Space sustainability has become a critical issue with the increasing presence of space debris. In this episode, Quentin Verspieren provides insights into the ESA’s zero-debris approach and the collaborative efforts needed to achieve it. The conversation focuses on the importance of developing advanced technologies for debris mitigation and remediation and how private companies can drive innovation to contribute to space sustainability. Verspieren also discusses the role of global partnerships in promoting a zero-debris approach and how the Zero-Debris Charter complements international space law norms.

Additionally, the conversation addresses the financial and technological challenges faced by emerging spacefaring countries in adopting sustainable space practices. Verspieren emphasizes the need for a comprehensive approach involving all stakeholders, including governments, private companies, and international organizations, to ensure space remains a viable environment for future generations.

Episode Contributors

Quentin Verspieren is the Space Safety Programme and Protect Accelerator Coordinator at the Directorate of Operations, European Space Agency. In this role, he leads the development of ambitious European initiatives on debris mitigation and remediation, and space weather services. Verspieren is a visiting assistant professor at the Science, Technology, and Innovation Governance (STIG) Program, University of Tokyo’s Graduate School of Public Policy. He has two master’s degrees in aerospace engineering from ISAE-SUPAERO and The University of Tokyo and a Ph.D. in public policy.

Tejas Bharadwaj is a research analyst with the Technology and Society Program at Carnegie India. He focuses on space law and policies and works on areas related to applications of artificial intelligence and autonomy in the military domain and U.S.-India export controls. Tejas is also part of the group that convened Carnegie India’s annual flagship event, the Global Technology Summit, co-organized with the Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India.

Suggested Readings

The Zero Debris Charter, European Space Agency

Zero Debris Charter Aims to Boost International Cooperation on Cleaning up Earth’s Space Junk Problem, Space.com

Guidelines for the Long-Term Sustainability of Outer Space Activities, UNCOPUOS

India’s Intent on Debris-Free Space Missions, ISRO

Every two weeks, Interpreting India brings you diverse voices from India and around the world to explore the critical questions shaping the nation's future. We delve into how technology, the economy, and foreign policy intertwine to influence India's relationship with the global stage.

As a Carnegie India production, hosted by Carnegie scholars, Interpreting India, a Carnegie India production, provides insightful perspectives and cutting-edge by tackling the defining questions that chart India's course through the next decade.

Stay tuned for thought-provoking discussions, expert insights, and a deeper understanding of India's place in the world.

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India's rapid urban growth has brought to light numerous challenges, including unmanageable expansion, inadequate housing, and air pollution. Vidyadhar Phatak discusses how historical planning models and regulatory frameworks have contributed to these issues and offers insights into potential solutions. The conversation highlights the importance of adapting urban planning to market realities, enhancing regulatory frameworks, and improving planning education to better address the needs of Indian cities.

In Planning for India's Urbanization (2024), Phatak provides a comprehensive analysis of urban development in India, focusing on the links between economic growth and urbanization, the importance of land use, housing affordability, and metropolitan governance. The episode emphasizes the need for localized and context-specific planning to foster sustainable urban development.

How can historical planning models be reformed to meet the needs of modern Indian cities? What are the advantages and disadvantages of different land assembly methods? How can redevelopment be facilitated in already built-up areas? What are the challenges and opportunities in planning education and the profession?

Episode Contributors

Vidyadhar Phatak is a renowned urban planner with over forty years of professional experience. He has extensively researched housing affordability, public land use, and urban planning reforms. Phatak retired as the Principal Chief of the Town and Country Planning Division of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority in 2004. He has served on the Planning Commission Task Force on Urban Development and the National Commission on Urbanization. His book, Planning for India's Urbanization, offers a collection of essays on urban development based on his observations of Mumbai and Maharashtra, with broader applicability to other Indian cities.

Anirudh Burman is an associate research director and fellow at Carnegie India. He works on key issues relating to public institutions, public administration, the administrative and regulatory state, and state capacity. He has also worked extensively on financial regulation and regulatory governance. Burman brings a nuanced perspective to urban planning and development discussions, drawing on his extensive knowledge and research experience.

Additional Readings

Planning for India's Urbanization by Vidyadhar Pathak

Scaling Heights: Affordability Implications of Zoning Deregulation in India by Geetika Nagpal and Salil Gandhi

Every two weeks, Interpreting India brings you diverse voices from India and around the world to explore the critical questions shaping the nation's future. We delve into how technology, the economy, and foreign policy intertwine to influence India's relationship with the global stage.

As a Carnegie India production, hosted by Carnegie scholars, Interpreting India, a Carnegie India production, provides insightful perspectives and cutting-edge by tackling the defining questions that chart India's course through the next decade.

Stay tuned for thought-provoking discussions, expert insights, and a deeper understanding of India's place in the world.

Don't forget to subscribe, share, and leave a review to join the conversation and be part of Interpreting India's journey.

In the past two years, artificial intelligence (AI) has rapidly evolved from a burgeoning technology to a transformative force, reshaping industries and everyday life. Enthralled by AI's promises and potential, the tech world and society at large have surged ahead, often without pausing to consider the technology's broader implications. In her book, Code Dependent: Living in the Shadows of AI, Madhumita Murgia talks about the crucial gap in the discourse—the unintended consequences of AI. As AI redefines what it means to be human, it poses profound questions about its impact on individuals, families, societies, and cultures worldwide. A key concern is the concentration of power within a few large tech companies that control extensive data, capital, and infrastructure. The discussion extends to the impact of AI on labor, emphasizing the importance of ethical labor practices and fair wages for data workers, the challenges of biases in AI systems, and the inclusion of diverse voices in AI development to mitigate potential harms and ensure equitable advancements in technology.

What are the unintended consequences of AI on global societies and cultures? Will AI deepen existing inequalities or serve as a tool for greater equity? Will it centralize power among a few or democratize access to resources and opportunities? How does the concentration of AI power affect global politics and economics?

In this episode of Interpreting India, Madhumita Murgia joins Anirudh Suri to answer these pressing questions and discuss the ever-evolving nature of AI and its implications.

Madhumita Murgia is the AI editor of the Financial Times, where she writes on data and emerging technologies. She was previously tech editor at The Daily Telegraph and associate editor of Wired UK. Her latest book, Code Dependent: Living in the Shadows of AI, was shortlisted for the 2024 Women's Prize for Non-Fiction.

Anirudh Suri is a nonresident scholar with Carnegie India. His interests lie at the intersection of technology and geopolitics, climate, and strategic affairs. He is currently exploring how India is carving and cementing its role in the global tech ecosystem and the role climate technology can play in addressing the global climate challenge. Suri is the author of The Great Tech Game: Shaping Geopolitics and the Destinies of Nations and has also written extensively on foreign policy, geopolitics, cybersecurity, climate, technology, and entrepreneurship.

Additional Readings

Code Dependent: Living in the Shadows of AI by Madhumita Murgia

The Great Tech Game: Shaping Geopolitics and the Destinies of Nations by Anirudh Suri

Every two weeks, Interpreting India brings you diverse voices from India and around the world to explore the critical questions shaping the nation's future. We delve into how technology, the economy, and foreign policy intertwine to influence India's relationship with the global stage.

As a Carnegie India production, hosted by Carnegie scholars, Interpreting India, a Carnegie India production, provides insightful perspectives and cutting-edge by tackling the defining questions that chart India's course through the next decade.

Stay tuned for thought-provoking discussions, expert insights, and a deeper understanding of India's place in the world.

Don't forget to subscribe, share, and leave a review to join the conversation and be part of Interpreting India's journey.

Karl Mehta highlights the critical role of trustworthy tech supply chains and the necessity for international collaboration among partner nations. Mehta examines the potential of India’s national AI mission and the growing space tech ecosystem, including opportunities for lower-cost payload launches and downstream activities. This episode provides an overview of the strategic integration of advanced technologies in India’s growth and development framework. Karl Mehta explains the critical role of patient capital in promoting deep tech innovations and discusses the Indian government's recent initiatives to stimulate technological advancements through policies focused on deep tech and domestic manufacturing.

What is the significance of patient capital in the development of deep technology? How do current Indian government policies support the innovation ecosystem, particularly in deep tech? In what ways can trustworthy tech supply chains bolster India's position in the global tech landscape?

Episode contributors

Karl Mehta is a serial entrepreneur, author, investor, engineer, and civil servant with over thirty years of experience in founding, building, and funding high-tech companies in the United States and international markets. Prior to leading the Quad Investors Network, Karl was the founder and CEO of an artificial intelligence-powered knowledge cloud platform EdCast Inc., which was backed by Stanford University and acquired by Cornerstone Inc. He was also a former venture partner at Menlo Ventures, a leading Silicon Valley firm.

Karl is also the founder of several non-profit organizations, including Code For India, and the author of Financial Inclusion at the Bottom of the Pyramid. His new book, AI for Digital Public Infrastructure, is slated to be released in Fall 2023.

Konark Bhandari is a fellow with Carnegie India. He is a lawyer who has researched certain areas in the digital economy, focusing primarily on approaches to antitrust regulation of companies in the digital realm. He had earlier worked at India’s antitrust regulator, the Competition Commission of India (CCI), where he worked closely with senior officials on a variety of matters. He is also an avid follower of the regulation of the space technology ecosystem and is keen to contribute to that discipline.

Additional readings:

Every two weeks, Interpreting India brings you diverse voices from India and around the world to explore the critical questions shaping the nation's future. We delve into how technology, the economy, and foreign policy intertwine to influence India's relationship with the global stage.

As a Carnegie India production, hosted by Carnegie scholars, Interpreting India, a Carnegie India production, provides insightful perspectives and cutting-edge by tackling the defining questions that chart India's course through the next decade.

Stay tuned for thought-provoking discussions, expert insights, and a deeper understanding of India's place in the world.

Don't forget to subscribe, share, and leave a review to join the conversation and be part of Interpreting India's journey.

India, a continent-sized country, exhibits profound regional economic disparities, with some regions having economic outputs comparable to upper-middle-income countries, while others resemble the impoverished regions of sub-Saharan Africa. Dore discusses how these disparities affect development and the importance of focusing on regional nuances to foster equitable growth across India. The book provides a deep dive into these issues, offering lessons and insights on leveraging regional strengths and addressing challenges through targeted development strategies. The episode highlights the need for precise regional analysis and development policies that consider the unique economic landscapes of India’s diverse regions.

What is more conducive to the economic development of a nation—specialisation or diversification? What is the role of data in harnessing regional potential effectively? How can India implement lessons from global economic governance to improve its regional development strategies?

Episode Contributors

Poornima Dore is a practicing economist, driving impact through finance, innovation and digital transformation. She previously served as director of analytics, insights and impact at Tata Trusts and is a highly sought-after advisor for leaders across diverse sectors. With a management degree from Xavier School of Management and a PhD in Economics from the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, she has, over the years, driven large programs at the intersection of business, philanthropy, academia and government, activated private sector investments in data-driven governance, digital public goods, regional growth, urbanization, and migration, and designed special institutional programs on impact and SME financing. She serves on the board of select institutions as well as ministerial committees and has been recognized as one of the top 100 Analytics Leaders in South Asia.

Suyash Rai is a deputy director and fellow at Carnegie India. His research focuses on the political economy of economic reforms, and the performance of public institutions in India. His current research looks at the financial sector, the fiscal system, and the infrastructure sector.

Suggested Readings:

Regional Economic Diversity: Lessons from an Emergent India, by Poornima Dore and Krishnan Narayanan

Every two weeks, Interpreting India brings you diverse voices from India and around the world to explore the critical questions shaping the nation's future. We delve into how technology, the economy, and foreign policy intertwine to influence India's relationship with the global stage.

As a Carnegie India production, hosted by Carnegie scholars, Interpreting India, a Carnegie India production, provides insightful perspectives and cutting-edge by tackling the defining questions that chart India's course through the next decade.

Stay tuned for thought-provoking discussions, expert insights, and a deeper understanding of India's place in the world.

Don't forget to subscribe, share, and leave a review to join the conversation and be part of Interpreting India's journey.

The recent war in Ukraine and the Israel-Hamas conflict in the Middle East have provided valuable lessons when it comes to the nature of future military modernisation and defense innovation. While traditional warfare remains relevant, we are seeing a shift towards multi-domain operations that are more kinetic and are increasingly utilizing autonomous weapons.

As India seeks to boost its defence exports, its domestic industry will have a role to play. Several factors have played a role in the recent spike in defence exports—regulatory initiatives, enhanced capability of the private sector, and the desire among other countries to diversify away from their traditional defence partners and look at India instead. Additionally, the INDUS-X initiative between India and the U.S. has also been noted as a welcome mechanism to encourage further defence cooperation in other emerging technologies such as quantum computing, space, cyber-security, and deep-sea technology.

What are the potential opportunities that international collaborations present? Will India's domestic industry be able to meet the armed forces' requirements?

In this episode of Interpreting India, Ajay Kumar and Konark Bhandari talk about the current status of defence innovation in India and the emerging trends in this space.

Episode Contributors

Ajay Kumar is a nonresident senior fellow at Carnegie India. He served as the defense secretary of India between August 2019 and October 2022 and is the longest serving secretary in the Ministry of Defence, where he also served as secretary in the Department of Defence Production. As defense secretary, Ajay Kumar was the key architect for several major transformations, including the restructuring of higher defense management in the country and formation of the chief of defense staff in the Indian Armed Forces; the launch of the Agniveer scheme—a historic reform in recruitment, training, and retention of personnel in the Armed Forces.

Konark Bhandari is a fellow with Carnegie India. He is a lawyer who has researched certain areas in the digital economy, focusing primarily on approaches to antitrust regulation of companies in the digital realm. He had earlier worked at India’s antitrust regulator, the Competition Commission of India (CCI), where he worked closely with senior officials on a variety of matters. He is also an avid follower of the regulation of the space technology ecosystem and is keen to contribute to that discipline.

Additional Readings

INDUS-X: Charting the Way Ahead for India-U.S. Defense Industrial Cooperation, by Konark Bhandari.

Can a Defense Innovation Bridge Elevate India-U.S. Defense Cooperation? by Konark Bhandari.

Sameer Lalwani on India-U.S. Defense-Industrial Cooperation.

U.S.-India Defense Innovation Collaboration: Building on a Promising Start by Konark Bhandari.

Every two weeks, Interpreting India brings you diverse voices from India and around the world to explore the critical questions shaping the nation's future. We delve into how technology, the economy, and foreign policy intertwine to influence India's relationship with the global stage.

As a Carnegie India production, hosted by Carnegie scholars, Interpreting India, a Carnegie India production, provides insightful perspectives and cutting-edge by tackling the defining questions that chart India's course through the next decade.

Stay tuned for thought-provoking discussions, expert insights, and a deeper understanding of India's place in the world.

Don't forget to subscribe, share, and leave a review to join the conversation and be part of Interpreting India's journey.