What should we do about the Taliban?
Plus our brand new global outlook survey, Apple's controversial child safety features and India's domestic 5G standard
Dear Reader,
I hope you are doing well. Over the past week, our work spanned analysing the rapidly evolving situation in Afghanistan, the launch of a brand new digital property and research project, and several excellent podcasts and articles. Here are a few of them:
India’s Global Outlook Survey
The first-ever Takshashila India’s Global Outlook Survey is now live. The survey aims to bridge the knowledge gap around how Indian policymakers, the strategic affairs community and ordinary citizens view the world and India’s role in it.
At Takshashila, we believe that as India rises, it will increasingly play a role in shaping world events. At the same time, events around the globe will impact Indian policy decisions. The future, therefore, will be marked by tricky trade-offs and tough choices.
The survey consists of 26 questions covering domains like India’s bilateral and multilateral engagements, national security concerns, economic diplomacy and attitudes towards the use of force. Register your views now.
iCloud, privacy and law enforcement
Apple recently released a feature that will enable it to scan photos stored in iCloud to detect child abuse imagery. The move has sparked off a debate regarding privacy and about what ownership of devices means. In episode 637 of All Things Policy, Rohan Seth talks to Prateek Waghre to discuss implications.
What to do about the Taliban
In his fortnightly column in the Mint, Nitin Pai writes about how the pervasive international media criticism of the US in the aftermath of the political crisis in Afghanistan does not serve the interests of the Afghan people. Instead, he argues:
In the foreseeable future, the most effective way to influence the Taliban is to negotiate with its sponsors. This means Pakistan, Russia, Turkey and above all, China.
The role of China must be especially scrutinised, since
By supporting the Taliban, it has thrown the Afghan people to the wolves. Making Beijing’s hand explicit is the first step in ensuring that the emerging world power takes ownership of a challenge in its immediate neighbourhood.
Thus, when the UNSC meets to discuss the situation in Afghanistan, the international community, including India, must make the countries mentioned above accountable.
India’s own 5G standard
Arjun Gargeyas, Research Analyst with Takshashila’s High-Tech Geopolitics programme, wrote an article about 5Gi, India’s domestic 5G standard. Using a unique feature called Low Mobility Large Cell (LMLC), which significantly enhances the signal transmission range of a base station for a service provider, 5Gi, attempts to address a crucial challenge to technology accessibility in India.
However, the industry’s reception of 5Gi has been lukewarm at best. Arjun writes:
There have also been grumblings and differences of opinion among the Indian telecom companies regarding the local 5Gi standards. Giants like Airtel and Vodafone-Idea are still against the usage of the local standards, while Jio, which was earlier backing 5Gi, is now pushing it to be considered optional only.
Why you should take our Tech & Policy programme
Our GCPP Tech & Policy cohort has just come to a close. In the past 3 months, we have talked about current issues related to technology policy, combining economic reasoning and ethics in order to evaluate the impact of technology on society.
Our students have regularly been appearing on different platforms to share their expertise. Megha Guruprasad was on All Things Policy, Takshashila’s daily podcast, to talk about the role of IP rights in vaccine procurement.
Priyam Nayak wrote for Logically.ai, exploring the intersection between Amazon’s hit series ‘Family Man’ and tech dystopia. Vivek Arte started a newsletter focusing on technology, the environment, and public health. Recent editions have looked at the Pegasus story and rainwater harvesting in Mumbai.
If you would like to learn more about thinking and writing about tech policy, please do consider signing up for Takshashila’s GCPP (Tech & Policy). The next cohort starts on 4 September; applications are now open!
A conversation with Dr Madhav Godbole
Our #BookLounge conversation with Dr Madhav Godbole on his new book, India: A Federal Union of States, occurred last Friday. You can find highlights of the event in the following thread of tweets:
You can also watch the event on our YouTube channel.
What we have been reading
The last book we recommended was The Alignment Problem by Brian Christian. I hope you have been enjoying reading it. This week’s book, recommended by Arjun Gargeyas, is The Third Pillar by Dr Raghuram Rajan. Arjun says:
Raghuram Rajan, in his latest book covers, what he thinks are the three pillars of modern society, i.e. the markets, the state and the community, and how it is imperative to find a balance between the three.
Rajan delves into the history of the interaction of the three pillars, and how monarchic states, modern-day governments and capitalist markets gradually emerged from the single pillar of community. He argues that with the collapse of the USSR and the rise of globalisation, community has been left completely at the mercy of markets and the state. He finally lays down solutions geared towards the creation of community-based governance methods in liberal democracies.
Go read!
That’s it from us this week. Take care and stay safe.
Regards,
Atish Padhy,
Assistant Manager, Digital Properties,
Takshashila Institution