Political Issues

Domestic industries still do not have a level playing field in government procurement. Hence the Atmanirbhar campaign needs to have an Atmanirbhar policy to accelerate self-reliance in India. The Atmanirbhar campaign is a key spearhead of the Centre to propel India to increasing prosperity, by increasingly manufacturing the required goods and services within the country,…

India is missing out completely on the next generation of passenger aircraft, which is the supersonic passenger aircraft. Such aircraft will transform aviation and India can ill-afford to sit on the side-stands while others take the lead. India has been famously missing out on “catching the bus” when it comes to industrial technologies. Either we…

Embraer is a once in a century opportunity for India to leapfrog in the aerospace industry, and India should not be caught up in economic philosophies of how to acquire it. If India aspires to be a major economy, that is in alignment with its promise to make its people more prosperous, then India needs…

The nuclear bomb was first used for one of the biggest terrorist actions in the history of humankind. As per the definition given by the UN panel, on March 17, 2005, terrorism is as any act "intended to cause death or serious bodily harm to civilians or non-combatants to intimidate a population or compel a…

Digital Utilities are powerful change agents that have changed the context of current regulations, thereby urgently requiring a new set of regulations for protecting our way of life and personal safety. Almost two decades ago, as the co-author of the first book on e-governance that was released by the then President of India, Dr. Abdul…

Is the government justified in not treating Twitter as an intermediary and hence taking away its safe harbour protection? It requires a full understanding of the context. There has recently been an explosion of debate on whether the government is right in taking away the safe harbour of Twitter. Few weeks before the government came…

There has been a raging debate going on, on cryptocurrencies since the creation of Bitcoin. A cryptocurrency is a secure digital store of value and hence is a possible alternative to currencies. However, as we have debated in this column, there are multiple issues with cryptocurrencies, that need to be resolved, before they can truly…

The flip-flop of Tesla in using Bitcoin as payment for its cars, demonstrates that cryptocurrencies are still not a replacement for regular currency. However, governments need to ensure that cryptocurrency capability building continues. Over five months ago, in this column, I had written about why cryptocurrencies pose significant challenges. The article was titled “The Cryptic…

Incorrect interpretations are being made of the new regulations around social media. It is important to have the regulation to protect ourselves from the negative side of social media, for social media to flourish. As the new Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics code come into force to curtail fake news and limit messages that…

Twitter ceases to be an intermediary platform as soon as it censors posts. And once it does this, it becomes accountable for all other posts on its platform. The natural justice process can be split into three components-- the office of the judge, the jury or equivalent, and the institution that executes the punishment. The…