Category: General Interest
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Taliban negotiates with Afghanistan
An Afghan delegation (not representing President Ashraf Ghani) met Taliban officials in Qatar to seek a political solution to end the 18 year long conflicts in the country. Can the negotiation with Taliban’s top political leader Mullah Abdul Gani Baradar and US special envoy Zalmay Khalilzad provide a framework for a ceasefire and direct negotiation…
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Universities under scrutiny for foreign funding
The U.S. Education Department has opened an investigation into Georgetown, Texas A&M University over foreign funding from Qatar Foundation and Chinese Telecom company, Huawei. What is the impact of foreign funding on universities and would there be a national security implication?
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World to edge closer to 10B by 2050
The world population is expected to increase from 7.7 billion to 9.7 billion in 2050. But the population growth rate is tempering down as the fertility level is gradually decreasing. How will the world at large adapt to the consequences of the increasing population?
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Peace to Prosperity Summit in Bahrain
The US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner launched a long-awaited Middle East initiative with a two-day conference in Bahrain amidst protests, uproar and boycott by the Palestinian Authority. The meeting is meant to resolve Israeli Palestinian conflicts. Would the deal of the century guarantee Palestinians their territory, Israelis their security and Jordan their vital…
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AI for Agriculture in India
The Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare signed a Statement of Intent (SoI) with IBM for a pilot study on using Artificial Intelligence (AI) and weather technology solutions in agriculture. Does India have the data infrastructure necessary for the adoption of AI in agriculture?
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Kashmir: A new haven for Narcotics and Arms
Beneath the political turmoil in Kashmir, the narco smuggling networks is fast growing. How are these drugs supply chains kept alive in Kashmir?
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Trump’s U – turn at the G20 summit
US President Donald Trump announced that US technology companies could resume selling to China’s Huawei Technologies, effectively reversing a ban imposed by the US Commerce Department. Why did the US make a U-turn at the G20 Summit in Osaka?
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“Vaccine” against fake news
Researchers from the University of Cambridge launched an online game to inoculate people against fake news. Can we adopt the lessons from this research to stop misinformation before it even starts to spread?
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Space Race 2.0
NATO has recently proposed space as an extended domain of warfare in addition to those of land, air, sea, and cyberspace. China also seems to be ramping up its space infrastructure to expand its civil and military space projects.
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Huawei proposes ‘No Back Door’ to Government of India
Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd has appealed to India to make an ‘informed and independent decision’ on permitting its 5G trails that are scheduled to commence in 100 days. What does recent ‘no back door’ proposal by Huawei mean? Has it come a bit too late?