Author: Arindam Goswami

It was recently reported that Microsoft had suddenly cut off access to vital cloud services for Nayara Energy, a leading private fuel retailer and refinery operator in India, on grounds of compliance with Western sanctions against Russian-owned enterprises. The shocking action, triggered due to the involvement of the Russian shareholder of Nayara, Rosneft, threw Nayara into disarray to revive its digital operations and created a wave of concern through India’s policy and corporate circles. The incident reignited an old debate: How susceptible is a country’s technological foundation to executive suite decisions around the globe, and what does really amount to…

China recently unveiled a land-based prototype nuclear reactor for a large surface warship. While the addition of this capacity takes it closer towards nuclear powered aircraft carriers, which could help cement its ambition for a world-class, blue-water navy, what is astonishing is China’s underlying science and technology (S&T) ecosystem – from quantum computing to AI, biotechnology to renewable energy – which demonstrates an efficiency and strategic alignment that few countries have been able to replicate. It shows the importance of what Jeffrey Ding in his book, “Technology and the Rise of Great Powers: How Diffusion Shapes Economic Competition”, calls diffusion of…