of multiple intersecting self-reinforcing and self-diminishing cycles, where untested interventions can have unanticipated and unintended consequences.
The authors then discuss possible ways to address radicalisation and hate speech, going beyond the popular argument of pressuring tech platforms to intervene through content moderation. To find out more, read the full article via the button below.
Space Is Becoming An Arena Of Geopolitical Contention. Are We Ready?
The global space industry alone was worth $423.8 billion in 2019. The ability to use space for commercial, military, and scientific purposes has become a vital determinant of national power. Therefore, it is crucial to understand space as a geopolitical environment.
This new video by Prasanna Naidu and Aditya Pareek will help you do just that. Watch it now!
Importance Of Digital Equity For True Progress
The internet has become more ubiquitous than ever before. The National Digital Inclusion Alliance defines digital equity as “a condition in which all individuals and communities have the information technology capacity needed for full participation in our society, democracy, and economy.”
On the January 24th episode of All Things Policy, Sridhar Krishna and Aarushi Kataria spoke to Raghav Rao, Digital Innovation Fellow at The Cleveland Foundation, on the role of digital – whether it is an enabler or a divider.
Note: The views expressed here are Raghav’s personal views and not that of the Cleveland Foundation.
Listen now:
What Does It Mean To Be A Republic?
On the occasion of India’s 73rd Republic Day, we published a video that explains what it means to be a Republic.
The video was scripted by Khyati Pathak, an alumna of our Graduate Certificate in Public Policy programme, and produced by Prasanna Naidu.
Watch now!
What We Have Been Reading
This week’s book is Chinese Spies: From Chairman Mao to Xi Jinping by Roger Faligot. Recommending it, Megha Pardhi says:
The world of secret services has been a source of fascination for many. The stories of super spies from the CIA, KGB, MI6, Mossad, and R&AW have fuelled the imaginations of writers and movie producers around the world.
However, we don't hear or read stories of Chinese spies like the others. Chinese Spies: From Chairman Mao to Xi Jinping by Roger Faligot seeks to bridge this gap by unravelling the history of CCP espionage. Opening with the Battle of Shanghai in the 1920s, the book chronicles stories of the Party’s intelligence operations during the Cultural Revolution, the Tiananmen protests, overseas operations during the Jiang Zemin era, the 2008 Beijing Olympics, and other important leading events up to Xi Jinping's reign.
The book also covers cyber espionage operations and the birth of the People's Liberation Army's Strategic Support Force (PLASSF). Faligot is a French investigative journalist who has written more than 30 books, many of them on spycraft. His rich experience in investigative journalism is reflected in the details covered in the book. Originally written in French as 'Les services secrets Chinois', this book was translated into English by Natasha Lehrer.
That’s it from us this week. Stay safe, and have a wonderful week ahead.