The ʻAlalā and Hope for India’s Technological Advancement
There’s a new inhabitant in the Kīpahulu Forest Reserve as of this week: the ʻalalā, or as it’s more commonly known, the Hawaiian crow.
As part of the Government of Hawaii’s ʻAlalā Project, the species which has been extinct in the wild since 2002, has undergone two reintroduction initiatives in the 1990s and the 2010s, both to no avail.
This week’s reintroduction however has cause for optimism among local conservationists as the ʻalalā have been introduced into a new island environment: Maui.
While not the ʻalalā’s native range, the key feature of Maui that led to its selection as a reintroduction habitat was the absence of the ʻio, the Hawaiian hawk, and most importantly for this initiative, the ʻalalā’s natural predator. The predatory threat of the ‘io exacerbates long persistent challenges faced by the ʻalalā including habitat loss and disease.
The semi-isolated habitat and vegetation of Maui also lends itself to be a promising region for the five ʻalalā selected to be a part of this reintroduction initiative (who were thoughtfully chosen for their relative strength as foragers and response to perceived threat from predators).
“They are shouldering all of the hopes of their species,” remarked Alison Greggor, one of the ecologists who led the ʻalalā’s most recent reintroduction process.
While Takshashila researchers may not be embarking on an intrepid species reintroduction project, they may share a thought with Hawaiian conservationists: perhaps it’s time tackle a persistent problem using a new approach. In the case of our researchers however, its private sector engagement in research and development initiatives that they’ve applied this thinking to.
With the recent news of Apple Inc. establishing a wholly-owned subsidiary for research and development in India, Takshashila Deputy Director, Pranay Kotasthane and Assistant Professor, Sarthak Pradhan pen an Op-Ed in the Deccan Herald arguing for why the time is ripe for more private sector engagement in research and development.
In particular, they draw attention to a range of struggles faced by Indian firms when attempting to foster innovation, which in turn adversely affect India’s technological power. They note that “India’s in-house industry R&D contributes a mere 36.4 per cent to the gross expenditure on R&D, compared to 77 per cent in China and 75 per cent in the US”, while also highlighting the struggle firms face when raising resources and retaining talent, not to mention tariff and non-tariff barriers among others.
But all hope is not lost, dear reader. Follow this link to take a closer look at their insightful arguments including their three proposed leverage points (spoiler alert: corporations, universities, and R&D systems) that can help breathe new life into R&D initiatives in the country.
Takshashila Thinkers Featured in ThePrint Intellectuals List (2024)
We’re chuffed that two familiar Takshashila names have featured in the 2024 ThePrint Intellectuals List!
The List names both Takshashila Director, Nitin Pai and Deputy Director, Pranay Kotasthane as one of India’s economic thinkers of the next decade.
Further, Pranay has been named as one of India’s political thought leaders and geostrategic affairs thinkers for the next decade.
Join us in congratulating them for these noteworthy recognitions! (Only fitting that it coincides with the 1500th edition of the Dispatch.)
India’s Part to Play in Synthetic Biology
“It seems likely that what cyber-security software and AI are to this age, synthetic biology will be to the next one”, asserts Takshashila Co-Founder, Narayan Ramachandran, who casts a light on the future of synthetic biology (SynBio) in his recent column in The Mint.
He argues for why India may be well poised to advance innovations in the SynBio world:
India has already made a beginning in synthetic biology. To mix metaphors, the intersection of software and biology is a natural sweet spot for our scientific DNA. While the capital expenditure for research in this field is much greater than that for pure software, it is much less than what is required for the manufacture of semiconductors.
To this we can add India’s ability to innovate and create applications in a frugal manner. This sets up the possibility that India’s scientists can synthetically create cheap biological substitutes for drug development, alternative energy sources and food.
Get a more fulsome look at his salient arguments by following this link.
Realising the Full Potential of the ECTA
Could regulatory complexity and bureaucratic barriers be preventing the full potential of the India-Australia Economic Cooperation and Trade Agreement (ECTA) from being realised?
If you’re posing the question to Takshashila’s Geoeconomics Research Associate, Anisree Suresh, her answer would be an unequivocal yes. And for good measure she would draw attention to India’s “historical underutilisation of its free trade agreements and high import tariffs”.
In her recent discussion document outlining the learnings and prospects of the ECTA, Anisree, argues:
Stronger and clearer investment rules are needed to attract export-oriented investments, particularly in critical sectors like technology and minerals. Addressing non-tariff barriers—such as technical trade regulations and rules of origin—should be prioritised. While the ECTA represents a significant step forward in India-Australia trade relations, the future success of such agreements will hinge on addressing the regulatory, procedural, and market access barriers identified in this document.
For a more comprehensive view of her arguments, follow this link.
Three PLA Reforms, One Explainer
For those who may be on the lookout for a thoughtfully written and thoroughly researched explainer on the rationale behind the three political reforms of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA), I’m here to herald the good news: your search is over.
As part of the Pune International Centre’s 2024 Research Fellowship, Takshashila Indo-Pacific Studies Programme Staff Research Analyst, Anushka Saxena, has developed an explainer on the organisational, educational and corruption-related PLA reforms which have been described as some of the most “sweeping” under President Xi Jinping’s leadership.
Read her detailed overview and analysis at this link.
Takshashila Tabletop Trove!
Welcome to the Tabletop Trove of Dispatch! As you may well know, this section is intended to be a virtual repository of the books that sit in Takshashila’s physical office space in Bengaluru, Karnataka.
This week’s theme is ‘Cutting-Edge Cults’ as curated by our Staff Research Analyst, Anushka Saxena:
Invisible Women: Exposing the Gender Bias Women Face Every Day (Caroline Criado Perez)
Merchants of Doubt: How a Handful of Scientists Obscured the Truth on Issues from Tobacco Smoke to Global Warming (Naomi Oreskes & Erik M. Conway)
The Community of Advantage: A Behavioural Economist's Defence of the Market (Robert Sugden)
Of Grammatology (Jacques Derrida)
Navies and Foreign Policy (Ken Booth)
This edition of the Dispatch was written by Kripa Koshy, Programme Manager for Takshashila’s Post Graduate Programme in Public Policy.