This is Nitin Pai's cyberspace.

Privatisation should not ignore the equity dimension
For privatization to be successful, widely accepted and in the public interest, stakeholder mapping should be vastly expanded to cover all sections of society that will be affected by the reforms | 28th Feb 2021

Without the private sector, India’s vaccination rate will be sub-optimal
The current pace of India’s vaccination programme is, paradoxically, both impressive and inadequate. To be effective, it must be ramped up 10-20 times, so that 80 per cent of the population can be protected by the end of the year. | 23rd Feb 2021

Social media is an existential threat to civilisation
This threat is greater and more urgent than that presented by climate change, artificial intelligence, nuclear war, pandemics and terrorism. | 21st Feb 2021

Regarding the military disengagement at Pangong Tso
It is hard to say how long the Chinese side will abide by these terms, after having seen the utility of transgressions in pushing the envelope. | 18th Feb 2021

India must address South East Asian concerns
India’s foreign policy establishment must not miss opportunities to set up economic and maritime cooperation with ASEAN | 14th Feb 2021

Dealing with another coup in Myanmar
For New Delhi, the challenge will be to break out of two popular mind traps: First, that supporting Aung San Suu Kyi is uniformly in India’s interests, and second, that not backing the generals will throw Myanmar into China’s camp. | 9th Feb 2021

Heroic privatisation targets in this year’s Union Budget
The Modi government would do well to stay away from the failed economic policies of the Indira Gandhi and Morarji Desai governments, and find a different route to Atmanirbhar Bharat. | 2nd Feb 2021

What we must regulate when we regulate social media platforms
Public policy should seek to prevent the concentration of narrative rather than market power in social media companies | 31st Jan 2021

A republic on a pedestal vs a republic in daily practice
Yet the sum total of our actions leaves the republic weaker by the day. The crumbling started a couple of generations ago, slowly at first. Now, it is in a landslide. | 26th Jan 2021

Where I get an important thing spectacularly wrong
I had argued that India is unlikely to see a major second wave of Covid-19. | 19th Jan 2021

America’s strategic rivalry with China won’t change under Biden
We should expect some easing of tensions between the two countries this year, starting with a change in language, style and ambience. The underlying divergences, though, won’t go away. | 17th Jan 2021

Covaxin was approved for extra-scientific reasons
India’s healthcare and pharmaceutical industry has the potential to realise the numerous opportunities in a post-pandemic, less China-reliant world. To capture these opportunities, it is more important for the healthcare governance system to be — and be seen as — professional, honest, and transparent. | 5th Jan 2021

The big convergence challenge that we face in this new decade
Our opportunities and risks lie in how technology intersects with health, society and geopolitics | 3rd Jan 2021

Blocking Sci-Hub will hurt the public interest
Protecting copyright in the academic publishing space is tantamount to protecting the rent-seeking business model of publishers. Public policy should have little patience for business models that restrict knowledge. | 29th Dec 2020

India needs two maritime theatre commands
The Arabian Sea, the Persian Gulf, the Bay of Bengal and the Straits of Malacca are all connected to the Indian Ocean, but have distinct names for reasons of history, geography and the resulting politics. Strategy should recognise this reality. | 22nd Dec 2020

Social trust is essential for cyber security
Information-sharing among various stakeholders under a clear set of rules is vital for the country to stave off cyber threats | 20th Dec 2020

The real problem is that we have too little republic
A democracy decides on issues based on popularity, often according to the will of the majority. A republic qualifies majority decisions by forcing them to be consistent with a set of principles that even majorities cannot violate. | 15th Dec 2020

India needs a revival of republicanism
In a country where there are thousands of interest groups, with millions of grievances, the dissolution of constitutional constraints is a recipe for turmoil. | 15th Dec 2020

India’s slide into constitutional grey zone
We must recognise that our political culture has swung too much towards populism, and that constitutional methods and the promise of justice are not only nice principles but also crucial to holding this country together. | 8th Dec 2020

Intelligence agencies must track ecological threats and epidemics
Covid-19 has brought home the fact that India must have independent means of acquiring information that has a vital bearing on our health, economy and security. | 6th Dec 2020

Parliament is not an optional accessory
The Narendra Modi government could have avoided farmer unrest and protests had it adopted a broad-based social consultation process and taken its time to put the farm bills through the parliamentary process. | 1st Dec 2020

Nations are hurting themselves in their big fight with Big Tech
In trying to see off the challenge from transnational tech platforms, nation-states are not only compromising their values, but also undermining their interests. | 22nd Nov 2020

A sensible policy towards firecrackers is possible
An abrupt nationwide ban on firecrackers is a bad idea. It creates noise, smoke and fire, not light. There is a better way. | 17th Nov 2020

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