#51 The First TechnoPolitik Weekendition
On Pipes and Pipe Dreams, India’s Plate Full of Tech Partnerships, A Geo-Economics Perspective on Seaweed
Starting this week, we are making a few changes to TechnoPolitik; expect to see regular briefs and updates tracking recent tech and geo-political developments in upcoming Wednesday editions, as well as more long-form articles ruminating on interesting areas every other Saturday.
If you would like to contribute to TechnoPolitik, reach out to us at satya@takshashila.org.in.
Cyberpolitik : On Pipes and Pipe Dreams
— Bharath Reddy
We typically think of our communication networks as pipes. Debates around net neutrality have made it the norm that it does not matter what flows in those pipes. The expectation is that one should be able to use their 4G/5G data connection to text or call someone, check on their social media, or watch their favourite movies on apps of their choice.
This debate was expected to have been settled. But on July 7th, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) put out a consultation paper for a regulatory mechanism for Over-The-Top (OTT) and on selective banning of OTT services. The document defines OTT services as “application accessed and delivered over the public Internet that may be a direct technical/ functional substitute for traditional international telecommunication services.” It lists Whatsapp, Telegram, and Skype as examples of such OTT services.
The arguments in favour of regulating OTT services are that telecom operators need a licence and must comply with several laws for offering voice and SMS services. On the other hand, OTT services are not bound by the same requirements, and hence there is a need for parity.
The other area of consultation is to consider whether a selective banning of OTT services can be done instead of shutting down the entire Internet. This is based on a request by the Parliamentary Standing Committee on IT and is meant to avoid the disruption caused by total Internet shutdowns.
The former has severe implications for innovation. WhatsApp or Telegram have enabled communication far beyond what is possible through a text message or a voice call. They connect people worldwide at a fraction of the cost of a conventional text message or voice call. It is a fundamentally different offering than a text or a voice call. Such apps would not exist without obtaining licenses for every region they operate in.
On the latter, it is a feature of the information age that societies are radically networked. Information spreads fast, and there are perils that come with it. People have more information from more sources than they have the bandwidth to process. But selective banning of applications is no solution. Not only would it disrupt functional communication on the same apps, but it would lead to the adoption of another equivalent service or the use of tools to bypass the ban.
As we all are stakeholders impacted by this, we should pitch in with our comments on the consultation process. Lest the way we communicate is reduced to a pipe dream.
Matsyanyaaya 1 : India’s Plate Full of Tech Partnerships
— Anushka Saxena
India is preparing to play a significant role in the emerging geo-technological dynamics of global politics. With the US-China tech contestation reaching new heights amidst China’s recently announced export controls on critical minerals such as Gallium and Germanium, India is leveraging its partnership with the US in various tech-related fields.
To begin with, late last month, the visit of the Indian Prime Minister to Washington DC, and his subsequent meetings with top US policymakers, industry leaders, and academic experts, led to the announcement of a slew of partnerships between the two countries. Of these, those that make the top of the list pertain to the co-production of GE F414 jet engines, a coveted defense technology the US has shared only with select partners, and the procurement of General Atomics MQ-9Bs Sea Guardian drones. They form part of the grandiose ‘INDUS-X’ agenda announced recently by the two sides, which features collaboration on various aspects of industrial and military complexes.
The visit also came just a month after the first anniversary of the announcement of the iCET (Initiative on Critical and Emerging Technologies) between India and the US, which, since Indian National Security Advisor Ajit Doval visited the US in January 2023, has seen materialization of key joint research initiatives in AI, quantum, biotech, space, advanced computing, and more. Last week, India joined the US-led Mineral Security Partnership (MSP) initiative, with only 13 members worldwide (India being its only ‘developing’ member country). This strategic partnership aims to secure and build a resilient supply chain for critical minerals globally. And, of course, India’s signing of the Artemis Accords last month has also led the country to become part of the US’s shortlist of allies planning to send a crewed flight to the moon by 2025-26 (please refer to our previous edition for a more detailed note on this).
India is also working proactively on progressing its Economic Cooperation and Trade Agreement (ECTA) with Australia. Just a week ago, Indian Union Minister Piyush Goyal met with Australian Agriculture Minister Murray Watt to expand the two sides’ collaboration on agriculture and fisheries as part of ECTA and even integrate sustainable technologies in the process. ECTA came into effect in December last year and also provides opportunities to Indian students in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) to pursue their degrees from Australia and even get easy post-graduate work visas.
On the other hand, things are not going so well with the India-Taiwan tech partnership. A day ago, Taiwan’s Foxconn Technology Group retracted its association from its joint venture with Indian conglomerate Vedanta Limited, the venture being the establishment of a 28 nm semiconductor fab under the name ‘Vedanta Foxconn Semiconductors Ltd.’ in India. Rajeev Chandrasekhar, Indian Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology, tweeted that it was well-known that both companies had no prior experience or technology and were expected to source fab technology from a technology partner. Apparently, this lack of an appropriate partner led Foxconn to withdraw from the proposal. However, it issued a statement promising to “continue to strongly support the government’s ‘Make In India’ ambitions and establish a diversity of local partnerships that meet the needs of stakeholders.” It remains to be seen if a new set of proposals will come to the table vis-a-vis the semiconductor partnership between India and Taiwan.
Click here to learn more about the Graduate Certificate in Public Policy (Technology Policy) Programme!
Matsyanyaaya 2 : A Geo-Economics Perspective on Seaweed
— Devleena Bhattacharjee
Guess what your toothpaste, an ice-cold Frappe, and biodegradable plastic have in common?
The answer is seaweed.
For the uninitiated, seaweed is a macro alga produced by the ocean.
You might have heard about seaweed in the context of Sushi, but it has far broader applications across multiple industries apart from just food.
We call it the 6 F’s – Food, Feed, Fertiliser, Fuel, Fiber, and Farma
(Pardon the creative liberty with the Ph).
But wait, there is more. One Google search or Amazon search on seaweed will throw you umpteen cosmetic names offering various skin-friendly applications of seaweed.
And very soon, your neighbouring microbrewery might sport a new favourite seaweed-brewed beer.
Cheers to that. But till then, let us look at specific steps to make that beer available faster.
What makes seaweed more interesting is that you might be contributing to global climate-proofing by using seaweed-based products.
Seaweed is completely naturally grown. All it needs are just ample sunshine and salt water, no fertiliser. It is not only carbon negative, but seaweed also absorbs a high amount of Co2, which ranks it very high on carbon sequestration ability, making our oceans healthy.
Seaweed helps in increasing the overall ocean biodiversity. Any seaweed farm, be it the sizeable moving sargassum bloom in the Pacific or a small community-based farm, seaweeds offer a rich oceanic habitat for fishes and other marine animals. You can see fish eggs, tiny fishes, and turtles symbiotically growing, feeding on the seaweed.
And the value-adds from seaweed are bio-derived but also bio-degradable and bio-compostable. Know the difference between the three here.
By the ocean, of the ocean, from the oceans
So, seaweed is environment-friendly, ocean-friendly, and has many business applications.
In short, the whole package offers a true-blue circular economic model.
There are over 12,000 species of seaweed documented so far. India alone has around 434 indigenous species. And with the struggling marine fishing sector, seaweed has been a low-cost, easy-to-adopt, locally available additional livelihood option for many coastal families globally.
Seaweed cultivation has been life-altering for the many struggling coastal economy. The success stories are plenty; you can look up one from Zanzibar for reference. Up to 85% of work in a seaweed farm is women-led, so while the men of the family are fishing in the sea, the women can bring in additional bucks through seaweed farming, taking less than 4 hours per day.
Now, with all these business possibilities and a deep equitable and earth-friendly impact, why do we not hear more of it in India? Why is our struggling fisheries sector not adopting it, or why is your supermarket rack not sporting a seaweed-based snack? It is a complex subject, and it merits building a narrative to stress the need for seaweed cultivation in India from an economic, impact, climate, and geopolitical lens.
I discuss how seaweed cultivation nicely ties into India’s current G20 priorities and the G20 High-Level Principles on Lifestyles for Sustainable Development. The recent India-US joint statements speak of technological collaborations focusing on green technology, climate change, sustainable agriculture, and maritime domain awareness, all of which can be exploited through a shared seaweed agenda.
Taking the opportunity, I also take you through a set of suggested guidelines for a seaweed policy, whose sole purpose will be to boost seaweed cultivation in India, starting at the margins and scaling up volumes to replace some of the $24.7 billion worth of crude oil imports we did in Q1FY22.
A drop in the ocean
35 million tons of seaweed was produced globally in 2021, with India contributing to just about 0.02% of global production. Cultivating even 5% of India’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), an area of 100 lakh hectares, can yield a potential for 50 million jobs and a carbon sequestration capacity of 10 Cr tons or 100 million tons. India generated 2.7 Billion tons of CO2 in 2021.
A target of 11.2 Million tons of seaweed production by 2025 is being promoted by the Prime Minister himself. The Central Marine Fisheries Institute (CMFRI) did a study on 342 potential sites of seaweed cultivation in India, and the government has allotted a budget of 642 crore exclusively under the Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampada Yojana (PMMSY) to promote seaweed culture. The recent G20 summit also spoke about seaweed cultivation to realise the G20’s agenda for sustainability.
This report talks about how except for landlocked nations in the EU, the G20 member countries represent 45% of the world’s coastline, 65% of the world’s population, and contributes to 84% of the global economy. However, we also contribute to 79% of the world’s carbon emissions. So, the G20 nations must plan towards using frameworks for Collective Actions for Sustainable Development to work towards rebuilding global marine health, a US$3 trillion economy.
Source:https://static.pib.gov.in/WriteReadData/specificdocs/documents/2023/mar/doc202336166901.pdf
The current seaweed story in India is similar to the aquaculture industry in the early 80s. It needs training and technology to increase supply and market development to create demand.
Anything related to marine is more complex than land. India’s territorial waters and the EEZ is a complex overlap of multiple jurisdictions spread over areas controlled by the coastal police, the coast guards, and the navy. These are then layered with state and local fisheries departments and maritime boards. The many departments make it difficult for any seaweed enthusiast to understand whom to seek permission from. And often, when enthusiasts have tried to grow them individually, they have been stopped for the lack of knowledge in asking the proper authorities.
So, the sector needs de-regularisation and decentralisation. We can learn from countries like Tanzania which is much ahead of the curve.
Blue is the new green.
Various recent dialogues are seen cutting across global forums concerning the blue economy. The coastal community, globally, is on the front lines of a shifting climate, experiencing sea-level rise, high sea surface temperatures, ocean pollution, ocean acidification, erosion, and increasing frequency of natural disasters such as tropical storms and cyclones. Given its geographic position, India is highly exposed to the altering coastal climate.
Source: Blue Economy Assets of India: https://maritimeindia.org/blue-economy-and-secured-governance/
The Indian Ocean Blue economic corridor supports a teeming population equivalent to a 3rd of the global population. The Indian Ocean is the world’s third largest body of water and commands 68.5 million square kilometres of a large socio-political and economically thriving mass. We have 3.9 million ha of estuaries, 0.5 million ha of coastal mangroves, 100+ km of salt pans, a brackish water lagoon of 1,100 sq kilometres, and million hectares of open shorelines.
The need of the hour is to arrive at a climate-resilient and sustainable solution for this large economic corridor while taking care of the food security of the affected millions across this coast.
A billion dollars of goodness
Seaweed has long been established as a miracle crop for the environment; however, the business applications of seaweed offer no less economic value. Global markets have pegged seaweed to a $100 Bn market opportunity.
For example, one of the value-added extracts from seaweed can help in substituting a considerable amount of Potash, a key ingredient of any fertiliser, which as a country, we import 100% of our consumption needs. Potash, a source of Potassium, is used both for direct application as well as in combination with ‘N’ & ‘P’ nutrients in NPK fertilisers, which we currently import an amount of 4.5-5.0 MMT (Muriate of Potash) annually, amounting to Rs 10,000 to Rs 15,000 Crore.
Amid rising global concerns for our oceans, land-based Agri capacity saturating, and rising demand for everything sustainable and bio-degradable, seaweed is quite the super healer.
Our green warriors on the blue front
For a 4 million Indian coastal fishing community, fishing days are getting shorter and grimmer. Cultivating seaweed requires little investment of less than Rs 3000 per raft, further subsidised through the PMMSY scheme, and just air and seawater to grow. An average seaweed farm can employ up to 20 farmers and provide up to Rs 20k income per farmer. We have seen many such success stories in Tamil Nadu, a state that has pioneered seaweed cultivation in India, spearheaded by AquAgri, the Indian veterans in this business.
Seaweed is a nexus of SDGs because it helps check the box for multiple SDGs – 2, 10, 12, 13 and 14.
Towards the sea of change
The following are the primary suggestions towards articulating a seaweed policy for India:
1. Upgrade the spatial planning process: Coastal Marine Spatial Planning (CMSP) serves as the initial phase for evaluating requirements and establishing a baseline of the present state of the blue economy. It is crucial to revamp this process in accordance with the evolving coastal climate risk model. By doing so, we can ensure a comprehensive assessment of the changing environmental conditions and optimise the management of coastal resources for sustainable economic growth.
2. Amend the coastal aquaculture act: Let us bring seaweed under the ambit of the Coastal Aquaculture Act and consider similar processes as those applied to shrimp, live ornamental fish, and imports for aquaculture seeds. Once this is done, import, export and domestic production will see less hassled and faster turnaround time.
3. De-regulate imports: Today, most of India’s seaweed production rests on the shoulders of a single strain of red seaweed imported over 60 years ago. Years of vegetative propagation have led to a loss in vigour and reduced productivity. We must de-regulate imports so seaweed cultivators can import fresh and healthy species.
4. Create decentralised nodal agencies: Define nodal agencies across multiple coastal states, with dedicated responsibilities for seaweed import, research, spatial planning, leasing, monitoring and evaluation.
5. Distinguish from fishing regulations: It is imperative to differentiate between fishing regulations and those governing seaweed cultivation vessels to avoid unnecessary operational complexities. The fisheries department officials face difficulties distinguishing between the two, as a single rule book governs them. By establishing separate regulations for each, we can streamline operations and prevent conflicts within the community. This proactive approach will enable effective management of fishing activities and seaweed cultivation, promoting harmony and sustainable growth in the maritime sector.
6. De-risk the sector: Insurance for seaweed cultivators and associated communities to overcome unexpected calamities, weather or biological crop failures. Insurance to seaweed farmers should be added at an annual normal price like PMMJJBY.
A provision for the amendment has been made in a recent 2023 bill and has been tabled before the Expert Committee. We hope this is cleared soon, basis which further de-regulation and market development can be made.
Tools of technology for the Tailwind
Any discourse on seaweed starts with identifying areas in the ocean suitable for growth. Marine spatial planning becomes essential to identify seaweed hotspots and find areas of least conflict with any ongoing fishing activities. Site analysis and identification are done by analysing various marine and weather parameters, none of which is possible using manual methods. Here is where analysing satellite data and modelling it using advanced machine learning models can help in both descriptive and predictive analytics.
The application of space data analysis in combination with IoT gathered in-situ data will reap benefits to the marine sector similar to what satellite data did to the land agriculture sector. Also, being out in the sea, these sites are much more prone to harsh weather conditions, so site identification pre-cultivation and site monitoring during cultivation will be extremely vital. It also ties into the G20 discussion on the use of data to advance the 2030 agenda.
The agenda under climate action talks about using the power of satellite imagery, a strong power India has been building in-house through its space sector advancement. The Indian Space Policy, 2023 talks primarily about collaboration around space. The recently signed Artemis Accords strengthened this dialogue by signalling growing global cooperation in space and using space data for collaborations on Earth.
Strengthening our Geopolitical stance – the deep-sea, tech-for-good, and data-driven impact.
India’s G20 Priorities tread 6 different focus areas, including accelerating progress on SDGs, technological transformations, tech-enabled development in agriculture, and women-led development. Seaweed cultivation is a golden chance for India to tick all of the above.
From improving its neighbouring ocean conditions to building a domestic sustainable circular economy, massive import substitution in agriculture, and alleviating food security issues across impoverished coastal millions, it will enable us to contribute on a large scale to the global commons. And by using the right tools of technology, notably the power of our space sector, we can lead the world in showcasing the power of technology for good.
I conclude with a quote from the English adventurer Sir Walter Raleigh. He wrote, “For whosoever commands the sea commands the trade; whosoever commands the trade of the world commands the riches of the world, and consequently the world itself.”
Seaweed is truly for the oceans, from the oceans, and by the oceans and an essential commodity towards building a more marine-conscious India. And by focusing on seaweed, we should be able to focus on and address other significant problems troubling this sector and bring about change globally.
***
The author is Chair, FICCI Sub-Committee on Fishtech, and a student of Takshashila’s Graduate Certificate (Technology and Policy) Programme.
What’s on our Radar this Week?
[ Journal Article ] Foundation Models and Fair Use, by Peter Henderson et al.
As Takshashila’s High-Tech GeoPolitics team embarks on attempting to formulate a framework to think about AI governance in India’s unique context, this journal article has helped us understand contemporary perspectives on the way the domains of AI and intellectual property rights intersect.
[ Opinion ] Will signing Artemis Accords benefit India? by Aditya Ramanathan
If India wants to make the most of the Accords, what does it need to do? Will ISRO have to hike its space budget?
[ Podcast ] [All Things Policy] Geopolitics & Economics of the Semiconductor Global Value Chain
Satya S. Sahu converses with Prof. Douglas Fuller, author of 'Paper Tigers, Hidden Dragons' as we chart the geopolitics and economics shaping semiconductor global value chains.