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A majority of Australian voters have rejected the proposal to establish an
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice to Parliament, with the final
results likely to be about 40% voting “yes” and 60% voting “no”.

If the referendum had been approved, it would have established an

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice which is a formal body for
Indigenous people to give advice on laws.

This proposal was drawn from the Uluru Statement from the Heart [ It is a
2017 petition to the people of Australia, written and endorsed by the
Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander leaders. The document calls
for constitutional change and structural reform through the creation of two
new institutions — a constitutionally protected First Nations Voice and a
Makarrata Commission, to oversee agreements and truth-telling between
governments and First Nations]

Voting is compulsory in Australia. Every eligible Australian citizen over 18

years of age is obliged to vote in elections and referendums. Australia has
one of the highest rates of voter turn out in the world — over 90% of those
eligible have voted in every national election since compulsory voting was
introduced in 1924.

Australia has a written Constitution. A successful referendum vote is

required to change the Constitution in any way.

To succeed, a referendum proposition requires a double majority. This

means it must be agreed to by a majority of voters, and a majority of states.
Australia has six states, so at least four must have a majority of voters in
favour for a referendum to succeed.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people constitute 3.8% of Australia’s

population.
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India will set up a “high-powered committee” to explore the development of
large language models, or LLMs, tools that harness artificial intelligence to
create applications that can understand and process human language

. LLMs are a cornerstone technology underlying several pieces of

‘intelligent’ software and help make possible applications such as ChatGPT.

The office of the Principal Scientific Adviser had put out a draft National
Deep Tech Start-up Policy for public comment. The purpose of the policy is
to “ensure India’s position in the global deep tech value chain”, in areas such
as semiconductors, artificial intelligence, and Space technology.

India’s G-20 Sherpa Amitabh Kant said that India’s success in developing an
array of technological applications, such as digital payments, made it a
“natural ecosystem” for deep tech. However, India needs a “fund of funds”
— that is, a significant amount of private, foreign capital, along with
government funds to finance promising start-ups that were relatively long-
term, known as “patient capital”.

U.S. Ambassador to India Eric Garcetti remarked that India and the U.S.
were at the best point in their relationship in many years, making it an ideal
time for both countries to collaborate on deep tech.
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MQ-9Bs is High Altitude Long Endurance (HALE) Unmanned Aerial vehicles

(UAV). It will be assembled in India, will enhance the Intelligence,
Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR) capabilities of India’s armed forces
across domains.

The MQ-9B has two variants — the SkyGuardian and the SeaGuardian, its
maritime variant. The MQ-9B is designed to fly over the horizon via satellite
for up to 40 hours, depending on configuration, in all types of weather and
safely integrate into civil airspace, according to its manufacturer.

This is the primary reason the Indian Navy is keen on these UAVs as it
significantly reduces the wear and tear on manned aircraft.

MQ-9Bs can provide round-the-clock surveillance looking far beyond the

borders, for instance on the movement of Chinese military buildup and troop
movement along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) and deep inside.

The deal for 31 MQ-9B Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) with the U.S. is
expected to be concluded by February 2024 and deliveries will begin from
February 2027, three years from the signing of the contract, defence
sources say.
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The commencement of a passenger ferry service between Kankesanthurai
in Sri Lanka’s Northern Province and Nagapattinam in Tamil Nadu marks the
fulfilment of a long-standing demand across the Palk Strait for the revival of
a sea link.

Sri Lanka’s civil war, which lasted nearly 25 years, had disrupted the
movement of people and goods on traditional maritime routes —
Talaimannar to Rameswaram and Colombo to Thoothukudi.

Twelve years ago, a ferry service between Colombo and Thoothukudi did not
last long due to a lack of patronage.

As pointed out during the launch of the Nagapattinam-Kankesanthurai

service, the development would not only strengthen cultural, economic, and
civilisational ties but also improve cooperation in disaster management and
maritime security.

It may, at some stage, also enable seamless voluntary repatriation of

thousands of refugees from Sri Lanka, living in Tamil Nadu.

With a high fare for a journey, the difference between this rate and air fares
is not competitive enough for anyone to opt for the ferry. Increasing the
baggage allowance of 50 kg would help. The provision of amenities at
Nagapattinam port such as a dormitory and improving rail connectivity at
Nagapattinam require attention.

On the part of Sri Lanka, economists, policymakers and activists should

consider promoting economic ties including exports from the Northern
Province, given the inherent asymmetrical bilateral relationship.

Ultimately, sustained policy attention is critical to making this service a

success. After all, Nagapattinam is predominantly agrarian and one of the
economically backward spots of Tamil Nadu.
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The measure of the working woman
It is a truth universally acknowledged that a parent working outside the home
must have someone to take care of their child. In India, family structures have
historically often filled this need, with fathers working outside the home, and
mothers providing child care and elder care. However, this model is not
conducive to India’s growing ambitions.

If the country is to grow into a $5 trillion economy, women must be included.

There are two specific ways to get here: women’s work, often care work, must
be appropriately valued, and women must be adequately supported to
participate in economic activity outside the home.

Key points
All women work, but not all of them get paid. Economist Claudia Goldin’s 2023
Nobel Prize-winning work demonstrates this across American history. India’s
first national Time Use Survey released in 2020 by the National Statistical Office,
finds that 81.2% of all women are engaged in unpaid domestic services,
compared with 26.1% of men.

It finds that men spend 42 hours on average on activities within the production
boundary, i.e. what is traditionally counted as economic activity, whereas women
spend 19 hours. However, women spend 10 times more time on household
maintenance and care for children, the sick and the elderly — 34.6 hours versus
3.6 hours.

There are two implications for this: working women face the dreaded “double
burden”, where working outside the home and contributing to family income
does not come with a commensurate reduction in household responsibilities,
and the care work that they do spend time on is not counted in the larger
economic estimates, leaving us with exhausted women with lower leisure hours
in a week than their male counterparts. Women’s unpaid work plays a vital role in
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the economy: it is responsible for 7.5% of GDP, according to an SBI report.

Governments should change the way they value this labour. India can call for and
lead the change in the internationally defined System of National Accounts so
that changes can be incorporated into everything from GDP calculations to
Census questionnaires.

When uncounted, women’s work remains invisible, which has implications for
labour and employment policies. For example, statistical invisibility pushes
household labour “outside the realm of protective labour legislation,” which
limits the work day and regulates labour conditions. Women in India work 1.5
hours longer a day than men, mostly unpaid, often in unsanitary conditions.

A study revealed that approximately 44% of women were part of the labour force
when considering a period of four months, but only 2% of women were counted
when considering an extended period of four years. Domestic obligations keep

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them from regular employment — and when they do, it is often with children in
tow.

At construction sites, Harvard researchers in 2013 described children playing in

the shadow of dangerous equipment and high pollution. It endangers their lives
and health at the most crucial age for brain development, i.e. under three years.
All subsequent efforts and public funds directed towards education, health and
skilling are then built on a weak base.

A fast-urbanising India needs different models to support its women. Creches

offer one solution: as of 2020, the National Creche Scheme operates nearly 6,500
creches across the country. Creches help mothers build stable careers, as well
as give children — who would otherwise be exposed at work — a safe, nurturing
environment.
• The private sector recognises this need, and provides services for high-
income families. There is an imperative, therefore, for the public sector to
ramp up its already considerable efforts, to counteract the base inequality
of income and provide high-quality child services to all.

Today, the women’s labour force participation rate (FLFPR) in India is 32.8%
according to government sources and 24% according to the World Bank, compared
to China’s 61%, Bangladesh’s 38%, Nepal’s 29% and Pakistan’s 25%. If India wants
to raise its FLPR to empower its women, myths around women’s work must be
dispelled, and women’s work must both be counted appropriately and supported
fairly.
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The explosion of digital uncertainty
The Government of India has also, very recently, released a comprehensive
report on the opportunities afforded by the current wave of AI. Leaders of the IT
industry in India are almost certain that the wave of AI will lead to fundamental
changes in the skills landscape, and implicitly, in terms of underlying threats and
dangers.

Key points
There is an exponential explosion of digital uncertainty. Few are able to fully
comprehend the nature of the new threat, few also realise the grave implications
of what it means to have our lives and our economies run on what may be
described as fertile digital topsoil.

While cyber has, no doubt, attracted a measure of attention, there is little or true
— understanding of the nature of today’s cognitive warfare. Cognitive warfare
are aimed at destabilising institutions, especially governments, and
manipulation, among other aspects, of the news media by powerful non-state
actors. It entails the art of using technological tools to alter the cognition of
human targets, who are often unaware of such attempts. The end result could be
a loss of trust apart from breaches of confidentiality and loss of governance
capabilities.

Today, government and government agencies are spending significant resources

to undo the impact of misinformation and disinformation, but this may not be
enough. There is not enough understanding of how the very nature of
information is being manipulated and the extent to which AI drives many of these
drastic transformations. All this contributes to what can only be referred to as
‘truth decay’.

The emergence of Artificial General Intelligence (AGI)

If AI is the grave threat that the world is currently contemplating, we are only
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witnessing the tip of the iceberg. As growing numbers of people — cognitively
and psychologically — become dependent on digital networks, AI is able to
influence many critical aspects of their thinking and functioning.

Sooner rather than later, we will witness the emergence of Artificial General
Intelligence (AGI) — Artificial Intelligence that is equal and or superior to human
intelligence, which will penetrate whole new sectors and replace human
judgement, intuition and creativity.

AGI will enable highly autonomous systems that outperform humans in many
areas, including economically (valuable) work, education, social welfare and the
like. AGI systems will have the potential to be able to make decisions that are
unpredictable and uncontrollable which could have unintended consequences,
often with harmful outcomes.

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It is difficult to comprehend at this point its many manifestations, but job
displacements and economic displacements would be initial symptoms of what
could become a tsunami of almost all human-related activity. Digital data could
in turn become converted into digital intelligence, enlarging the scope for
disruption and the reining in of entire sectors. It would enhance inequalities and
exacerbate social disparities, and worsen economic disparities.

The lesson to be learnt is that an over-dependence on AI and a belief in its

invincibility could prove to be as catastrophic as ‘locking the gates after the horse
has bolted’.
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The BRI at 10, some hits, many misses
The Third Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation that was convened
in Beijing, China (October 17-18) has put the spotlight back on Chinese President
Xi Jinping’s signature initiative.

Early debates in China reveal the intent behind the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).
Academic Xue Li likened the BRI to China’s Marshall Plan, stating that it was a
gateway for China to transition from a regional power with global influence to a
global power with comprehensive strength. Under China’s Marshall Plan,
motorways, power plants, ports, railway networks, and digital infrastructure have been
built.

The Chinese government’s white paper on BRI released this month (“The Belt
and Road Initiative: A Key Pillar of the Global Community of Shared Future”)
revealed that over 200 BRI cooperation pacts had been inked with over 150
nations. The document also stated that total two-way investment between China
and partner countries from 2013 to 2022 touched $380 billion. As Mr. Xi himself
put it, the BRI would provide more public goods to the entire world, highlighting
the massive infrastructure deficit. The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC)
was also conceived over the framework.

Efforts are being taken to counter the BRI. The United States and Japan initiated
the “United States-Japan infrastructure investment alternatives in the Indo-
Pacific region”. The Joe Biden administration announced the ‘Build Back Better
World’ (B3W) initiative that seems to have been reorganised as the Partnership
for Global Infrastructure and Investment, which aims to channelise private
capital into climate change and energy security, health care and health security,
digital technology, and gender equity.

India has steadfastly opposed CPEC over issues related to sovereignty and had
raised concerns over issues of unsustainable debt.

Thinking Palette by Sahil

The G-20 Delhi summit posited yet another alternative in the form of the India-
Middle East-Europe Corridor (IMEC) that seeks to link India, West Asia, and
Europe through railways and shipping lines. In addition to the trade connectivity,
electricity and digital infrastructure as well as a pipeline for clean hydrogen
export have been envisioned.

It is too early to assess the alternatives, but all eyes will be on the future of BRI
as it completes a decade. At a time when Beijing is grappling with economic
worries related to debt and unemployment, it remains to be seen how it will
reinvigorate the “project of the century”.