Lt Gen Shamsher Singh Mehta (retd)

The Prime Minister’s clarion call on Atmanirbharta has been interpreted in many ways. One obvious direction is 6G. It is time to step out of the followers’ and adopters’ mindset. 2G, 3G, 4G… 5G.

It is now time to lead: As with any strategic endeavour on a national scale, 6G will first have to find support among the political leadership and the technology champions in India. We have had space and nuclear programmes that have displayed our skill and resolve. Our next mission around 6G will have to move to a different level with full and enduring support. India cannot become Atmanirbhar by neglecting its intellectual capital. India has to invest in diverse fields. Telecom is the leading candidate. It is the super-charger for a digital and multi-trillion dollar economy.

The landscape for R&D in the telecom sector would demand incentivising locally developed technologies, nurturing innovation by start-ups, and developing and deploying technological capability in the digitisation of India. Enabling this will also require getting our youth to pursue education and research careers that will make the 6G mission successful. India’s fortunes to reap the possibilities to transform into a developed digitised economy may be resting on success in harnessing 6G. This is a strategic area with an all-encompassing impact on the economy, technology and national security. More devices (not just phones), in fact every machine, vehicle and human connected with 1,000 times more bandwidth than 5G and applications which were constrained by 4G and 5G will become capable of delivering services of every kind to consumer and business, big and small, thereby generating more wealth and wellbeing for all. Our track record of adopting, following, and catching up with the rest of the world and then scaling up to meet national coverage is passe.

The proposal here is to forge and lead the global research and development by providing anchorage in India. Time is right to build credible and sustaining partnerships with other leaders in telecommunications and computing technologies and join like-minded democracies to make 6G a reality.

Every disruption at the core has the seed of an audacious idea. We need to break free of scratching at the low end of the telecom value chain. The value will not be measured in terms of numbers of antennas, cellphone users, or data consumed and revenues generated but in the sheer magnificence of the applications, use cases and services that will drive the gig economy of tomorrow. Here are three representative examples.

Multi-function ubiquitous citizen devices: The 6G phone of the future will serve as a consumer-services node with sensors and artificial intelligence capabilities. Potentially, it will provide high-fidelity information on personal health indicators, micro-pollution and toxicity levels, quality of food, and at home, work and play an immersive interactive experience with devices, gadgets and systems. Potentially for India, this will see the emergence of simple, easy-to-wear-and-carry devices with a huge set of digital capabilities. This will help the paramedics, educators and agro-technicians to jumpstart the village ecosystems with little or limited need for on-site presence of doctors, professors and agro-experts.

Environmental resource mapping and pervasive collection of data: Research also shows that devices and phones will be able to help build a level of granular visibility into the land, water and underground resources of India like never before. Apart from providing services to the user of a phone, the device acts as a sensor and data collector and aggregator on a 24×7 basis, backhauling all the intelligence into the national environmental repository for generation of live and real-time information and intelligence for use by farmers, weathermen and field staff.

Optimising mass public transportation through micro-location and micro-scheduling: The 6G phones, devices and systems of the future will also provide precise position location accuracy and ranging that will let us know exactly where we are, down to the centimetre. For India, such an enabling set of technologies will bring manifold utilisation of scarce rail, air and road networks and make mass transportation far more efficient; artificial intelligence (AI) and massively parallel computing architectures will help solve transportation and scheduling operations research problems.

The three musts: One, this effort will have to be government-led to bootstrap new areas of R&D in AI, materials, radio frequency, biological sciences, computer science and telecommunications. As a modest start, this seeding of R&D is best balanced between the universities, government labs and the Indian private sector with a previous record of R&D success. Two, governance of this national mission will need to look at a model outside of the government; Mission 6G will have to remain unfettered by the traditional bureaucratic processes and systems and will have to be enabled by a legislation which frees up entrepreneurial energies, mission management capacities and resource mobilisation mechanisms from existing governmental controls and procurement practices. An outreach to the best minds around the world, with attractive remuneration models, to lead the R&D sub-missions will help. Three, innovation in funding and supporting this massive investment vehicle(s) will have to be worked out outside of the outlays — the expected spend just to arrive at the initial standards and architectural components of the concept will be in the range of a few billions of dollars.

Way to go

• Indicate the intention for pursuit of 6G by announcing a long-term vision, a multi-year (multi-decade) plan, strong investments, and minimal bureaucracy. These new tech initiatives (6G/telecom, AI, quantum computing etc.) should come directly under the PMO (like the space and nuclear programmes).
• Execute the new electronics manufacturing policy as stated in the India Trillion Dollar Digital Opportunity document (2019) of the Ministry of Electronics and IT.
• Raise our ambition to not just providing leaderships for the Googles and Microsofts of the world, but creating them in our own Indian innovation eco system based on the strong foundation of ‘Talent, Technology and Trust’.

We need to replicate the space and nuclear technologies mission experience which achieved self-reliance and self-confidence or Atmanirbharta. Technology leadership for a better world should be our gift to the world and to ourselves. Leadership in 6G may be the best way to celebrate 2047, our centenary of Independence.

What Mission 6G does to the future of warfare, and by implication national security, is for another day.

MK Bhadrakumar

Former Ambassador

Iran makes a difficult partner for a dominating big power but is a natural ally in an equal relationship. What Iran cherished most about India was its strategic autonomy and independent foreign policy. When India changed, the relationship changed. Ironically, the best years of that relationship straddled the commencement of India’s ties with Israel and the turnaround in US-Indian ‘post-Soviet’ relationship. But Tehran never bore a grudge. The mutual trust remained intact so long as we took care not to trample upon Iran’s core interests or let predators come down into town to prey — which Tehran reciprocated. Those were halcyon days.

Therefore, India should try to understand the impending 25-year cooperation agreement dubbed Sino-Iranian Comprehensive Strategic Partnership. But there’s much more to it than meets the eye. Indian analysts are not even aware that Beijing is also negotiating comprehensive partnership agreements with Saudi Arabia and the UAE, Iran’s archetypal rivals.

Han Zheng, politburo standing committee member of the Chinese Communist Party and senior vice-premier is reportedly handling the partnership negotiations with Saudi Arabia while Yang Jiechi, politburo member who also holds the key position of director of the office of foreign affairs of the party’s central committee, is steering negotiations with the UAE. To be sure, Beijing attaches the highest importance to its partnerships with Riyadh and Abu Dhabi.

China has no ‘favourites’ in the region. Congruence of interests, rationally determined from long-term perspective, provides the bedrock of China’s regional policies. China pursues a balanced approach to the Persian Gulf region. Saudi Arabia was its chosen partner to build China’s strategic oil reserve. But the UAE is the frontline of China’s expanding influence in the region. The UAE fascinates Beijing not only as a transport and trade hub that links east and west, but also as aspirant to a brave new world.

The UAE state-run telecommunications companies have awarded 5G cellular network contracts to Huawei. The biggest Covid-19 testing facility outside China is located in Abu Dhabi, a joint venture between Chinese genomics company BGI and the UAE’s artificial intelligence group G42, which is linked to the Emirati royal family.

Turn to Iran, which is in economic distress today due to the US sanctions and the pandemic, and stands to gain if it integrates into the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). The proposed $400-billion agreement with China envisages hundreds of development projects. It addresses Iran’s growing financial and infrastructure needs, and serves the Chinese companies and tech giants’ commercial interests. The capital injection that BRI provides will help fill Iran’s technological development gap as well as provide a new avenue of growth for its transportation system, oil, gas and petrochemical sectors, and ports and industrial zones.

China sees seamless possibilities in the strategic partnership with Iran. It locks in a cheap oil supply and vast natural resources, and an untapped market. In this geo-strategic balancing, both benefit. Succinctly put, China’s Iran policy is influenced by its growing footprint in the Persian Gulf, where Beijing is carefully building a presence based on diversified relationships with regional actors, and with an eye on its global confrontation with the US.

Even if only a fraction of what is envisaged under the proposed Sino-Iranian agreement comes to fruition, it poses a lethal challenge to the Trump administration’s ‘maximum pressure’ campaign towards Tehran. Make no mistake, Beijing is remarkably successful in leveraging economic influence in statecraft. And the UN embargo on transfer of military technology to Iran is expiring in October.

Iran’s induction into BRI connects it with CPEC. This will strengthen CPEC’s resilience and change the trajectory of Iran-Pakistan ties. Last week, China initiated a regional forum with the Central Asian region called ‘China+Central Asia’ (C+C5). The C+C5 ministers — Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan — agreed at their videoconference on July 16 to ‘promote the alignment of BRI to build interconnected partnerships, deepen pragmatic cooperation in various fields, carry out effective investment cooperation, and jointly promote the recovery and development of economy.’

A BRI economic corridor connecting China with Iran across the steppes could significantly ease China’s ‘Malacca dilemma’. However, the most creative part of China-Iran strategic partnership will be the use of yuan in their planned commodity transaction payments. It brings the partnership out of the purview of Western banks and US sanctions.

When an energy superpower takes to yuan currency transactions with the world’s number one energy guzzler, it is most certainly big-time news. ‘Petrodollar’, pillar of Western banking system, may get shaky, which has implications for the US economy. Unsurprisingly, Washington is desperate to get Tehran to the negotiating table. A spate of bomb explosions in Iran recently hints at US covert operations to pile pressure.

The Sino-Iranian saga underscores what is wrong with India’s diplomacy. In 2016, PM Modi and President Xi Jinping visited Tehran to reset their countries’ ties in the wake of the 2015 Iran N-deal that lifted UN sanctions. Chinese diplomacy since raced ahead and India is a dot on its rearview mirror. This happened while India was transitioning as a quasi-ally of the US, and buying up the dream stuff — the Ratnagiri project, et al — that America’s regional allies were merchandising. India looks increasingly like a beached whale, while an exciting, transformative geopolitical landscape is appearing right in the Arabian Sea in the Indian Ocean. India should be extremely wary of taking yet another audacious leap into the dark — in the South China Sea.

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, July 20

The Punjab Police have arrested an Army soldier and three others for their involvement in illegal arms and drug smuggling. The racket was busted last week in which a BSF jawan and three others were nabbed by the Jalandhar (Rural) police.

Director General of Police (DGP) Dinkar Gupta said Ramandeep Singh, who is a soldier, was apprehended from Bareilly in UP, on the basis of disclosures made by BSF Constable Sumit Kumar.

He said three aides of Ramandeep, including Taranjot Singh alias Tanna, Jagjit Singh alias Laddi and Satinder Singh alias Kala would be brought on production warrants. Around Rs 10 lakh has been recovered from Kala thus taking the total amount seized to Rs 42.30 lakh.

Gupta said Sumit had revealed during interrogation that Ramandeep lured him into peddling. The duo was lodged together in Gurdaspur jail after murdering a person.

Gupta said Kala was lodged in Amritsar jail for sometime where he had come in contact of Maulvi alias Mulla, a Pakistani national, who had introduced him to smugglers. He said Kala was shifted to Kapurthala jail where he befriended Tanna.

The DGP said Sumit used to send photographs of fencing and drug-delivery locations to Tanna and Kala. After delivery of the consignment at a pre-determined spot, his accomplices used to collect it and Laddi used to provide his car to transport the contraband. “The accused have smuggled 42 packets of heroin and a 9 mm pistol (with 80 live rounds and two live rounds of .12 bore gun),” the DGP said.

He said out of Rs 39 lakh received as drug proceeds from Pakistan-based smugglers, Rs 32.30 lakh was to be distributed between Sumit and Ramandeep.

Tribune News Service
Srinagar, July 20

Amid the ongoing tension with China along the Line of Actual Control (LAC), the authorities in Kashmir on Monday said that the work on the two tunnels along the strategic Srinagar-Ladakh road was being carried out on a war-footing.

The 6.5-km Z-Morh tunnel and Zojila tunnel are part of the strategic project for ensuring round-the-year connectivity between the Kashmir and Ladakh regions which remain closed during the winters due to heavy snowfall.

An official spokesman in Srinagar said the Z-Morh tunnel project, worth Rs 2,379 crore, is expected to be completed by June 30, 2021, and would provide round-the-year connectivity to Sonamarg.

The information was given at a meeting of National Highway Infrastructure Development Corporation Limited (NHIDCL), which was chaired by Chief Secretary BVR Subrahmanyam.

An official spokesman said the works under the Zojila project were also being taken up.

It was mentioned that the project included a 14.15-km tunnel and an 18-km approach road between Z-Morh and Zojila tunnel as a single integrated package, besides a carriage way, two snow galleries, four major bridges and 18 avalanche protection dams. The project will cost Rs 4,430 crore and is expected to be operational by June 2026 and will enable round-the-year connectivity to Ladakh.

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, July 20

Just three weeks after India and Japan conducted a small naval exercise in the Bay of Bengal, the world’s largest warship, the USS Nimitz, a nuclear-powered carrier of the US Navy accompanied by its flotilla, conducted a basic maritime drill with Indian Navy warships on Monday.

The exercise, conducted west of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands in the Bay of Bengal, is classified as “Passex” in naval parlance. Operating together, the Indian and US naval forces conducted high-end exercises designed to maximise training and interoperability, including air defence. The exercise was conducted on Monday, Indian Navy Spokesperson Commander Vivek Madhwal said.

Power play at sea

• The USS Nimitz is the world’s largest warship. The exercise assumes significance as it took place in the midst of China’s renewed military assertiveness in eastern Ladakh and the South China Sea
• The Indian Navy has increased its surveillance missions and beefed up operational deployment in the Indian Ocean region in the wake of the country’s border standoff with China

The US Navy flotilla, led by the nuclear-powered USS Nimitz, was on its way from the South China Sea to a deployment in the Middle East. Today’s exercise comes even as India and China remain locked in a tense border confrontation in Ladakh.

Ten days ago, the USS Nimitz and USS Ronald Reagan, another US carrier, had conducted a drill in the South China Sea.

“Nimitz operations are designed to provide security throughout the region, while building partnerships with friends and allies,” a US Navy website said.