It will be held in the Bonn Room at the World Conference Center Bonn, and will be streamed live on the official @UNClimateChangeEvents youtube channel. You can also see it on the UNFCCC website and the SB58 Virtual Platform (for registered remote attendees).

SB58 (June 3-15, 2023) comprises of the 58th Sessions of the UNFCCC Subsidiary Bodies for Implementation (SBI) and Scientific and Technological Advice (SBSTA). It’s an inter-sessional conference by the UN Climate Change Secretariat to prepare for COP28 Dubai.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Non-Party Stakeholder Partnerships and the GST: Global Cooperation through AI and other approaches

Speakers: 

• Cédric Villani (Cofounder, Green Spider | Fields Medalist, IHES & UCBL | Fmr. French MP & OPECST President)
• Robin Klemens (Founder, KUMO)
• Oshienemen Albert (CEPB | African Centre for Dev. & Research)
• Mauricio Montana (Fundación Tchendukua)
• Moderator: Shrey Goyal (Cofounder, Green Spider)

Theme: Organisations and citizens working on tackling climate change often face capacity issues and lack coordinated action. Join us at the Bonn Climate Change Conference for a panel discussion to explore how innovative approaches such as the use of AI tools can enhance cross-cutting partnerships globally to meet Paris Agreement Goals.

Wednesday, 7 June 2023

16:15-17:30 CEST

youtube.com/@UNClimateChangeEvents

Join us!

The post Partnerships for Climate Action through AI: Panel Discussion by Green Spider at SB 58 appeared first on Shrey Goyal.

The Great Fall: 9/11 and the New Social Contract

I hope we’re not trying to figure out who he is and figure out who we are through watching that.
— Gwendolyn Briley-Strand (sister of Jonathan Briley), 9/11: The Falling Man.

Thirteen years ago, Associated Press photographer Richard Drew found himself clicking away at the site of the World Trade Center attacks. One of the resulting photographs, titled The Falling Man, shows a *“jumper” escaping the fumes. The subject of the image is placed perfectly parallel to the columns of the late Towers, which, you may recall, descended almost vertically (an oft-cited fact by the “truther” breed of conspiracy theorists).

Believed by many to be North Tower restaurant employee Jonathan Briley, the identity of the man has never been officially confirmed.

This photograph has seen thorough examination by social and cultural commentators worldwide, for there is something inherently discomforting about a man jumping from a skyscraper, even a burning one. Why did he jump? No matter what the situation in the building was, it’s not as if the fall could have saved him. Hitting the curb at a terminal velocity of between 50 and 60 metres per second, probably head first, is certain to result in death, perhaps immediately. Which seems to answer the question: he was jumping for the comfort of an instant, possibly painless death.

He is not just going away from something, but also towards something else. He’s sprinting to his bodily demise, about 54 metres closer to it with every passing second; sprinting towards freedom. This man may not even precisely know what has happened, let alone the modus operandi behind it. Nevertheless, he’s not going to let it decide his fate. He is going to embrace his destiny, without letting someone else decide the moment and manner that he must die. He is not going to spend his last moments choking on concrete fumes. He’ll breathe free, perhaps freer than he has ever done before, and in the small metaphorical window that he has, he is going to govern the terms of his death. It is not suicide, but rather the ultimate act of rebellion.

The attacks, immediately termed “9/11”, would go on to redefine the relationship between state and society, even for people who, in another era, wouldn’t even have seen the news of the incident.

9/11 marked the start of the global War on Terror, the Great War of our time. The attacks resulted in 2,996 immediate (attack time) deaths, including the 19 hijackers and citizens of over 90 countries. Additionally, 1,140 responders and people in lower Manhattan at the time have since been diagnosed with cancer, whom the U.S. government famously denied healthcare benefits for a decade. 9/11 also led directly to the U.S. war in Afghanistan, as well as additional homeland security spending, and was cited as a rationale for the Iraq war, although intelligence organisations and think tanks globally have failed to grasp the latter.

The war in Afghanistan is estimated to have resulted in 3,466 “coalition deaths” and between 18,000 and 20,000 Afghan civilian casualties. As of 2010, there had been 16,623 Iraqi military and police deaths, and as per a 2008 estimate by ORB International, 946,000 to 1,120,000 civilian deaths (“48% died from a gunshot wound, 20% from the impact of a car bomb, 9% from aerial bombardment…”). I wouldn’t blame you if you skimmed over the numbers, because that’s all that they’ve become now. Another number to reflect upon is 5 trillion, a figure that the cost of these two wars surpassed in U.S. dollars a while ago, while we are still counting the number of dips in the global recession.

9/11 also heralded a U.S. government shift toward Israel’s response to Palestinian terror, and was a crucial step in Israel gaining American approval for military incursions in the West Bank in 2002. This legitimised further rounds of the Gaza war including the most recent one, which, as the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reports, displaced 25% of the population, and killed a total 2,104 people in the Gaza Strip, including 1,462 civilians, which itself includes 495 children and 253 women. Numerous other accounts of inhumanity lay buried in statistics that I am choosing to skip for brevity.

A lot else changed, and 9/11 has resulted in new attitudes and concerns about defence and vigilance worldwide. For the U.S., it brought along policies like the Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act of 2001 (USA PATRIOT Act for short), which prioritised national security at the expense of civil liberties.

This curtailment of rights extended beyond the American borders, and full body scans, frisking, and a general air of hostility became ubiquitous across public infrastructure worldwide. Racial and other forms of discrimination were similarly institutionalised as scaremongering took over most of the democratic world, and memories of cold war paranoia were revived.

This year also saw the centenary of the start of the original Great War, the WWI. Every major war since has seen its fair share of remembrance and commemoration, and some accompanying decoration and symbolism. In Britain, the Tomb of the Unknown Warrior was created at Westminster Abbey, in France La tombe du soldat inconnu was placed in the Arc de Triomphe, and India followed with an eternal flame burning next to a rifle capped by war helmet beneath the India Gate. The British Unknown Warrior even made it to the “100 Great Britons” list as per a 2002 poll. In all of these monuments, the anonymity of the entombed soldier is key, and represents everyone who fell in service of the nation.

Unlike previous global combats, our current great war has never been formally declared to be taking place between specific nations or armed units. In fact, it’s a war that governments have been fighting against citizens, one in which we have all been drafted (or as my phone poetically auto-corrected, “dragged”) as soldiers, non-consensually fighting it out simply by struggling to live through it.

It’s about time that we too started celebrating these soldiers by identifying a symbol to mark the graves of the unknown serving in the war. Let us build our monuments with a powerful emblem from our time. It could be called an image of despair, of freedom, or simply, of our newfound reality.

It was never Jonathan Briley in the photograph after all. It was us. The symbol of this war is not a fallen soldier, but a falling one.

Shrey Goyal is a global development professional and climate change geek, and runs the Sustainable Growth Initiative, Delhi.

* Strictly speaking, the people who fell to their deaths on Sept. 11 are not classified as “jumpers.” “A ‘jumper’ is somebody who goes to the office in the morning knowing that they will commit suicide,” as per the New York medical examiner’s office.

About the Sunday Guardian

A weekly newspaper for the discerning readers. Based in Delhi, it is also published simultaneously in London- under the name ‘India on Sunday’. 

The newspaper is a brainchild of leading Indian journalist and author, MJ Akbar— who has donned numerous attires in his four-decade-long career and has been part of many innovations in the Indian media industry.

The post The Great Fall: 9/11 and the New Social Contract appeared first on Shrey Goyal.

This also gave me a neat excuse to return to IIT Madras and refresh my memories of its pristine campus which I roamed during technical and cultural festivals in the decade gone by, and later during stints at the neighbouring IIT-M Research Park. Where else can you bike down Bonn Avenue for breakfast at Tiffany’s and have to stop for a couple of deer fighting it out over a doe as a bemused blackbuck looks by, and all while half-a-dozen monkeys ransack your guest house room because you didn’t shut a window properly. I may be exaggerating a bit there: the monkeys were very well-behaved and just wanted a break from the sun.

Breakfast at Tiffany’s canteen, IIT Madras.

A post shared by Shrey Goyal (@shreygoyal) on Jan 5, 2018 at 6:16pm PST

I plan to share a few examples of innovative business models and startup interventions in the sustainability space that I have come across over the years in various capacities. I’ll also cover some upcoming trends. The overarching idea is to showcase the variety of opportunities and even greater variety of approaches to tap said opportunities that lie on the path to sustainable development.

Ashish is the director of Vision Ecologica, a company that specialises in microbial services and waste management, and Swapnil is the co-founder and CTO of Ather Energy, where he oversees the system design of vehicle and related technical development.

You can read about the event and speakers on Youth Ki Awaaz at 3 Inspiring Green Energy Entrepreneurs You Must Catch At IIT Madras.

Join us at ‘Startup Talks’ this afternoon. More updates soon.

The post ‘Startup Talk’ at IIT Madras appeared first on Shrey Goyal.

You marched with other seven-year-old girls,

Singing songs of freedom at dawn in rural Gujarat,
Believing that would shame the British and they would leave India.

Five years later, they did.

You smiled,
When you first saw Maghool Fida Husain’s nude sketches of Hindu goddesses,
And laughed,
When I told you that some people wanted to burn his art.

‘Have those people seen any of our ancient sculptures?Those are far naughtier.’
You said.

Your voice broke,
On December 6,1992.
As you called me at my office in Singapore,
When they destroyed the Babri Masjid.

‘We have just killed Gandhi again,’ you said.

We had.

Aavu te karaay koi divas(Can anyone do such a thing any time?)
You asked, aghast,
Staring at the television,
As Hindu mobs went, house-to-house,
Looking for Muslims to kill,
After a train compartment in Godhra burned.
Killing 58 Hindus in February 2002.

You were right, each time.

After reading what I’ve been writing over the years,
Some folks have complained that I just don’t get it.

I live abroad: what do I know of India?

But I knew you; that was enough.

And that’s why I turned out this way.

The post Thoughts on Gandhi Jayanti: ‘My Mother’s Fault’ by Salil Tripathi appeared first on Shrey Goyal.

Various media reports have quoted ISRO chairman K.Radhakrishnan saying “We are working at a possible model for investment, sharing of technology and responsibility with the industries. The response from the industries – public and private – is positive. It will take three or four years to arrive at a proper model”. While he did not confirm if the model will be based on public-private-participation, he did mention that the industries’ participation is sought to increase the production of satellites and rockets so that ISRO can focus on other core areas.

The Indian organisation is not the only space research agency to express this sentiment. If we can go back to a Thursday evening less than 22 months ago, human space exploration took another giant leap, one that was concluded with a splash from a safe water landing of the Dragon capsule 900 kilometres off the coast of Los Angeles. The first privately built and operated spacecraft to ever deliver cargo to the International Space Station had just touched the Pacific Ocean, and Space Exploration Technologies Corporation, or SpaceX, had arrived.

Image by NASA (1984)

What is interesting is that Dragon was hardly a technological breakthrough. But it was a breakthrough nonetheless, for a private company had now matched the orbital delivery capability previously exhibited only by a handful of government-owned and operated space agencies in a small selection of nation states. And as post-analysis (2012) would later confirm, every benchmark was met by the low-Earth orbit (LEO) voyage, and NASA’s Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) program had been validated.

LEO had been the destination for NASA’s space shuttles for nearly four decades before their recent retirement. Unsafe, expensive, and messy, the space shuttle program had become an exercise in inertia for NASA, holding it back from achieving the dreamy-eyed forefronts of outer space exploration which have been explored only in certain futuristic genres of fiction so far.

Through COTS, NASA has practically outsourced LEO operations to private contractors such as SpaceX, raising hopes that it may get back on the dream voyage of the solar system and beyond.

Similarly, when Expedition 38 crewmembers Michael Hopkins of NASA and Koichi Wakata of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) de-mated the solar-powered Cygnus commercial spacecraft during its first trip to the International Space Station earlier this year, it was only the beginning of what is expected to be a space traffic jam of sorts (Kremer, 2014) on the ISS route. America’s newest commercial space freighter, built by Orbital Sciences Corporation with seed money from NASA, had also taken up where the shuttles had left off, and restored NASA’s capabilities through a public-private partnership.

Private Participation in Space: Past and Present

It’s not as if private participation has never been a part of space exploration: Boeing and Lockheed Martin have been working with NASA for decades. The difference is that those “cost-plus” arrangements, where companies are reimbursed the cost of a project plus a guaranteed profit, totally ignored competition and even provided incentive for inefficiency (Anderson, 2013).

All that has changed with the dawn of the Space Act Agreements, NASA’s vehicle for partnering with commercial players. Now, NASA pays in increments only once milestones are met, and management and design are left to private companies, thus fostering collaboration and assigning greater decision-making and responsibility. This development should be understood keeping in mind the fact that privatization is not simply a governance or management exercise, but rather a philosophical position. As put forth by E.S. Savas (2000), “Privatization is the act of reducing the role of government or increasing the role of the private institutions of society in satisfying people’s needs; it means relying more on the private sector and less on government.” Thus, while space has traditionally been the playing ground for state agencies, Space Act Agreements are the first sign of a new move towards private participation, one that has now been validated by the performance of players such as SpaceX and Orbital Science.

What PPPS Bring to the table

Increased Competition & Lower Costs

Traditional partnership practices involved dealing with heavy bureaucracy and fundamental changes in the way commercial companies operate. While a little regulation is welcome, NASA has earlier asked private partners for tracking all employees’ activities, whether engaged in the project or not (Commercial Spaceflight Federation, 2011). Since not many private players could bear to participate under these terms, relatively few players were involved with little or no meaningful competition. Since PPPs are not governed in this manner, many more companies and subcontractors are now encouraged to participate, and low-cost, innovative solutions are possible.

The results are already in from the COTS Cargo development program, which has already achieved successes at a fraction of the cost of a traditional government launch-vehicle program. In a hypothetical scenario, if NASA were to use traditional approaches, the costs may very well have become prohibitively high and led to cancellation of the development program.

Greater Flexibility

As opposed to government-led programs, PPP programs such as SAAs are designed to contain virtually anything both parties agree to include, and can thus be flexible to be easily tailored as needed. Thus, state agencies can forever be rid of the rigid, irrelevant, and counterproductive provisions and procedures that they may had to engage in when dealing with private players in the past, reducing redundancy and improving cost-efficiency and performance.

Lesser Burden on Public Investment

Parallel can be drawn between the public investment so far on state-run space agencies such as NASA and the U.S. government’s early support of the railroad and the aviation industry. Development of basic infrastructure and technology is the government’s prerogative, and as with the latter, it was the government’s aggressive investment in infrastructure that laid the foundation for private companies to succeed. The same is true for space exploration.

Now, funding from both public and private sources can be used for developing capabilities for space exploration for both commercial and government purposes. Private investment can thus enable a program to achieve the same result at a lower cost to the government. A NASA (2011) analysis concluded that SpaceX was able to build its Falcon 9 rocket for about one-third of what the agency would have spent on a similar project under its traditional model.

Greater Innovation at Private AND Public End

As opposed to complete privatization, PPPs with established state-run space agencies with a long track record and successful execution of joint projects can provide private spaceflight companies with the legitimacy and the regulatory nod needed to bring traditional investors to the table. As greater private investment flows into research and development, greater innovation can come in from the sector, while NASA grapples with shrinking science budgets and limited resources.

In the meanwhile, PPPs also free state agencies to no longer use precious managerial and financial resources on what has already been explored, and allows them to simply outsource the already explored frontiers to private companies, leaving them free to move on to bigger things. Eventually, a model could evolve where the state-run agencies are solely involved in pushing the envelope on deeper outer space research, while private companies run transport and tourism infrastructure within established boundaries

Safety with Sovereignty

As space partnerships move from a manager-contractor relationship between the state and private players to join ownership and collaboration, companies are now free to focus on the most essential aspects of a program, meeting the requirements for performance and safety at a reduced cost. NASA’s experience with SAAs shows that despite non-state collaboration, safety and performance requirements do not have to be put up for debate. Adequate insight versus oversight level and processes written into PPP agreements can ensure safety and preparedness as necessary.

Another interesting aspect of PPP models is the less reliance on other governments for expanding capacity and engaging in join programs. For example, since the end of the space shuttle program, NASA has relied on Russia to take its astronauts to space in Soyuz rockets. Given the current sanctions against Russia and the looming clouds of another cold war, this can adversely affect space programs and planning. With private participation though, NASA could’ve simply hired commercial companies for space taxi services. This is especially relevant since SpaceX says that it could provide rides to NASA astronauts at $20 million a seat, a third of the Russian price (Chang, 2012).

The Way Forward

The partnership between NASA and private companies through Space Act Agreements show a new level of understanding and cooperation between the public and private sectors, and give some hints of how commercial space travel and exploration may unfold in the future. It is not beyond a few years before Virgin Galactic and Space Adventures go for suborbital joy rides to space, for which hundreds have already signed up. As of now the list mostly comprises of the Tom Hanks and Katy Perrys of the world, but it’s only a matter of time before a mass market appears.

In the longer-term dreams, Elon Musk is vocal about how he plans to satisfy humanity’s needs to get to Mars within a decade or two. Musk, the founder of SpaceX, had also famously said that he would do this “with or without NASA”, but later acknowledged that they could not have started SpaceX, nor reached this point without their help.

Thus, the support and cooperation of the state is of foremost importance as well. And with 60 missions scheduled during the 12th plan period, India seems ready to launch already!

——————————————————————————-

Cross-posted from my NewsYaps column. A modified version of the piece was published by Project Firefly on their thought leadership blog on April 17, 2014. I have previously written about ISRO in ‘Jai Vigyan?’

The work references the following sources:

National Post editorial board on SpaceX: The ultimate public-private partnership. (2012, June). National Post. Retrieved April 1, 2014, from http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2012/06/01/national-post-editorial-board-on-spacex-the-ultimate-public-private-partnership/
Anderson, C. (2013). Rethinking public–private space travel. Space Policy, 29(4), 266–271. doi:10.1016/j.spacepol.2013.08.002
Chang, K. (2012, May 14). Contracts Help Private Sector Edge Deeper Into Space. The New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/15/science/space/contracts-help-private-sector-edge-deeper-into-space.html
Commercial Spaceflight Federation. (2011, June). CSF Issues White Paper on Use of Space Act Agreements – Commercial Spaceflight Federation. Retrieved April 1, 2014, from http://www.commercialspaceflight.org/2011/06/csf-issues-white-paper-on-use-of-space-act-agreements/
Kremer, K. (2014, February 18). Private Cygnus Cargo Carrier departs Space Station Complex. Universe Today. Retrieved April 1, 2014, from http://www.universetoday.com/108050/private-cygnus-cargo-carrier-departs-space-station-complex/
English: Astronaut Dale A. Gardner, having just completed the major portion of his second extravehicular activity (EVA) period in three days, holds up a “For Sale” sign refering to the two satellites, Palapa B-2 and Westar 6 that they retrieved from orbit after their Payload Assist Modules (PAM) failed to fire. Astronaut Joseph P. Allen IV, who also participated in the two EVAs, is reflected in Gardner’s helmet visor. A portion of each of two recovered satellites is in the lower right corner, with Westar 6 nearer Discovery’s aft. (1984). Retrieved from http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Satellites_For_Sale_-_GPN-2000-001036.jpg
NASA, A. D. A. for P. (2011, August). Falcon 9 launch vehicle NAFCOM cost estimates. Retrieved from http://www.nasa.gov/pdf/586023main_8-3-11_NAFCOM.pdf
Savas, E. S. (2000). Privatization and public-private partnerships. Chatham House Pub.

The post Unlimited Opportunities for ISRO: Public-Private Partnerships in Space appeared first on Shrey Goyal.

The answer was:

I didn’t say she stole my money.

This sentence has seven different meanings, depending on the stressed word.

P.S. Check my comment for a detailed explanation.

View Answer on Quora

The post What’s the best sentence ever formed? appeared first on Shrey Goyal.

Written by débutante author Sudipto Das, the Ekkos Clan is essentially a mystery novel exploring the lives of multiple generations of a family as they realise a pattern of mysterious deaths and unknown benefactors around them. It’s not the average whodunnit though, and is grounded in a substantial base of research and exploration into our past and the origins of our civilisation. This journey wasn’t made with the aid of tangible historical remains and proofs, which diminish once you try to step further after going back a few millennia, but instead, a more living, breathing form of residue from our ancient past is combed through: language.

Kratu, Sudipto’s protagonist, finds himself suspended deep in a clash between two mysterious forces, and sets on a quest across continents and cultures to find answers to questions that man has posed to himself since gaining sentience: Where did I come from?

The novel starts with the 1946 Noakhali Riots and the struggles of one family through the Partition of Bengal, and swiftly moves to exploring much less pronounced forms of cultural suppression and struggle. In the meanwhile, the hidden nuances of past in our music, literature, and most importantly, language, are looked into, leading to fascinating insights about our past and about our ancestors.

This application of linguistic palaeontology amidst a mystery novel, marked with glimpses of mythology and historical narrative, is unique in an Indian setting, and places both the author and the novel at a space occupied by a very few in the contemporary Indian literary scene.

Another point of interest is how the work has been neatly sprinkled with an array of pop-culture references, from a character’s altruistic choice to work at a rural bank run by a professor in Jobra, to a starry sight of the ‘Brocaded Sky’ that could very well inspire Gulzar (Zariwaale Aasmaan, if you will). I spotted a couple of subtle references to Kharagpur as well (Sudipto being an alumnus of IIT-Kgp), but they’re not likely to be noticed by anyone else aside from those connected with the institution.

With regards to the accuracy of the contents of the book, it should be noted that there is no historical consensus as to the origin of the Aryans or the supposed Indo-European Urheimat, and there possibly may never be. The author has chosen to follow a particular school of thought (which, he admits, may not be universally acceptable), and clearly dove into its depths to maintain faithfulness with it. Whether one agrees with it or not, the book remains a thrilling read, and one can be expected to develop greater understanding and curiosity about this complex subject after having read the book.

Earlier this month, The Ekkos Clan was released in Delhi at the Oxford Bookstore, in presence of acclaimed writer Omair Ahmad. I was also a panelist at the event, and our conversation moved around the book as well as the larger issues of cultural subjugation and its many faces.

When asked why he chose the medium of fiction to showcase his work, Sudipto said that this was because he believed that fiction can draw in many more patrons than perhaps a rigorous academic work, even one which may be investigating the same subject. This seemed to echo a sentiment from the book itself, that magnanimous events which may not survive generations otherwise can survive millennia by being told and retold in the form of fables and bedtime stories.

Discussion moved from the Rig Veda to the ideas of racial supremacy and the Aryan Übermensch, and an interesting thread about the link between patriotism and cultural superiority emerged. The notion of cultural purity is an undying one, and has always found greater magnitude in the presence of foreign cultures. What one generation considers love for the land and country, the next may well consider xenophobia.

Omair espoused the idea that cultural superiority, if it leads to absolutism, becomes a cancer that leads to decline and ultimately demise of the very roots it tried to uphold. This is the fate suffered by many of the ancient languages, held in protective cages by the contemporary clergy class, which are now only left to be studied post-doctorate, not spoken. Or, as Sudipto pointed out, companies, such as Kodak, Nokia, or Blackberry, took less than a few decades (in some cases even half-a-decade) to go from being market-leading innovators to the capitalistic equivalents of failed states. One wonders what the future has in store for today’s large, rabidly-followed cultural icons, religions, and brands (Apple being an example of all three).

On a lighter note, one of the audience members enquired about a growing trend of IITians entering bookshelves in India, and how this particular work ‘fits in’. Many cheeky references to Chetan Bhagat later, we concluded that the Indian Institutes of Technology are just schools or institutions that makes engineers and scientists of students, who are then free to pursue their own interests and passions. Generalising this phenomenon makes little sense, and its best if ‘IIT’ were not treated as a genre of literature.

The race between nationalists and cultural puritans is an unending one, and historical revisionists, conspiracy theorists, and right-wing nutjobs will continue fighting it out, either on the political stage, or at the nether ends of the blogosphere. Meanwhile, the modern Indian is now looking inward with a sense of existential angst. As residents and non-resident Indians alike try to locate India, and themselves, in the wider world, I am sure some of those curiosities can be further fuelled with a reading of the Ekkos Clan.

The post The Modern Indian Looks Back: A Conversation around The Ekkos Clan appeared first on Shrey Goyal.

Excellent review of #PaxIndica by @ShreyGoyal : http://t.co/jBupTGolEF

— Shashi Tharoor (@ShashiTharoor) September 9, 2013

  
I recently read Shashi Tharoor’s Pax Indica: India and the World in the 21st Century. I wrote a review for the same, published on The Northeast Today website (and the upcoming print edition):

India, meet World; World, India!

In an increasingly globalised world, India has been particularly lax on international relations and foreign policy. This is in contradiction with the general atmosphere of tumult raised around discussion of policy and political issues in the country. And why shouldn’t it be so? After all, the man on the street does not care about Sino-Indian trade policies. The college student does not want to know if the MEA has started engaging with Tony Abbott’s administration. Why would a fisherman care about the country’s relationship with SAARC?  Or a housewife about India’s strategic objectives in Africa?

Unless the man happens to be running a small business in Siliguri. Or the student is looking to pursue graduate school in Australia. Or the fisherman’s family lives in constant fear of accidentally entering someone else’s territorial waters and facing dire consequences. Even the housewife, juggling bills for fuel and food, is not left untouched by it all.

Shashi Tharoor’s most recent book, Pax Indica, explains why foreign policy matters for a country like India, and outlines how it could very well be a powerful instrument for her own domestic transformation. Beautifully written, Pax Indica is evocative of an engaging and exciting conversation which, while dotted with tongue-in-cheek anecdotes, misses neither the historical context nor the intricacies of the topic at hand.

In fact, it is important to point out the shades which the author has painted the work in. While Tharoor remains a celebrated scholar in the international relations space, this is not an academic work, but is instead meant to be read and understood by a plethora of readers, from the non-fiction aficionado high-schooler to the geopolitically-inclined. Another interesting amalgamation is that of Tharoor the former UN Under-Secretary General and Tharoor the MP for Thiruvananthapuram, both of whom can be seen and heard.

Pax Indica opens a window to the inner workings of the MEA and other domestic stakeholders in India’s dialogue with the rest of the world. The book also examines these links with different partners in some detail as well. The strategic approach taken by India, especially during the Nehruvian era, is showcased and reflected upon, and helps trace an outline of India’s identity and unique position in the world as a thought leader and as an emblem for self-righteousness and peaceful coexistence.

India’s unique challenges in grasping contemporary matters of flaunting soft power and public diplomacy are also discussed. It is extremely disconcerting for Tharoor as it is for the reader to see the persistence of infrastructural and logistical challenges plaguing India’s foreign policy, such as the understaffed diplomatic corps, the lack of structure, coordination, and personnel planning, and the absence of informed public debates, although the latter has seen some initiative in recent years.

Particularly noteworthy is the chapter on the complexities of living in ‘A Tough Neighbourhood’. India’s leviathan bulk and the sensitivity by which it is obliged to handle matters in the South Asian region make it the proverbial elephant in the room not only in terms of magnitude, but also due to the sheer awkwardness of conduct. Tharoor also laments the decline of the north-eastern states of India, which had a higher per capita income than most of the rest of the nation in 1947, but have since been “the stepchildren of India’s development,” cut-off from the heartland and suffering as a result of poor integration with Bangladesh.

The north-east comes up once again, as Tharoor demonstrates his central thesis that foreign policy, while focused outward, can bring much benefit to domestic populaces. The region can in fact, be thought of to be occupying prime real estate due to its significance not just for international relations but for commerce and tourism. Indeed, the north-east of India can act as a bridge for south Asian integration, linking two economically rich expanses of the continent. The wealth of the region in terms of biodiversity, cultural diversity, energy and mineral resources, and the human resource potential, is vast and waiting to be developed and tapped. India’s ‘Look East’ policy, can thus only be fully appreciated if the seven sisters states, each of whom has a long international border, are developed and revamped to avail of the economic consequences of our new-found kinship.

The book ends with a reminder of this nation’s sovereignty and independence of thought, and calls for realisation of a grand strategy involving a multi-aligned approach and playing a leadership role in shaping of the new world order. This leadership role is not about domination or superpower politics, but rather about a sense of responsibility in instilling global cooperation. A sense of peace that India can bring to the world. Pax Indica.

***

(Source: India, meet World; World, India!)

I was later pleasantly surprised to see Shashi Tharoor retweet me as well as share my review on his own twitter account (embedded above) and facebook page:

About The Northeast Today

TNT – The Northeast Today magazine was launched in August 2007, and in a short time, has become the highest-selling magazine in Northeast India. TNT is known for its all-round coverage and primarily covers current affairs, politics, music, sports, cuisine, lifestyle, health and travel. The magazine is currently the number one magazine from the region.

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There is a mysterious cycle in human events. To some generations much is given. Of other generations much is expected. This generation of Americans has a rendezvous with destiny.

— Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Speech before the 1936 Democratic National Convention, Philadelphia, June 27, 1936

It was the above quoted speech that inspired independent India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru’s “Tryst With Destiny,” considered to be one of the greatest orations of all time, delivered on the midnight which gave way to the 15th of  August, 2013, exactly 66 years ago from now. Its opening lines are often remembered during this time of the year:

Long years ago we made a tryst with destiny, and now the time comes when we shall redeem our pledge, not wholly or in full measure, but very substantially. At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom.

A relatively forgotten passage from the same speech goes on:

The future beckons to us. Whither do we go and what shall be our endeavour? To bring freedom and opportunity to the common man, to the peasants and workers of India; to fight and end poverty and ignorance and disease; to build up a prosperous, democratic and progressive nation, and to create social, economic and political institutions which will ensure justice and fullness of life to every man and woman.

We have hard work ahead. There is no resting for any one of us till we redeem our pledge in full, till we make all the people of India what destiny intended them to be.

These words marked the end of a hundred-year-struggle for freedom. Wonder how long it’ll take this time.

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Insightful, humorous, and disturbing, this work of non-fiction is the story of millions of invisible men that that toil around us everyday, building our cities (and breaking them down when asked to), preparing our meat, selling us lemons… Aman Sethi explores not just the mazdoor, but the philosopher, the entrepreneur, and the struggle to be free. Vaguely reminiscent of The White Tiger by its synopsis, A Free Man is an achievement in journalism, a masterpiece in ‘development journalism’, and is the only book that I can describe with the phrases ‘very funny’ and ‘reads like a war documentary,’ simultaneously.

You can sample it out from an excerpt at The Caravan.

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