Technology Policy: National Capacities and International Opportunities

This is the final webinar in our series on Australia–India Technology Impact Assessment for critical technologies affecting ‘peace and stability’. The discussion will feature two internationally prominent tech specialists, Nitin Pai, co-founder of the Takshashila Institution in Bengaluru, and Professor Simon Goldstein from the University of Hong Kong. They will take a broad view of the topic. The project is funded by the Australia India Cyber and Critical Technologies Partnership.

Nitin Pai is the director of the Takshashila Institution, an independent think tank and school of public policy based in Bangalore. His interests cut across everything from high-tech geopolitics, synthetic biology, space, defence economics, maritime strategy, and ethical reasoning. Before moving back to India in 2012, Nitin worked for many years in the area of technology policy for the Singapore government. He played a small role in the deregulation of the telecommunications industry and the deployment of broadband infrastructure. Between two innings in government, he spent a couple of years in SingTel’s international connectivity business, handling satellite and undersea cable sales for the Middle East, India, and Southeast Asia. The team built a submarine cable connecting Singapore to Chennai that dramatically altered the internet landscape in India. After pre-university at National College (Jayanagar), Bangalore, he studied electrical engineering at Nanyang Technological University (NTU) as a Singapore Airlines-Neptune Orient Lines undergraduate scholar. He was a member of the Merlion Project team that eventually put Singapore’s first microsatellite into space. He has a Master’s in Public Administration and a gold medal from Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore (NUS). Nitin is currently a non-resident Senior Fellow at the Institute of South Asian Studies at the National University of Singapore and serves on the board of Jal Seva Foundation (WaterAid India). He has served on the Government of Karnataka’s Vision Group on Higher Education (2019-2022).

Simon Goldstein is an associate professor at the University of Hong Kong. His research focuses on AI safety, epistemology, and philosophy of language. Before moving to Hong Kong University, he worked at the Center for AI Safety, the Dianoia Institute of Philosophy, and at Lingnan University in Hong Kong. He received his BA from Yale, and his PhD from Rutgers, where he wrote a dissertation about dynamic semantics. Among the topics Simon will discuss is a recent idea on a joint China/US artificial intelligence lab, co-published with Peter Salib.

The Social Cyber Institute is pleased to host the webpages for this AICCTP project, as all six of the Australian team members are Fellows or Directors of SCI.