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Last week saw a flurry of technopolitical developments as the US and India announced a slew of technology and defense deals. In case you missed it, we had a special post dissecting the preliminary details of India’s accession to the Artemis Accords. Check it out here! Also tune in to this podcast episode of All Things Policy, where Pranay Kotasthane, Aditya Ramanathan, Bharath Reddy, and Saurabh Todi from the High-Tech Geopolitics team discuss the announcements in the India-US joint statement in the field of Semiconductors, Advanced Telecommunications, and Space. Matsyanyaaya 1: Concerns Surrounding TikTok and the Future of ‘Project Texas’ — Anushka Saxena On June 16, the CEO of the controversial Chinese media platform TikTok, Shou Zi Chew, sent a letter to US Congress Senators Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), responding to their questions about the company surrounding the storage of data of American users on the platform. In his testimony to a House Committee of the US Congress, Shou had previously stated that "American data has always been stored in Virginia and Singapore." But now, a Forbes investigation from late May has revealed that this may not entirely be true. This investigation prompted said Senators to seek answers from TikTok, and Shou's letter has confirmed said suspicions. What did Forbes' investigation say? On May 30, Forbes published a report arguing that "over the past several years, thousands of TikTok creators and businesses around the world have given the company sensitive financial information—including their social security numbers and tax IDs—so that they can be paid by the platform. But unbeknownst to many of them, TikTok has stored that personal financial information on servers in China that are accessible by employees there, Forbes has learned." Further, their report argued: "TikTok uses various internal tools and databases from its Beijing-based parent ByteDance to manage payments to creators who earn money through the app, including many of its biggest stars in the United States and Europe. The same tools are used to pay outside vendors and small businesses working with TikTok. But a trove of records obtained by Forbes from multiple sources across different parts of the company reveals that highly sensitive financial and personal information about those prized users and third parties has been stored in China. The discovery also raises questions about whether employees who are not authorized to access that data have been able to. It draws on internal communications, audio recordings, videos, screenshots, documents marked "Privileged and Confidential," and several people familiar with the matter." …And what has Shou said in his letter to Blackburn and Blumenthal? The point of the letter is to confirm that over the past year, TikTok has collaborated closely with Oracle to implement various measures to enhance the protection of the application, systems, and the security of data belonging to its users in the United States.  They also announced that in January 2023, they had achieved a significant milestone in this endeavour – the default storage location for US user data has been changed. All US user traffic is currently being directed to Oracle Cloud Infrastructure. While TikTok's data centres in the US and Singapore are still utilized for backup purposes, the company's ongoing efforts involve removing US users' private data from our data centres. Their objective is to fully transition to Oracle cloud servers in the United States, for which, as of March 2023, they have also started deleting previously stored data from foreign servers. But the controversy has arisen from the second main iteration of the letter, which reads: "TikTok has been clear that there are certain, limited exceptions to the definition of protected data. These exceptions are in place to help ensure interoperability of TikTok as a global platform and were determined as part of TikT

Matsyanyaaya: Insights from recent OEWG discussions on Information and Communications Technologies — Anushka Saxena The militarisation of cyberspace is a reality. And to enable states to discuss and adopt common rules for global governance of cyberspace, on 31 December 2020, the United Nations General Assembly adopted resolution 75/240  establishing an Open-ended Working Group (OEWG) on the security of and in the use of Information and Communications Technologies. The mandate for the Group extends from 2021 to 2025. The Group recently concluded its informal, inter-sessional meetings on 26 May, and deliberations put forth by various states give us some insights into the kind of talking points we could look out for during the fifth Substantive Session of the Group, scheduled for July 2023. To summarise, various stakeholders, ranging from governments and representatives of UN bodies to scholars from think tanks and technology corporations, submitted ideas about what the 2023 Annual Progress Report (APR) should entail. All of their ideas either build on or expand what has already been discussed in the previous substantive and informal sessions in 2023 or the 2022 APR. Some interesting ideas are as follows: * Iran submitted a Working Paper on establishing a provisional directory of 'Points of Contact' (PoCs) on ICT and cybersecurity. ●     The first proposal to develop such a global directory was tabled in the UN Governmental Group of Experts Reports of 2013 (A/68/98). Now, every GGE and OEWG discussion notes progress on the directory. ●     The aim of this directory shall be for states to appoint field experts in technical or diplomatic positions (or both), which would be a part of a global PoC network debating everything from responsible state behaviour in cyberspace and the applicability of international law to defining threats to ICT. ●     As we know, the current Indian government has quite a knack for portals, and to formalise the creation of a PoCs global directory, India, too, has proposed the creation of a Global Cyber Security Cooperation Portal. The proposal, submitted by India's Permanent Representative in New York in July 2022, states that such a Portal shall be voluntarily updated by states and maintained by the UN Office for Disarmament Affairs. * The UNOCT/UNCCT and the UN Counter-Terrorism Committee Executive Directorate presented proposals for 'capacity building'. The proposal by the former was basically about glorifying the successes of its Global CounterTerrorism Programme on Cybersecurity and New Technologies. But the latter proposal, presented by the UNCTED, emphatically highlights the challenge of malicious online activity by rogue non-state actors and how existing counter-terrorism infrastructure can be leveraged to deal with it. ●     The important recommendation is to develop comprehensive training programmes for law enforcement personnel and criminal justice practitioners working with digital evidence. The mention of the latter may be an important signal of more private sector participation in navigating the legalities of what constitutes 'terrorism' in cyberspace. * Submissions from the private sector mainly highlighted which governmental proposals are the most crucial for focus on in the next substantive session and how they can be expanded or narrowed down: ●     Stimson Center's submission iterated that the two major emerging technologies states should agree on are common threats to ICT Security are ransomware and Artificial Intelligence. ●     It should be noted that both El Salvador and Czechia had made statements during the last substantive session in March on the need for developing standards on 'responsible state behaviour' in new and emerging tech like AI and Quantum. But these efforts would be futile until states can first agree on what harmful use of AI/ Quantum is, given the dual nature of such technologies, and then move on to standard-setting. ● 

Biopolitik: The Power of Four: Biomanufacturing and the Quad — Saurabh Todi A biological revolution is underway in global manufacturing. Products produced from genetic engineering and biomanufacturing techniques are replacing many chemical, industrial and farm-based products. According to a 2020 McKinsey report, the substitution of chemical products with biological alternatives through modern biotechnology has the potential to produce up to 60 per cent of the physical inputs required by the global economy. Similar modern biotechnology efforts are underway for milk, meat, pharmaceuticals, oils and numerous other industries. Individually, these industries are worth many billions or trillions of dollars. Combined, they make biotechnology one of the most economically lucrative emerging technologies. However, beyond the obvious economic value, there is significant strategic and social value in modern biotechnologies. The products produced by modern biotechnology are or will be essential for producing food, energy, and health management. Those that control the IP and supply chains will potentially control key determinants of society’s technological progress. There are also numerous potential military applications for biotechnology that range from food security to new, lightweight polymers to understanding the potential of highly effective biological weapons (which are banned under international law). Given the immense economic and strategic importance of these technologies, it is vital that countries do not place themselves in a vulnerable position. The Quad has sought to address this potential vulnerability by establishing a Critical and Emerging Technology Working Group that will monitor trends in critical and emerging technologies, such as synthetic biology, genome sequencing, and biomanufacturing, and also identify opportunities for cooperation within Quad. China plans to establish its dominance in biomanufacturing as well. In a Chinese government document on building the bioeconomy, a central theme was biomanufacturing at scale, including plastics, oils and agri-food technology. The ASPI critical technology tracker shows that academics in China publish more of the top 10% of most-cited academic papers for biomanufacturing than in any other country. Given China’s track record in establishing a lead in several emerging technologies, There’s good reason to believe China will build its biomanufacturing base faster than its competitors. To capitalise on the economic potential of the biomanufacturing industry and address potential supply chain vulnerabilities, we recommended that Quad countries establish a biomanufacturing hub in India. The proposed Quad-led hub would invest in three main areas: strengthening physical infrastructure, bolstering workforce capabilities, and identifying opportunities for collaboration. Researchers at the Takshashila Institution, Saurabh Todi and Shambhavi Naik, along with researchers at Australian National University, Dirk van der Kley and Daniel Pavlich, have explored this idea in detail in a recently published as a Discussion Document. The recommendation was published as op-eds in publications like ASPI Strategist. Matsyanyaaya: Preparing for the quantum leap — Rijesh Panicker The National Mission for Quantum Technologies and Applications (NM-QTA) seeks to strengthen India’s research and development ecosystem in various quantum technologies like quantum communications, quantum computing, quantum sensing and quantum materials. It will also look to build 50-100 qubit quantum computers within the next 5-8 years. With an outlay of ₹6,000 crores over the next eight years, NM-QTA represents a significant step forward from the Quantum Enabled Science and Technology (QueST) research program, funded by the Department of Science and Technology (DST) for ₹80 crore. India has also sought international collaboration in this area. Among these is a partnership between the National Science Foundati

Cyberpolitik: AI and Crime Prevention: Is it a force multiplier? — Satya Sahu Crime prevention is based on the idea that crime can be reduced or eliminated by modifying the factors that influence its occurrence or consequences. We can classify “prevention” into three main types: primary, secondary, and tertiary. Primary prevention addresses the root causes of crime or deters potential offenders before they commit a crime. Secondary prevention aims to intervene with at-risk groups or individuals to prevent them from becoming involved in crime. Finally, tertiary prevention efforts seek to rehabilitate or punish offenders to prevent them from reoffending. (This, however, is beyond the scope of today’s discussion.) Flipping the coin, we notice that policing is based on the idea that law enforcement and public order can be maintained by enforcing the law and responding to crimes or incidents. Policing also lends itself to being classified into two main types: reactive and proactive. Reactive policing responds to reported crimes or incidents after they occur. Proactive policing anticipates or prevents crimes or incidents before they occur. On the face of it, AI can help us prevent and fight crime by enhancing both types of crime prevention and policing. AI can digest and analyse petabytes of data from disparate sources, such as social media, CCTV footage, sensors used in our Smart Cities™, and boring old digitised government records, to identify patterns, trends, and anomalies that can indicate potential criminal activity. For example, the police in Vancouver use predictive models to identify areas where robberies are expected to occur and then post officers to deter potential thieves or other criminals. Similarly, the police in Los Angeles use a system called PredPol that generates maps of hotspots where crimes are likely to happen based on past data. These systems can help the police allocate their resources more efficiently and effectively and reduce crime rates and response times. When it comes to collecting and processing evidence, such as fingerprints, DNA, facial recognition, voice recognition, and digital forensics etc., we can look at the UK Home Office’s VALCRI, which uses AI to analyse large volumes of data from different sources, such as crime reports, witness statements, CCTV footage, and social media posts, to generate hypotheses and leads for investigators. For example, the police in India used ML-backed facial recognition technology to reunite thousands of missing children with their families. Moreover, AI can help the police in presenting evidence and arguments in court, such as using natural language processing to generate concise summaries or transcripts of testimonies or documents. It could augment efforts to monitor and evaluate police performance and conduct, such as using dashcams, bodycams, or drones to record their interactions with the public and/or suspects. For example, the police in New Orleans developed a program called EPIC that uses AI to analyse video footage from bodycams to identify instances of misconduct or excessive force by officers. It can also help the police in engaging with the public and building trust and confidence, such as using chatbots or social media platforms to communicate with citizens and provide critical information services, hopefully unlike the chatbot from my bank’s beleaguered website. However, all this has enormous implications for the jurisprudential underpinnings of crime prevention and policing. One such significance arises when AI itself can change the nature and scope of crime and criminality. AI can enable new forms of crime that exploit its capabilities and vulnerabilities, such as cyberattacks, biometric spoofing, deepfakes, autonomous weapons, or social engineering. Unlike their current-crime counterparts, leveraging AI allows these future crimes to be more sophisticated, scalable and anonymous than conventional ones. Therefore, the legal and ethi

Cyberpolitik: The Gell-mann “AI”mnesiac Effect — Satya Sahu Here are two screenshots of a hastily written prompt to which ChatGPT dutifully responded almost immediately. As I read the responses to my prompts, I was painfully aware of the fact that the second passage could very plausibly be attached alongside a doctored image of a scientist holding up a processor die and forwarded countless times on Whatsapp by thousands of my fellow citizens, all overjoyed at the prospect of India finally having become a semiconductor nation. These persuasively written passages contain no usual hallmarks of a shoddy copypasta-like questionable grammar and syntactical errors. The issue evident to anybody familiar with the global semiconductor value chain is that unless the reader of these passages also knows that efforts to produce an indigenous x86 processor are non-existent, they would not be able to discern the falsehood. While AI can generate realistic and useful content for entertainment, education, research, and communication, it can also produce and disseminate misinformation, propaganda, and fake news. Misinformation is false or inaccurate information that is deliberately or unintentionally spread to influence people’s beliefs, attitudes, or behaviours. Misinformation can have serious negative impacts on individuals and society, such as eroding trust, polarizing opinions, undermining democracy, and endangering public health and safety. One of the challenges of combating misinformation is that people are often vulnerable to cognitive biases that impair their ability to evaluate the credibility and accuracy of information. One such bias is the Gell-Mann Amnesia effect, coined by Michael Crichton and named after the Nobel Prize-winning physicist Murray Gell-Mann. The Gell-Mann Amnesia effect describes the phenomenon of an expert believing news articles on topics outside of their field of expertise even after acknowledging that articles written in the same publication that are within the expert’s field of expertise are error-ridden and full of misunderstanding. For example, a physicist may read an article on physics in a newspaper and find it full of errors and misconceptions but then turn the page and read an article on politics or economics and accept it as factual and reliable. The Gell-Mann Amnesia effect illustrates how people tend to forget or ignore their prior knowledge and experience when they encounter new information that is presented by a seemingly authoritative source. This effect can be exploited by AI-generated misinformation, which can mimic the style and tone of reputable media outlets and create convincing content that appeals to people’s emotions, biases, and expectations. AI-generated misinformation can also leverage social media platforms and networks to amplify its reach and influence by exploiting algorithms that favour sensationalism, novelty, and popularity over quality, accuracy, and relevance. Another challenge in combating misinformation is that large language models (LLMs), the main technology behind AI-generated content, are biased and incomplete. LLMs are trained on massive amounts of text data collected from the internet, which reflect the biases and gaps present in society and culture. LLMs learn to reproduce and amplify these biases and gaps in their outputs, which can lead to harmful and misleading content. One type of bias that LLMs can perpetuate is second-order bias, which is the bias that arises from the way data is organized, categorized, and represented. Second-order bias can affect how LLMs understand and generate information, such as classifying entities, assigning attributes, inferring relationships, and constructing narratives. These can also affect how LLMs interact with users, such as how they respond to queries, provide feedback, and adapt to preferences. Second-order bias can make misinformation more problematic at scale because it can affect not only the content but

A new discussion document authored by Shailesh Chitnis provides a pragmatic assessment of India’s capabilities in Artificial Intelligence (AI) today. It proposes one bold idea which, if properly executed, has the potential to catapult the country into a dominant position in the AI race. But why another document about AI strategy for India? The expert from the document is provided below. Most reports on AI in India follow a predictable pattern. First, they fuss over the potential of AI to alter every aspect of society and the economy. Next, they present eye-watering numbers on the impact of AI on India’s economy. Finally, there’s a mild caution against missing out on this once-in-a-generation boom. Left unsaid are the steps needed to get there. This is not such a report. It assumes that the reader is astute enough to know the transformational nature of AI. The reader also agrees that over time, this general-purpose technology will permeate every aspect of our lives. The extent of change depends on how successful we are in adopting this technology. But no one, this report hopes, needs to be convinced of the potential pay-off with AI. Instead, this short paper is focused on that space between strategy and outcome, namely execution. It deliberately takes a near-term – three to five years – view in its analysis, since the intent is to spur action. The problem: Staying behind in the AI race India is languishing at the bottom of the artificial intelligence (AI) leaderboard when compared with its G20 peers. Other than exporting our best brains, our contributions have been tiny. Even as the gap between the United States and China on one side, and everyone else on the other widens, India's policymakers, researchers, and business leaders have shown little urgency. The first AI strategy document by the government was released in 2018, a year or so after China had released its detailed, target-linked AI plan. Five years later, India is still in the strategy and consultation phase, while China has left us behind. We need to shift gears. Our research surveyed the state of AI in India and evaluated various policy options. While there are many recommendations that can be made, we prefer those that are immediate and agile. Our big idea: BharatAI AI is mainstream. And, as the preceding sections have demonstrated, India needs to catch up. Fast. Industry leaders can wait for guidance from the government on a roadmap, with defined milestones, ample funds, and coordinated action among industry, the public sector, and academia. But India is not China. Disruptive change will come from the private sector. One approach is to launch a privately funded research lab that works on foundational models for AI. We call this lab BharatAI. This company, BharatAI, has the potential to become the hub of India's AI innovation ecosystem. Our initial estimate calls is for an investment of roughly $250 million over five years. But an unproven company that requires over $250 mn over five years with no defined product or revenue won’t be flush with investor cash. The mismatch between high upfront costs and a long horizon to recoup the investments, requires patient capital. Hence we propose a pooled investment approach. Similar to a venture capital (VC) fund, BharatAI’s investors will resemble limited partners (LPs) that park their money into this venture for a defined period, say 10 years. In return, they buy equity into the firm but are not involved in the company’s management. Investors into this company can be of three types. a. Strategic investment from India's large technology services companies b. Venture capital funds c. Private endowments The company will also have two other backers who will be critical for its success: a platform partner and the government. The company itself would focus on foundational AI problems with broad applicability. BharatAI should not attempt to develop end-to-end applications. It should instead provide tools t

Cyberpolitik: A Recurring Payments Nightmare — Bharath Reddy Have you tried to make a recurring card payment to a foreign merchant only to find that your card gets declined? This is not an issue with the card being maxed out; most international payments using Indian credit or debit cards don’t work because merchants find it too cumbersome to comply with India-specific regulations.  The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) mandated that from October 1st, 2021, for every recurring transaction below ₹5,000, banks must send a notification at least 24 hours before the renewal date. For amounts over ₹5,000, banks require a one-time password to authorise every transaction. The transaction mandate continues to be a recurring nightmare a year and a half since its introduction. While all recurring transactions faced severe disruptions initially, banks resolved the teething issues, and domestic payments worked after a few months. However, international payments continue to face issues. Publishing an impact assessment study and holding stakeholder consultations could have helped anticipate some problems beforehand. But since these mandates have already been implemented, some exemptions must be made so international payments can be functional again.  Exiting from subscriptions is often deliberately complicated, and people often remain subscribed to services they don’t use. Free trial periods sometimes turn into indefinite subscriptions when users forget to cancel. RBI’s mandate aimed to help customers keep track of their subscriptions and exit unwanted ones. However, implementing these requirements requires coordination across the value chain of consumers, banks, mandate processing platforms, payment aggregators, and merchants. This coordination has not been seamless, and the fallout has caused much pain to businesses and consumers. The most significant impact has been on businesses whose subscription revenue dried up. Despite the adequate notice given by the RBI, companies, both big and small, had little recourse. The list included OTT platforms, news organisations, non-profits, cloud service providers, and many others. The most significant impact has been on small bootstrapped businesses, which depend on revenue from subscriptions for their day-to-day operations. An additional burden for small subscription-based businesses is the effort that now goes towards manually processing the payments for what was once an automated process. The mandate also creates hurdles for Indians who subscribe to global content and services. Most international merchants do not comply with RBI’s regulations. In response to queries about declined payments from Indian subscribers, The New York Times has recommended using a valid US credit card for payments! International merchants with a significant Indian customer base might now start supporting UPI. Some might have a mobile app through which one can subscribe, but that would attract a 30% markup due to the commissions charged by Apple or Google. However, for most others, customers have no option. Such hurdles in transacting with global merchants limit customer choice and hinder the ease of doing business. During the transition period, individuals and organisations had to deal with the overhead of manually paying for subscriptions. To date, this continues to be a burden for international subscriptions or for transactions above the threshold for which a one-time password is required for each renewal. The threshold, however, has subsequently been revised to ₹15,000, which has eased some of the burdens. Before the mandate, there were problems with opting out of subscriptions in some situations, but it worked for most people. The impact of the mandates is unknown, but it has imposed concentrated costs on many businesses and consumers. Holding open consultations and inviting stakeholder comments can help anticipate most of these consequences. Publishing an impact assessment report also helps to build a co

Matsyanyaaya: Why Apple's teething troubles in India matter — Shailesh Chitnis Last year, between April and December, Apple exported more than $2.5bn worth of iPhones from India. Shipments during those eight months were nearly double the previous fiscal year’s (April 2021 - March 2022) total. For India’s “Make in India” ambitions, those numbers are promising. They are also tiny. According to Bloomberg Intelligence, in 2021, India produced 3 million iPhones. China produced 230 million units during the same period. The sizable difference between the two countries should give decoupling champions some pause. (Source: Financial Times) India, or any other country, cannot hope to dislodge the Chinese manufacturing Goliath anytime soon. Apple has a long history in China, going back to 2007. Unwinding its dependence will take time. The product is also highly complex to assemble. Indian contractors are learning this the hard way. Last month, the Financial Times reported that only half of all components produced at a Tata casing factory passed quality checks. The 50% yield compares poorly with Apple’s goal of zero defects. Some of these teething troubles are to be expected. Private players such as Tata and Foxconn, Apple’s assembly partner, have strong incentives to fix the problems. But it highlights the difficulty of building a complex manufacturing base in India. Building an iPhone requires an entire supply chain dedicated to moving components from one contractor to another quickly. In China, private contractors and the local government worked together to win Apple orders at all costs. India must show the same agility between the private and public sectors. Apple had redesigned the iPhone’s screen at the last minute, forcing an assembly line overhaul. New screens began arriving at the plant near midnight. A foreman immediately roused 8,000 workers inside the company’s dormitories, according to the executive. Each employee was given a biscuit and a cup of tea, guided to a workstation, and within half an hour started a 12-hour shift fitting glass screens into beveled frames. Within 96 hours, the plant was producing over 10,000 iPhones a day. From: Duhigg, (Charles & Bradsher, Keith) “How the U.S. Lost Out on iPhone Work”. The New York Times. 21 Jan 2012Investing in skilled labour is another imperative. During Apple’s early years in China, the company sent its product designers and engineers to the manufacturing units, sometimes for months at a time. It invested in building custom machinery for some of those contractors. Apple’s level of involvement with China had a transformative effect on the country’s manufacturing and technical capabilities. It spawned an entire network of companies that serviced Apple and its suppliers. The Indian government wants Apple to make a quarter of all its phones here by 2025. Getting there will require business and public services to scale up in ways they haven’t before. Apple’s investment in India is critical for both the company and the central government. The company has signalled its intention to wean off its China dependency by publicly embracing alternatives. For India, this is a test of its commitment to move “up the stack” in manufacturing. Failure here will have far-reaching consequences that go beyond a single device manufacturer. Antariksh Matters: What’s the matter with commercial space stations? — Pranav R Satyanath Last week, the United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) released two new documents which outline expectations for new commercial space stations. The documents outline NASA’s operational and technical expectations from the new commercial space stations and add a new layer of nuance to NASA’s plan for transitioning from operating on the International Space Station (ISS) and conducting all Low Earth Orbit (LEO) operations on commercial spac

Antariksh Matters #1: Can India and the US Head into Space Together? — Aditya Ramanathan India and the United States have taken a modest leap towards greater cooperation in space. Last week, the two countries’ national security advisers, Ajit Doval and Jake Sullivan, kicked off the first meeting of the initiative on Critical and Emerging Technology or iCET. First set up in 2022, the focus of iCET was to enhance technological cooperation in defence as well as other sectors. A fact sheet released after the meeting outlined new avenues of India-US cooperation in defence technology, semiconductor supply chains, 5G, and space.   We’ll be providing our take on some aspects of the iCET soon, but in this Technopolitik entry, I’ll focus on the bits about space. Three steps outlined in the factsheet stand out. One, the two sides have agreed to train an Indian at the NASA Johnson Space Center, the main facility for training American astronauts. Two, both countries have also agreed to figure out how Indian companies can participate in NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) programme. Three, the factsheet outlines initiatives to increase commercial space cooperation and interaction between academics and experts.  Let’s start with human spaceflight. On India’s Independence Day in 2018, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that the Indians would be launched into space on an indigenous mission in 2022 named Gaganyaan. That ambitious plan fell behind schedule, largely thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic. At present, the first Indians are not scheduled to go into orbit only in the last quarter of 2024. Two uncrewed launches will precede the mission to send Indians into orbit to test various parameters of the human-rated spacecraft..  Starting in 2020, four Indian Air Force (IAF) officers also began training at Russia’s Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Centre for the Gaganyaan mission. While their training was spectacularly ill-timed - starting right at the onset of the pandemic - they nevertheless completed the course in a year. However, with Russia’s space programme financially constrained and heavily sanctioned because of the country’s ongoing war with Ukraine, India is clearly looking to diversify. While the agreement to train Indian spacefarers in the United States may have come too late to speed up the schedule for the first Gaganyaan launch, it is an important step in India’s hunt for a reliable partner to train its ‘vyomanauts’ as ISRO has called them.  India and the US have also inched closer towards cooperating on lunar exploration. The fact sheet commits ISRO and NASA to bring together Indian private sector space companies and American companies involved in the CLPS programme. CLPS is part of America’s expansive plans to return to the Moon sustainably. While NASA is to focus on some of the big-ticket projects like sending humans to the lunar surface, CLPS allows private companies to take scientific payloads from NASA and others to the Moon on uncrewed spacecraft. NASA’s goal is to act as a primary customer for these private missions until they become commercially viable and self-sustaining.   By engaging India with CLPS, the US appears to have two goals. One is to find Indian customers for the American CLPS companies. The other is to involve India in the US-led multinational effort to return to the Moon. Much of this comes under the rubric of what the US calls the Artemis programme. Countries that want to join the Artemis programme are required to sign the Artemis Accords, a series of ten principles governing lunar activity. While most of these principles are innocuous aspects of existing international law, a few, like those that allow the use of lunar resources and call for ‘deconfliction,’ raise concerns about the creation of de facto private real estate or even de facto sovereign territory on the Moon.  By last count, 23 states including the US were part of the Artemis Accords. In

Matsinaya: Backdoors to state control — Shailesh Chitnis The Chinese government has signalled a shift in how it plans to control big tech. This month, news reports emerged that state-owned enterprises are set to take a 1% stake in two of its most prominent tech companies, Alibaba and Tencent. Euphemistically dubbed "golden shares," this small stake grants special privileges and gives the government an outsized role in how these companies are run. Typically, these shares come with a board seat and the right to review or veto any content decisions. The stake in Alibaba was acquired by an investment fund set up by the Cyberspace Administration of China, the country's central internet regulator and censor. So far, the arrangement seems to target companies with a significant user base for online content. Alibaba owns social media entities, including Youku, the Chinese version of YouTube, and the web browser UCWeb. Tencent operates Tencent Video, a popular Chinese streaming service. In April 2021, the government paid around 2M Rmb (~$290K) for a percent share in ByteDance Technology, the parent of TikTok. Golden shares, known in China as "Special management shares" have been around since 2015 as a mechanism to control online content platforms. But over the past three years, the government has preferred more direct intervention to curtail what it perceives as an overreach by some of its largest companies. In October 2020, Alibaba controlled Ant Financial's IPO listing, which valued the company at a staggering $313 billion, which was pulled at the last minute. In July 2021, the ride-hailing app company Didi was banned from accepting new users over data privacy concerns. In the same month, China's edtech sector was crushed overnight when the government announced rules preventing these companies from making profits, raising capital, or going public. With the Chinese economy faltering and Xi Jinping's coronation completed, Beijing appears to be taking a subtler path to control its biggest technology companies. Business leaders may see this as a preferable approach to more aggressive and, at times, unpredictable regulation. Having a government representative on the board will reduce the companies' independence. But there is less scope for sudden rule changes since the insider would be privy to all content moderation decisions. However, shareholders of these companies, in particular overseas investors, won't be too happy with this arrangement. They will have less visibility and control over how the business operates. These concerns are now playing out publicly in how TikTok is trying to operate in the US. This month, the company shared details of a proposal that would spin off the US arm into a separate entity owned by ByteDance but entirely operated by US government-approved employees. It has also offered to allow Oracle and other third-party monitors to review its video recommendation algorithm. In the absence of a deal, the company is worried that it will be forced to sell its US operations or leave the market. ByteDance's travails highlight how difficult it will be for Chinese-owned companies to straddle both the US and Chinese markets. Antariksh Matters: Opening the doors for redressing orbital dangers — Pranav R Satyanath Over the past several issues of Techopolitik, we have covered several issues surrounding the weaponisation of space and the threats faced by satellites. One topic of particular interest has been the discussions and deliberations within the Open-Ended Working Group on Reducing Space Threats (OEWG). We began covering the OEWG back in May 2022, when the group held its first meeting in Geneva. The second meeting of the OEWG was help in September. And in 2023, we approach the third meeting of the OEWG. Much of the deliberations of the OEWG have been covered in a discussion document released in July 2022. During the deliberations, however, it became evident that India did little to be vocal about its own prefer

A happy new year to all our readers! To kickstart this year’s edition of Technopolitik, we have assembled a list of predictions for 2023 across tech sectors, ranging from online regulation, biotech and outer space. Maybe we can take stock of these predictions and see how much of it we got wrong (or right) at the end of this year! Beginning from this edition, we also introduce a new section to our newsletter called Biopolitik, while will cover all the fascinating tidbits about the biotechnology industry and its intersection with policy and politics. Be sure to check out our Reading Menu. This edition lists some of the best books that the authors have read from last year. With that, we wish you a great year ahead! Cyberpolitik #1: Regulatory tech battles in India — Shailesh Chitnis Big tech is vulnerable. For the first time in big-tech history, technology platforms are confronting slowing growth and bottom-line pressures. Aggressive expansion during the pandemic years has given way to cost-cutting during a cooling economy. Amazon recently announced plans to cut 18,000 workers, mostly in the retail, recruiting and devices businesses. Meta, the parent of Facebook and Instagram, has cut more than 11,000 workers, or about 13% of its staff. It's a similar story across other platforms — Salesforce, Snap, Twitter — no one seems immune. Against this backdrop, regulators are getting more active in reigning in what they see as an overreach by these platforms. In the past, Indian regulators had given technology platforms a free hand. But increasingly, the Indian government has signalled its intention to shape the country's technology landscape. In a series of rulings in October, the Competition Commission of India (CCI) fined Google almost Rs. 2,300 crores for abusing dominance with its Android operating system and the Play Store. The government is also getting into specifics of technology implementation with new rules around standardising chargers (USB-C) and upholding consumers' right-to-repair for devices. In 2023, expect more activity. The gatekeeping role of Apple and Google, which they exercise through their app stores, will be challenged. But since commissions from these stores are a significant revenue source for both these companies, any moves to change this structure will be a long legal battle. With the government's active role in market design, expect more public battles between incumbent tech and the government. Adding to the tech vs regulators battle, India will also be gearing up for general elections in 2024. As the elections draw closer, we can expect the conversations and controversies on the role of social media platforms in disseminating information to be pitched even further. Indeed, 2022 was a busy year for technology policy-making with the semiconductor manufacturing policy and a revised draft of the much-awaited digital data protection bill. But this year, the government has promised to introduce a complete overhaul of the IT Act, which governs much of the digital ecosystem. The IT Act was passed in 2000 and needs to be set up for all the complexity of the internet today - from intermediaries and platforms to AI and data privacy. We also expect the bill's first draft to cover a wide range of online platforms, including social media sites, e-commerce entities and ad-tech platforms. This act can have far-reaching consequences for businesses and civil society since all problems are now technology problems in some form. Biopolitik: Pandemics and regulatory politics — Saurabh Todi The World Health Organisation (WHO) in 2023 is expected to accelerate negotiations on a draft international pandemic treaty governing prevention, preparedness, and response to future pandemics. The World Health Assembly (WHA) in December 2021 launched the process of negotiating a historical global accord. It established an International Negotiating Body (INB) to formulate a 'WHO convention, agreement or another international inst

Matsyanyaaya #1: Opening up to open-tech — Bharath Reddy "Open Tech" refers to transparent, inclusive technology and embodies the freedom to use, study, modify and redistribute to the maximum extent possible. The definitions of open-source software, open standards, and open-source hardware are well understood. "Open Tech" is an umbrella term that includes all of these technology areas. The usual arguments promoting open source technologies highlight reducing costs, avoiding vendor and technology lock-in, and the ability to customise. But, given the current geopolitical climate, access to state-of-the-art technology cannot be taken for granted. Supply chain resilience and tech sanctions are a cause for serious concern.  The acquisition of advanced technologies is not an end in itself, but a means to bring peace and prosperity to all Indian citizens. Unhindered access to state-of-the-art technology and foundational knowledge is, therefore, in India's national interest. External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar echoed this sentiment when he said India "cannot be agnostic about technology" as there is "a strong political connotation in-built into technology". Open tech can help India achieve techno-strategic autonomy, economic growth, technology leadership, and skill development. The "openness" also helps foster trust, broaden access to technology and further democratic values. Open tech, by its nature, is both non-rival (its use by someone does not diminish the utility to others) and non-excludable (its access cannot be denied to anyone). In economic terms, this qualifies it as a public good. As we see with other public goods, such as clean air or street lights, the incentives are weak for markets or individuals to tend to the maintenance and upkeep of public goods. This is visible in one of the main problems facing open-source software today.  A recent study shows that almost 97% of all commercial software uses open-source code. A large number of open-source projects are maintained by individuals or small communities of developers without adequate funding. This growing reliance on open-source software increases the burden on maintainers of this code to keep the software secure, bug-free and up-to-date.  Other areas, such as the open-source hardware, are in a nascent stage, and India could gain a valuable head-start given a favourable policy environment. This is especially important given the silicon geopolitics playing out between the US and China.  Open standards have a range of benefits, such as removing entry barriers, promoting interoperability, and lowering costs. The government needs to encourage the promotion of open standards and also represent India-specific requirements at various international Standard Development Organisations. The existing policy landscape includes a preference for open-source software in procurement and a policy on standards for e-governance at the Union and State governments. However, given the growing importance of open tech, a comprehensive open tech strategy is indispensable.  This short essay is a preview of an upcoming Takshashila Report on an open tech strategy for India. Apply here: https://bit.ly/pgp-jan23-nl Antariksh Matters: Buying space power? — Pranav R Satyanath Earlier this week, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) launched its first rover, Rashid, towards the Moon’s surface. The rover was carried on a Falcon-9 rocket along with a miniature rover from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). But there’s a catch. The UAE did not build the Rashid rover, but it was built under contract by a Japanese private space venture called ispace. When we think of space-faring nations of the world, the UAE does not immediately strike a chord.  However, the desert country has big space ambitions for the next decade. It has signed the US-led Artemis Accords. It has also signed an agreement with China to collaborate on future Moon missions. This