India’s Semiconductor Ecosystem
Plus leveraging the platform economy for more jobs; how the world must deal with the Taliban; and Takshashila's thriving community of new researchers
Dear Reader,
I hope you are doing well. Here is some of the exciting work we have done since I last wrote to you.
India’s Semiconductor Ecosystem
In a brand new research publication, alums of our Graduate Certificate in Public Policy programme, Samparna Tripathy and Amol Sarin, along with Takshashila’s deputy director, Pranay Kotasthane, and industry expert Anup Rajput provide a SWOT analysis of India’s semiconductor industry.
The authors recommend that India should strive to create a world-class fabless ecosystem by facilitating domestic design IP creation. The Assembly, Testing, Marking & Packaging (ATMP) market is gradually becoming R&D intensive and the demand for product conceptualisation skills is increasing. India will have to align its skilling policies in alignment with the industry. Further, they suggest that India should look outward and leverage groupings like the Quad to pool in resources, jointly invest, and conduct trade to obtain critical access to materials, technological know-how, and markets for semiconductors.
A ‘Platform’ for More Jobs
The platform economy is restructuring jobs in the 21st century. In episode 634 of All Things Policy, Sreelakshmi Ramachandran talks to Sarthak Pradhan about how India can leverage the platform economy to create jobs.
Sreelakshmi Ramachandran is a Research Manager and leads the Future of Work track at Ola Mobility Institute. She has a Master’s in Development Studies from IIT Madras. She has recently co-authored a paper “Unlocking jobs in the platform economy.”
Dealing with the Taliban
As the situation in Afghanistan continues to worsen with the Taliban increasingly gaining ground, Lt. Gen. Prakash Menon, in his weekly column in ThePrint, argues that the negotiated peace settlements with the Taliban must stop. He writes:
It should be obvious that any attempt at brokering an agreement in the name of reducing violence and achieving stability provides Taliban with the diplomatic space to make its entry into Kabul. The Ghani government is not in a position to refuse negotiations, but it would be surprising if any agreement on power-sharing is reached. The negotiations would also provide time for the Taliban to prepare its offensive.
The international community, Gen. Menon asserts, must stop sitting on the fence and call out the Taliban for what it really is: a terrorist organisation. Additionally, it is in India’s interest that the Taliban does not get hold of the reins of power, since:
From an Indian perspective, the control of Afghanistan by the Taliban could provide a base for religious extremism that could coalesce with similar forces and threaten security and block India’s access to Central Asia. Fuelling the flame of discontent in Kashmir is likely. India’s concerns of Afghanistan acting as a safe haven converges with that of most countries, except Pakistan. India’s interests are best served by providing maximum support to the Ghani government in whatever form feasible. There should be no Indian boots on the ground. A policy and process for civilian activities should be evolved.
We are creating a community of new researchers
Over the last month, two of our research outputs, Governance of Digital Communication Networks I: Categorisation of Harms and India’s Semiconductor Ecosystem: A SWOT Analysis have been collaborative efforts between our researchers and the alumni of our public policy programmes. Similarly, we have a dedicated section on our Takshashila school website for articles by our students.
The Graduate Certificate in Public Policy, in addition to introducing folks to important frameworks, resources and specific subject domains, develops in them an inclination and habit of creating knowledge, through writing, podcasts, etc. As a result, many of our alumni continue to write regularly for news publications or maintain a regular blog/newsletter of their own. One of them has gone on to develop Public Policy India, a knowledge platform that boasts of insightful analysis on various issues.
Thus, our pedagogy not only gives you the freedom to get a comprehensive introduction to the policy space, while keeping your day job, but also empowers you to venture into a career in the field to whatever extent you are comfortable with.
You too can be a part of the marathon that we at Takshashila are running to transform India, and create, in the process, exciting new research, writing and multimedia content to bridge the knowledge gap that exists in various policy domains. Our Graduate Certificate in Public Policy course is offered over 12 weeks. Applications for the September 2021 cohort of our policy courses are open till August 28th.
Visit the Takshashila School website to find more details about the programmes and submit your application. And please spread the word to people that you think would be interested in studying public policy with us.
What we have been reading
The last book we recommended was The Gene: An Intimate History by Dr. Siddhartha Mukherjee. I hope you have been enjoying reading it. This week’s book, recommended by me, Atish Padhy, is The Alignment Problem by Brian Christian.
As science fiction writer, Arthur C. Clarke put it, “any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic”. For the longest time, AI was synonymous with magic for me, as it is for countless others. The use of machine learning systems today is becoming increasingly more pervasive across domains, even as many within those domains do not quite understand how the systems work, and how their predictions and results must be interpreted. In simple, clear prose and with no more jargon than necessary, Brian Christian traces the various ways in which human biases can be encoded in these systems that go on to amplify them, and identifies the challenges in aligning the goals of machine learning systems with humanity’s best interests. In doing so, Christian reminds us that the veneer of objectivity and rationality that the use of AI seemingly brings to complex fields prone to human errors, such as criminal justice, can be dangerously misleading. Go read!
That’s it from us this week. Take care and stay safe.
Regards,
Atish Padhy,
Assistant Manager, Digital Properties,
Takshashila Institution
PS: Our #BookLounge conversation with Dr. Madhav Godbole on his new book, India: A Federal Union of States, is scheduled to occur this Friday, 13th of August at 6 PM IST. To attend you can register at https://bit.ly/BookLounge12 or join us on YouTube via the following link (don’t forget to set a reminder):
I look forward to seeing you there!