The 2022 Data Privacy Bill: A New Version or the Charter of Surveillance Capitalism?

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COP27: More Loss and Damage Ahead

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Symposium on Self-Reliance: Report

THE symposium on ‘Self-Reliance in Science & Technology (S&T) and Development’, organised by the Delhi Science Forum (DSF) is association with the All India Peoples Science Network (AIPSN) and held in P Ramamurti Bhavan in Delhi on November12-13, was an eye-opener in more ways than one.

Challenges in COP 27: Private Greed of Capital vs Society’s Survival

COP 27 is underway in Sharm el-Sheikh. Although the Ukraine War and the US mid-term elections have shifted our immediate focus away from how we are faring in our battle against global warming, it still remains a central concern of our epoch. Reports indicate not only are we failing to meet our climate change goals, but we are also failing them by a large margin.

Emissions Gap Report 2022: Little Hope

THE UN Environment Programme (UNEP) has, as per usual practice, released its Emissions Gap Report (EGR) 2022 on the eve of the forthcoming COP27 meeting in Sharm-el-Sheikh, Egypt. All countries had been required to submit updated and more ambitious Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) by September 2021, before COP26 in Glasgow, Scotland.

Competitive Commission of India fines Google

THE Competition Commission of India (CCI) has recently fined Google in two separate rulings. In the first ruling, the CCI imposed a fine of Rs 1,337.76 crores on Google for "abusing its dominant position in multiple markets in the Android Mobile device ecosystem". In the second ruling, the CCI imposed a fine of Rs 936.44 crores on Google for "for abusing its dominant position with respect to its Play Store policies". In both cases, the CCI has issued a "cease and desist order" and asked Google to modify its conduct within a specified timeline.

US Chip War Version 2: Decoupling from China or Declaring War?

THE US has gambled big in its latest, across-the-board sanctions on Chinese companies in the semiconductor industry, believing it can kneecap China and retain its global dominance. From the slogan of globalisation and "free trade" of the neoliberal 90s, it has reverted to good old technology denial regimes followed by the US and its allies during the Cold War. While it might work in the short run in slowing down the Chinese advances, the cost to the US semiconductor industry of losing China – its biggest market – will also have significant consequences.

India’s Combat Helicopter: Re-Discovering Self-Reliance?

ON October 3, 2022, Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL)’s indigenously-designed and produced Light Combat Helicopter (LCH) was formally inducted into the Indian Air Force in Jodhpur in the presence of the defence minister who named the aircraft ‘Prachanda’ or fearless. “The induction of LCH underlines the fact that just as the country trusts the Indian Air Force, the IAF equally trusts the indigenous equipment,” the minister said.

The Draft Telecom Bill: A Surveillance Paradise and a Gift to Telecom Monopolies

THE government has recently released a Draft Indian Telecommunication Bill, 2022, for public comments. At the same time, the union government has withdrawn the Personal Data Protection Bill, which had been in the making for five years. This bill was to give a framework for the citizens' privacy rights, based on the Supreme Court's Puttuswamy Judgement declaring privacy as a fundamental right. However, the citizens' rights still remain undefined. In contrast, the government's powers over what citizens can do, see or hear are vastly increased.

DART Hits Bulls-Eye!

ONE of the more striking (pardon the pun!) of recent space projects came to the first stage of fruition on September 26, 2022 when a small spacecraft crashed into an asteroid 11 million kilometers away from Earth. The US National Aeronautics and Space Agency’s (NASA) Double Asteroid Redirection Test or DART sought to deliberately hit the small asteroid Dimorphos with the objective of knocking it off its usual trajectory in a technology demonstration that could, someday, be used to actually deflect an asteroid from a collision course with Earth.

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