Come Forth, Cyrano(s)! A Tale of India and the United States...
In 1897 Paris, French dramatist Edmond Rostand saw his play, Cyrano de Bergerac, performed before an almost immediately adoring audience. The titular protagonist of the now beloved play is described as a young cadet in the French Army and “a fellow well skilled in all tricks of fence.”
However, for all the confidence and prowess his occupation bestowed upon him, Cyrano was painfully self-conscious of what he deemed his one most fatal flaw: his nose. And this ostensible hurdle prevents our hero from declaring his love for a fair maiden, Roxane.
His predicament is further complicated when he discovers that she is enamoured with another: Christian de Neuvillette, who confesses to be too intimidated by the prospect of courting Roxane:
I, who am so poor of wit, how dare I speak to her—how address her?
This language that they speak to-day—ay, and write—confounds me;
I am but an honest soldier, and timid withal.
And so begins our protagonist’s first duplicitous act: Cyrano offers to write love letters to Roxane, while pretending to be Christian. However (spoiler alert) after a painstaking and tragic plot, our heroine eventually discovers the true author of the letters in Act V of the play.
Like these star-crossed lovers, we at Takshashila have worked with partners at the Hudson Institute to find a near perfect bilateral match: India and the United States.
But it’s in everyone’s best interest that no domestic politics (a proverbial ‘nose’ if you will) gets in the way of this collaboration.
In their recent Op-Ed in ThePrint, Takshashila Assistant Professor Sarthak Pradhan and Aparna Pande (director of the Initiative on the Future of India and South Asia at the Hudson Institute) write:
To face the China challenge, the US and partners, like India, need to further deepen their people-to-people ties and economic partnerships. India has a huge human capital dividend, especially in fields of high technology, that is critical to US research institutions and businesses.
However, for this to happen, both countries need to ensure that the demands of domestic politics, especially populism and protectionism, do not come in the way of national interests.
Both astutely argue for the potential that a stronger India-US bilateral relationship holds, particularly noting the “remarkable complementarity” between both countries in many fields.
To read their key recommendations (hint: no covert letters involved), particularly how each country can leverage its respective comparative advantage, follow this link.
A Remedy to the Nation’s Social Capital Deficit…
In his latest column in The Mint, Takshashila Director, Nitin Pai, draws attention to the faultlines that are responsible for the social capital deficit in our nation:
The fundamental reason for India’s social capital deficit is the caste system—specifically, the segregation of people, over the past 70 generations or so, into a large number of communities (jatis) that do not inter-marry or inter-dine and tend to monopolize specific economic activities.
This means, as genomic historian David Reich puts it, that “India is an extremely large number of small populations." There is a high level of trust within communities, but very little across. Since jatis have been around for a long time and have regained salience in social life, I never tire of recalling B.R. Ambedkar’s warning that a society divided into castes cannot genuinely be a nation.
Take a closer look at his incisive commentary by following this link.
‘Tis the Season for No Red Tape: Semiconductor Edition
Does the administrative state kill the incentive to innovate?
If their recent Op-Ed in Outlook Business is any indication, Takshashila Deputy Director and Chair of the High-Tech Geopolitics Programme, Pranay Kotasthane’s and embedded systems specialist, Shree Kumar’s answer is an unequivocal yes.
Click here to read their analysis on the recent debacle around the Chip Import Monitoring System which managed to become administrative quicksand for large importers, SMEs and start-ups and worst of all, innovators .
Anupam on Price Controls: Need We Say More?
If there’s one thing you, dear reader, must know about Takshashila Professor of Economics, Anupam Manur, it’s that he has views on price controls.
I can already see the knowing smile that’s crept up on the faces of those who are familiar with Anupam’s extensive commentary (dare I say, rants?) on the subject.
But could he be onto something here? I’ll leave you to come to your own conclusion after listening to his latest entreaty as a guest on the Deepak Disagrees podcast.
Listen here.
A Handy Guide to Achieving IndiaAI Mission…
What would be the result of: (1) promoting open-source initiatives, (2) adopting funding mechanisms to assess value creation and innovation in the market, and (3) funding research to understand AI risks? A robust AI ecosystem in India, dear reader.
Given the budget allocation of Rs 10,372 crore across the seven pillars of the IndiaAI Mission, Takshashila High-Tech Geopolitics Programme Fellow, Rijesh Panicker and Associate Fellow, Bharath Reddy are examining the objectives of the Mission and propose some evidence-based ways to achieve them.
For a more fulsome view of their arguments (including why we may have to look to the UK, US and the EU for inspiration) follow this link.
What’s So Critical About Critical Minerals?
This week’s ATP of the week is incidentally also a video feature, starring none other than our intrepid Indo-Pacific Studies Staff Research Analyst, Anushka Saxena and Research Analyst, Rakshith Shetty discussing why critical mineral security matters and India’s stance on this, dare I say, critical issue.
In this conversation, the two examine India’s mineral dependence on China, particularly in light of the recent news of China placing export restrictions on certain critical minerals in response to the U.S. Department of Commerce’s addition of certain Chinese entities to the ‘Entity List’.
Watch their full conversation, including proposed recommendations around the value of recycling, and India's KABIL joint venture, by following this link.
Takshashila Tabletop Trove!
Welcome to the Tabletop Trove of Dispatch! As regular readers may well know, this section is intended to be a virtual repository of the books that sit at a high-table located in Takshashila’s physical office space in Bengaluru, Karnataka.
This week’s theme is “Heavy Lies the Head that Wears the Crown” as curated by our Indo-Pacific Studies Staff Research Analyst, Anushka Saxena:
Command: The Politics of Military Operations from Korea to Ukraine (Lawrence Freedman)
Napolepon: A Life (Adam Zamoyski)
The Maverick Maharaja (Deepti Navaratna)
The Tartan Turban: In Search of Alexander Gardner (John Keay)
This edition of the Dispatch was written by Kripa Koshy, Programme Manager for Takshashila’s Post Graduate Programme in Public Policy.